WHMTY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15. 1989, PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN which you (in agreement with your political colleagues) can give yourself a raise without even consulting your employer, the people. There are no set bours, no specific qualifications, and no set responsibilities. You can work as littie or as mucb as youlike. And your employer only gets ta review your position once every three years. So when Whitby councillors voted themselves a 29% increase a couple of weeks ago, tbey were merely exercising a prerogative that we the voters gave tbem. There is nothing we can do to stop it except ask a lot of questions and keep it in mind for 1991. So, wbat is a politician worth? Is $13,000 too much (bearing in mind that many get extra pay for membership on other bodies such as regional council and OLOCA)? Considering the millions of dollars that CouncilSOT administers, their own salaries are a mere pittance in the ARCA overaîl budget. A top executive of a comparable sized private ACow corporation would expect to earn as much as ail eigbt members of council put together. But then, ' councillor' is supposed to be only a part-time job., It is perceived to require at lot more than that if it's ta be______________________________________________ done rigbt and some candidates in last year's election ________________________________________ promioted themselves as able and willing ta, work fuli-time. I wonder, though, at the motivation of anyone willing ta put in =u those ind of hours for so little pay.. The way aur municipal governiment is set up Town Council is supposed ta provide general direction and policy while the staff, which is hired for their speciflc skills, are supposed ta do the work. In practise it doesn't work that way. Each spends most of its time trying ta do the other's job. The staff tries ta, create policy and the politicians pretend ta be planners, etc. Now if things worked properly, a developer, for example, would send a request to council which would refer it to planning for study. Ini due course, planning would report its professional opinion back ta counicil withzin guidelines previously set by Council. Council would tben approve or deny tbe request on the basis of planning's recommendation. But it doesn't work that way - Council, as often as not, rejects or modifies planning's recommendations. Either Council bas failed to give clear guidelines, or the guidelines are being ignored. The time a counicillor spends on the job varies directly as the amount of trust and communication between council and staff. Their workload could be a lot less than it is and the cboice is entirely theirs. But none of that says wbat a councillor is worth. The answer is "Pick a number - any numnber..." A councillor wbo bas a broad base of knowledge and is willing ta work bis buns- off for long bours is wortb a heck of a lot more than a tïn-born politician elected on a single issue platform who sbows up only wben tbe TV crews are around. Yet we bave ta YO TETLOIGSUH RMJH TET .11 a, in othe fspne.ii ubr,1 o ncno e Whitby was a tawn of beautiful tree-lined streets, well manicured lawns and large homes in exc ite ytrnisfseciTown CuncsI, gave itef. What does tbe early part of this century. The brick bouse at rigbt was buiît in 1863 for grain merchant boteber e aesmven C i bowandve tey did it -oe Louis Houck and was the retirement home of railwa3rman William Downie in 1918. behind closed doors and czfter tbe election. Actions like tbatWhtyAciepoo November. That raise sbould, in my opinion, be a hefty one so the rigbt people might seek office for the rigbt reasons. 75 YEARS AGO If Council chooses ta disregard their constituents tben we, from the Tbursday, February 12, 1914 edition of the as citizens, will keep that in mind in the next election, and WHITBY GAZETTrE AND CHRONICLE the Whitby Free Press, as a newspaper, will ask a few addi- * Hockey is a very popular sport. Whitby has bath boys' and girls' teams that play at Burns' tional questions when we interview the candidates. Such as: Arena. WilI you be seeking a salary increase for yourself after the e Thomas Edison's first talking pictures are being shown in Whitby. election? 0 The Victanian Order of Nurses raised $400 in their flrst canvass of Wbitby last week. How much do you think councillors should be paid? * An inmate of the Ontario County House of Refuge, aged over 75 years, died of exposure Wll you vote ta have the debate in public so we can when he escaped from the home last week. separate the chickens from the clucks? We look forward ta their answers! 1 1 _______________________________________________