Apr. 5, 2004
Times Change for Citizen Office Holders
By J. Barlow Herget
RALEIGH - Sen. Wib Gulley, D-Durham, has a young son who is thinking about attending college. “I tried to discourage him,” joked Gulley, “but he wouldn’t listen to me.”
Gulley, like many other North Carolina parents, is worried about the cost of sending a child to college. It was one reason he recently decided to give up his “part-time” job as state senator.
He says he has to spend more time at his day job to be able to meet his future obligations- such as college tuition. He started work March 22 as the new General Counsel for the Triangle Transit Authority.
Gulley’s dilemma -- he loved serving in the Senate -- is one that faces many people who contemplate running for one of our “citizen” offices. That’s the euphemism for a low-pay, elected office that is supposed to be part-time and one in which the occupant can perform with one hand tied behind his back.
The practice of a citizen senator or citizen county commissioner or mayor was a satisfactory arrangement in small town, rural North Carolina of the 19th Century and most of the 20th Century. Times change.
Public perception, unfortunately, has not.
There indeed are occasions when public officials hand themselves generous pay raises or take expensive trips as was the case on the Durham City Council several years ago. It was a big reason that Durham citizens promptly threw out most of the council members and reduced the number of council seats by almost half.
Such episodes, I suspect, explain why most people reading this column believe that part-time, citizen legislators or councilors enjoy easy pay and comfortable perks. No group encourages this view more than my skeptical brothers and sisters in the media. Mea culpa.
The facts of today’s public service, however, show a more mundane picture. This is true especially for work in the legislature and local offices in our larger cities and counties.
Gulley, an attorney and former Durham mayor, figured that he could serve as a state senator and still have time for his clients. On paper, at least, the legislature meets for about six months in odd years and for two months in election years. At one time, that was the case.
The record shows that in recent times, the General Assembly consumes more and more days in session, according to Ran Coble, executive director of the nonprofit North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research.
“The 2001 General Assembly,” says Coble, “stayed in session until Dec. 6. The 2002 legislature didn’t adjourn until Oct. 4.”
He adds that there also are more special sessions. “Since 1965, there have been 22 special sessions or almost one a year,” he says. In 2003, for instance, there were two special sessions; one in November to approve a new redistricting plan and a second in December to approve economic incentives to attract new jobs to the state.
Members also serve on important committees and commissions that meet between the sessions. These meetings are not as much a hardship for legislators in the Triangle as for those who live in counties such as Jackson and Dare. As members gain seniority, they typically have more such assignments.
Gulley found that he spent at least 40 hours a week on political business when the General Assembly was in session. He spent almost as much time out of session, depending on committee meetings, election demands every other year, and normal constituent obligations.
Pay for such service is competitive with entry-level deputy sheriffs. The annual salary for House and Senate members is $13,951. Each is given a flat, $6,000 travel allowance. There is a daily $104 allowance for meals and motel when they come to Raleigh. Local legislators get less. The last pay raise was in 1993.
In the 2003 session, according to legislative research records, the average total annual compensation was $42,961.
Gulley argues that few citizens of modest or moderate means who work for a living and have a family can afford to serve. “The average household income in North Carolina is about $33,000,” he says. “If our General Assembly is a citizen legislature that is supposed to reflect our population, how many legislators are in that [income] range?”
It’s the same for county commissioners in our larger counties, according to figures provided by the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The salary for board members in Guilford County, for instance, is $14,700 plus $1,500 for travel. In the state’s largest county, Mecklenburg, a board member’s salary is $18,654 with $3,523 for travel. Wake County pays its county manager $152,250 and its county commissioners $15,275.
Big city salaries are no better. In Raleigh, where candidates spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to win the mayor’s seat, the job pays $15,000 plus $1,250 in travel allowance. City Councilors are paid $10,000 with $1,200 travel pay. The pay hasn’t changed since 1989.
We’re proud of our tradition of citizen office holders. But it is unrealistic to expect fulltime work for part-time pay.
Barlow Herget is a former Raleigh city councilman and is host of "State Government Radio Newsmakers."
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