COMMENTARY
By declining pay raise, Councilwoman Gottstein becomes the people’s champion
By STEVE PENN
The Kansas City Star
It’s a sure way to stand out. Just turn down money, hard cash, dinero, the Benjamins.
That’s what Kansas City Councilwoman Beth Gottstein did, and she has emerged from the City Council pay-raise controversy as the people’s champ.
In case you missed it, during the vote regarding raises for City Council members, Gottstein didn’t make some grandstanding speech in protest. She didn’t chastise other council members. Nor did she try to lead a revolt. Gottstein simply walked out and vowed not to accept a 4 percent raise.
In the current economic climate, with the mortgage squeeze, with gas prices reaching $4 a gallon and with the cost of food skyrocketing, how many people would have the gumption to turn down a cost-of-living raise?
Could you tell your boss: “No thanks. Appreciate the thought. Simply can’t accept a raise this year?” Few people could.
In an interview, Gottstein said that rejecting the raise was a promise she made during her council campaign.
“I didn’t make many campaign promises,” Gottstein said. “But this is one I made. I told myself that I was never going to take a raise for myself.
“This particular vote was a tough one. You were darned if you did and you were darned if you didn’t. I simply decided what to do, and I did it.”
The mayor currently makes $109,485 annually. City Council members make $54,737 annually. Their salaries go up this week to $113,864 for the mayor and $56,924 for council members.
Gottstein’s salary will remain $54,737. In other words, she’s giving $2,187 back to the city. She could have tried to stop the resolution from moving forward but chose not to go that route.
“It was not a vote where I was trying to make a political statement,” Gottstein said. “I didn’t really want to raise a big fight. I have too much respect for my colleagues to try to embarrass them on this.”
Someone tried, however. A flier titled “Hogs at the Trough” made its way through City Hall and onto Gottstein’s desk as well. The flier singled out Mayor Mark Funkhouser and four council members for cutting services while voting for pay raises for themselves.
But that’s not where Gottstein is coming from. Despite her decision not to take the raise, she thinks the flier was in poor taste and went way too far.
“Someone did a mailing like that during my race,” Gottstein said. “I know what it means to be targeted that way. I hope this will be the end of it. What we need to do is look at ways to make the budget tighter. We need to spend less money and raise more revenue. And we need to be looking forward not backward.”
Going forward without the 4 percent raise won’t force her into fiscal ruin. Gottstein is single and doesn’t have children.
“What I did was a personal decision,” Gottstein said. “It’s public money. But I don’t fault any of my colleagues for needing a cost-of-living adjustment.”
Whether she intended to or not, the move sent the proper signal to city workers who will get pink slips. It sends the right message to every quality program that might be cut.
We see athletes, entertainers and business moguls signing megamillion-dollar deals.
Sure, $2,187 may not seem like a lot of money. But two grand could make the difference between someone having a roof over their head this month or not.
To reach Steve Penn, call 816-234-4417 or send e-mail to spenn@kcstar.com.
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