Columbus city government has several avenues for deliberating public policy matters.
The mayor and council meet twice a month, with an agenda posted online the day before each meeting. For the last four years, they have also met for work sessions the week before the regular meetings in order to hash out the details of agenda items and decide whether to add them.
So, it came as a surprise when Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens came to Tuesday’s council meeting and added a salary increase for the mayor to the agenda last-minute. A split vote less than an hour later moved forward a 24% pay increase for that position, just weeks in advance of a new mayor taking office.
Sadly, with the city council in particular, policy by ambush is fairly commonplace.
As a rule, items for council discussion or vote should be added to the agenda published in advance of the meeting, giving the public and all council members a fair opportunity to review what is being proposed. This is especially true when the issue is budgetary or otherwise deserves deliberation.
Preferably, the council would also include particularly important items for discussion on the work session agenda.
Last-minute additions, on the other hand, should be reserved for extremely time-sensitive, unforeseen issues or items that were inadvertently left off. “Inadvertently” is the key word there.
Setting the mayor’s salary at $107,000 doesn’t seem extreme, especially considering that amount is in line with what the council offered the current mayor in 2022 before he turned it down. If the idea would have been brought forward properly, it would still have its detractors, but it surely would have blunted the negative public perception Tuesday’s vote has generated.
But Mickens bringing it up as a late addition Tuesday looked purposeful – like he was either trying to spring it on his colleagues without giving them enough time to think it over, or he knew in advance he had the votes and didn’t want public response to his proposal to affect the outcome.
That’s bad government, and we hope the next council steers away from those kinds of politics.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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