City Council members technically are volunteers who may access dedicated stipends of $11,000 in the course of respective duties, expenses such as travel allowances to government conferences, gas mileage, a laptop to communicate with constituents, donations to needy causes.
Mayor Joe Ganim’s proposed spending plan for the budget year starting July 1 hikes the annual stipend to $15,000 per member as many councilors argue responsibilities and constituents needs have grown.
Some wonder if council members should receive salaries to represent constituents in Connecticut’s most populous community. Council President Aidee Nieves even recently suggested perhaps it’s time to consider a timeline to ratify council salaries. Would that bring stronger council candidates to the fold?
Either way, long-time city budget observer John Marshall Lee, at the request of OIB, shares this commentary raising questions about the value of increasing stipends:
How does the month of April have meaning to you? Is it about ‘showers that bring May flowers?’ Or tax filings mid-month that often cause disproportionate personal anxiety? Are you aware that the media begins to cover local community budgets, piecemeal or as entireties, as they chew over finances for the upcoming Fiscal Year starting on July 1? Were you aware that April is designated as National Financial Capability Month? So, let’s talk about Council stipends.
More than ten years ago when I paid greater attention to Bridgeport’s budget process, I often wrote about the subject of Council stipends. Stipends, as you likely know in their most recent restatement, are available in equal amounts to each of 20 Council members and before 2023 were available quarterly, based on formal reporting to City Finance, using issued cards and supplied detail reporting from the Council person. The City Council website, does not specifically mention ‘stipends’ but we can learn:
“The public’s trust of its government must be preserved as it is of critical importance to the future of Bridgeport. As a City Council we believe that all public officials should and must be held to the highest standards of integrity and accountability. Further, as a City Council we believe that our government should be open and inclusive and are committed to working to achieve the best for our constituents and this great city. (Emphasis mine).”
Until last year $2,250 was available quarterly to each Council member. How were they accountable in a public manner? How was this part of an open or inclusive process if not easily available to taxpayers? If daylight is a powerful disinfectant to prevent public matters from getting sidetracked or used personally, why is there no City Council record book that is easily OPEN and TRANSPARENT, ACCOUNTABLE for each Council member’s use of taxpayer funds? $9,000 annually for a decade or more when inflation was less blamed for budget stress was adequate for most Council needs. Last year the number bumped to $11,000 with barely any public notice of the increase in the big picture. Today the number is getting pushed up again to $15,000. Can you tell me why?
Part of the reason may be that inflation has affected travel expenses for Council people who attend conferences. How many of the 20 members attend one or more meetings in a 12-month period? But what is learned at those meetings, and how is it applied locally? Do we have any idea? Has there been any move to look for a brief report to the taxpayers, from and by each Council person on what they carry back to Bridgeport as focused learning to be applied to City concerns and issues? Why not? Were we to look at annual travel to meetings would we believe that the taxpaying public is getting value for stipend investments? Time will tell.
