Bend council firms up details of proposed charter changes

Bend city councilors firmed up some details of a planned May citywide vote on city charter changes Wednesday evening, reaching consensus on issues related to the term of a directly elected mayor and a change in how councilors’ pay is set.

City staff returned from the last meeting with a set of decisions, based on previous input.

Most councilors backed making the proposed, directly elected mayor — councilors chose a colleague in the past — a four-year term, rather than two. The majority also agreed that the first election would be in 2018, thus matching the year governors are chosen, instead of 2020, in presidential election years.

Councilors now (since the last voter-approved charter revision in 1995) receive $200 a month, an amount several have said is too low for some would-be candidates to put their name on the ballot, considering the number of hours spent at council meetings, preparing for them and meeting with citizens.

They had earlier agreed to a city charter committee’s recommendation to remove the pay amount from the city charter and instead allowing it to be adjusted by council ordinance, with recommendations from an advisory committee.

Councilor Sally Russell said she believes there will be “huge pressure to keep compensation relatively low,” while also fairly compensating councilors for the time they spend in their official duties.

But colleague Bill Moseley said he favored leaving the council’s pay in the charter, or setting it at, for example, $1,000 a month.

“I don’t think the fact we get paid — it doesn’t enable or disable anyone from serving,” he said. “We all have day jobs.”

Councilor Bill Abernethy won support from colleagues when he said the council should reconvene the charter review committee, or perhaps another panel, to review the pay issue and make a recommendation to councilors this spring. That way, voters will have a firm dollar figure in hand as they consider whether to removing council pay from the city charter.