Should Raleigh pay its mayor and City Council members more? Add a council seat?
North Carolina’s second-largest city is debating changing the size of its governing body, when members get elected and how much money they make.
A study group, appointed in January 2020 by the Raleigh City Council, also wants the city do more to engage voters. The group presented its recommendations Tuesday afternoon.
“The recommendations come after months of work and research by a diverse, bipartisan committee who unanimously approved these six suggestions,” said Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin in an interview with The News & Observer Monday. “We will encourage residents to provide feedback as well as part of a public process.”
Here are the recommendations:
A pay increase
Raleigh City Council members make less than their counterparts in Durham, Greensboro, Fayetteville and Winston-Salem.
That’s part of the reason the study group recommends a significant raise.
The mayor currently makes $27,550 while council members make $19,725.
If the recommendation is approved, the mayor could make $45,911. Council members would make $37,248.
Those new salaries would put Raleigh just behind the pay for the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners and the proposed salaries for the Charlotte mayor and council.
The City Council positions are part-time and part of a council-manager form of government. That means the City Council sets general policy and hires a city manager who carries out the day-to-day operations.
Some cities have a mayor-council form of government, under which mayors have more power and are paid a full-time salary.
More elected leaders
The Raleigh City Council has five district council members, two at-large members elected by the entire city and the mayor, also elected by the entire city.
Raleigh should consider adding a sixth district council member to lower the ratio of residents per member to avoid becoming “unwieldy” or “inefficient,” according to the study group.
This would also avoid tie votes, as the existing eight-member council can sometimes be evenly split.
The study group reviewed several other North Carolina cities and major national cities and found just three had an even number of elected officials.
On Facebook, Council Member David Cox, one of the district council members, suggested doing away with at-large members except for the mayor and expanding the council to 11 people.
4-year terms
The council should move from two-year terms to four-year terms, according to the study committee.
It can take over a year for a local law to be changed, which doesn’t give voters enough time to review the impact of those changes between elections.
“Governing effectively through this complexity demands a level of. persistent attention and strategic focus that is not achievable on 2-year election cycles dominated by localized issues and relentless pressure to campaign and fundraise,” according to the study group.
In the meeting Tuesday, Council Member David Knight said he is interested in also talking about term limits for the council.
Staggered terms
All eight members of the council are currently elected at the same time.
The study committee recommends moving to staggered terms to help establish “political stability” without sacrificing voters’ ability to “signal dissatisfaction.”
The at-large council members would be elected at one time and the district representatives would be selected at another.
Even-year elections
Raleigh has already implemented one study group recommendation, albeit controversially.
The recommendation was to move Raleigh City Council elections to even-year elections instead of odd-years like most city and town elections in North Carolina.
Due to a delay in the U.S. Census redistricting data, the Raleigh City Council voted in a closed session to ask the General Assembly to move its October 2021 election to November 2022.
The council also asked to keep the elections in even years and change the method of election to no longer have run-offs.
Voter engagement
The city should distribute non-partisan voter information in newsletters and water bills, promote voting on social media and consider broadcasting candidate forums on local access TV channels.
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 3:36 PM.
