Overview
Pflugerville City Council approved a resolution Aug. 8 to call the Nov. 7 special election, asking voters to decide whether council members should be paid and the city’s executive assistant to City Council position be eliminated. Council members would receive $9,000 annually, while the mayor would be compensated $12,000 a year. The executive assistant to City Council position—defined as an employee who would act as a point of contact, manage calendar and assist with collecting information—is empty.
The approach
The resolution to amend the city’s charter was brought up by Place 5 Council Member Jim McDonald, who first suggested each member be allocated a budget, which could be taken as salary, used to hire a staffer or fund a city project. The budgets, he proposed, would be built off Pflugerville’s population, allocating one dollar to the budget per resident—roughly $65,000 a year to each council member, who are not currently paid.
However, council members expressed concern over the amount of money recommended. Instead, Council agreed to propose to voters a charter amendment that would provide compensation similar to what other area city officials are paid. In Round Rock, for instance, the mayor’s position is paid $1,000 a month while members of the council receive $750 a month, or $12,000 and $9,000 a year, respectively.
What council are saying
“If we put more value on the position, that gives us, as your representatives, the freedom to invest more fully into the position,” McDonald said.
“There’s no amount of money you could pay me that would make this feel worth it,” Place 1 Council Member Doug Weiss said. “It’s only worth it because I don’t get paid. ... If you paid me to do this job, it would mean less to me because you would be putting a value on my time and it would never be worth my time.”
“I came into this knowing that I would still have to maintain a full-time job and still drive Uber in order to make sure that my family was taken care of, but I was committed to the job because this is what I wanted to do. ... I must say that it does eliminate some people like me who would want to run for this position, because there is no pay or compensation for the position," Place 3 Council Member Kimberly Holiday said.
“I think if the citizens of Pflugerville want to pay us, I think that should go through the regular process,” Place 6 Council Member David Rogers said. “I don’t think that should be a council-initiated event. I think it should go through the charter commission.”
“Certainly, I think there would be some compensation. ... The point is that you get respected by your community, you get respected by your peers, you get respected by other elected officials around you. I think it’s important,” Mayor Victor Gonzales said.
Those in favor/those opposed
The resolution to order the election passed 5-2. Gonzalez, Weiss, Place 2 Council Member Caesar Ruiz, Holiday and McDonald voted in favor. Place 4 Council Member Rudy Metayer and Rogers voted against the measure.
