Business Community Gives Input on City Charter
Earlier this month, the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce sent out a survey to its membership regarding the process of updating the City Charter. The Lubbock City Council appointed a citizen committee to examine potential recommendations that would ultimately be brought before Lubbock voters to approve or reject.
Though nothing has been formalized, discussions have already begun about which items in the Charter should be considered. In addition to simple language updates and modernization for the document that is more than 100 years old, other topics like term limits and Council pay have emerged. Therefore, we wanted to see what Lubbock area business owners, employees, and community members thought about these important issues. More than 500 responded to the survey.
Here’s what we found…
Pay Raise for the Mayor and Council?
Currently, the Mayor earns $75/month ($900/year) and the Council earns $25/month ($300/year). Nearly half of the respondents favorably viewed the positions of Mayor and City Council as being largely voluntary and unpaid. Another 37% viewed the positions being largely unpaid unfavorably, while 15% weren’t sure or were neutral.
The survey then presented four different options for how much the Mayor and Council should earn. Just 13% of respondents supported a full salary or “living wage” for members of the City Council that would be equal to the median household income in Lubbock (roughly $4,500/month or $53,000/year), the least popular response of the four options.
Another 18% said no pay adjustment is warranted. The most popular response to this question with nearly half of respondents in favor was a modest increase to the monthly stipend earned by the Mayor and Council. When presented with the option to pay the Mayor and Council the median earnings for the same positions in other cities across Texas ($600/month or $7,200/year for the Mayor and $300/month or $3,600/year for the Council), 46% said this was the best course of action.
Another 24% said adjusting the current pay rates for inflation compared to when the City Charter was authored would be best. The amount would come out to roughly $2,000/month or $24,000/year for the Mayor and $650/month or $7,800/year for the Council.
Term Limits
Other than the overwhelming opposition to paying the City Council a full-time living wage salary, the most popular item on the survey was term limits for the Mayor and Council. Roughly 80% of respondents favored limiting the Mayor and Council to eight years in office (four two-year terms for the Mayor and two four-year terms for the Council). Less than 10% opposed term limits, and the rest were neutral/unsure.
At-Large Council Positions
Almost three-in-five respondents were either very supportive (30%) or somewhat supportive (29%) for adding two at-large Council positions to serve two-year terms. These positions would be elected on a city-wide basis in addition to the six single-member districts currently on the City Council, not a replacement of any districts. Just 22% opposed the idea of at-large Council positions while the rest of the respondents were neutral or unsure. Other cities in Texas located west of I-35 such as Abilene, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, and Wichita Falls utilize at-large Council positions.
Though nothing has been formalized, discussions have already begun about which items in the Charter should be considered. In addition to simple language updates and modernization for the document that is more than 100 years old, other topics like term limits and Council pay have emerged. Therefore, we wanted to see what Lubbock area business owners, employees, and community members thought about these important issues. More than 500 responded to the survey.
Here’s what we found…
Pay Raise for the Mayor and Council?
Currently, the Mayor earns $75/month ($900/year) and the Council earns $25/month ($300/year). Nearly half of the respondents favorably viewed the positions of Mayor and City Council as being largely voluntary and unpaid. Another 37% viewed the positions being largely unpaid unfavorably, while 15% weren’t sure or were neutral.
The survey then presented four different options for how much the Mayor and Council should earn. Just 13% of respondents supported a full salary or “living wage” for members of the City Council that would be equal to the median household income in Lubbock (roughly $4,500/month or $53,000/year), the least popular response of the four options.
Another 18% said no pay adjustment is warranted. The most popular response to this question with nearly half of respondents in favor was a modest increase to the monthly stipend earned by the Mayor and Council. When presented with the option to pay the Mayor and Council the median earnings for the same positions in other cities across Texas ($600/month or $7,200/year for the Mayor and $300/month or $3,600/year for the Council), 46% said this was the best course of action.
Another 24% said adjusting the current pay rates for inflation compared to when the City Charter was authored would be best. The amount would come out to roughly $2,000/month or $24,000/year for the Mayor and $650/month or $7,800/year for the Council.
Term Limits
Other than the overwhelming opposition to paying the City Council a full-time living wage salary, the most popular item on the survey was term limits for the Mayor and Council. Roughly 80% of respondents favored limiting the Mayor and Council to eight years in office (four two-year terms for the Mayor and two four-year terms for the Council). Less than 10% opposed term limits, and the rest were neutral/unsure.
At-Large Council Positions
Almost three-in-five respondents were either very supportive (30%) or somewhat supportive (29%) for adding two at-large Council positions to serve two-year terms. These positions would be elected on a city-wide basis in addition to the six single-member districts currently on the City Council, not a replacement of any districts. Just 22% opposed the idea of at-large Council positions while the rest of the respondents were neutral or unsure. Other cities in Texas located west of I-35 such as Abilene, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, and Wichita Falls utilize at-large Council positions.
