Council wants to make job full time

Cleveland is the only Ohio city with a full-time council.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- If Youngstown made its city council members full time, it would be in extremely select company.
Cleveland, which has 21 ward council members and nearly six times the population of Youngstown, is the only city in Ohio with full-time legislators.
Much larger cities in Ohio, such as Columbus and Cincinnati, pay their council members better than the $600 annual salary given to Youngstown councilmen, but the positions are only part time and their members hold other jobs.
Youngstown council members also have aides, usually relatives, who make $26,219 annually.
Salary range
At least four of Youngstown's seven councilmen have already publicly supported a move to make their jobs full time and increase their pay. The suggestions range from $40,000 to $70,000 annually. Council members discussed these proposals last week at a meeting of the charter review commission.
Councilman Richard Atkinson, R-3rd, said his elected office keeps him very busy, and it should be made full time.
"We've got enough problems in my neighborhood to keep me busy 80 hours a week," he said. "You could keep yourself real busy at this job. It's difficult for a guy to do a good job on a part-time basis. There are times I have to leave my job [with the Ohio Department of Transportation], and use comp time to take care of problems with my ward. People actually believe councilmen are sitting at home by their phone waiting for their call."
It doesn't matter that only Cleveland has full-time council members in Ohio, Atkinson said.
"If they can do the job elsewhere part time and the people are happy with that, then that's fine," he said. "But citizens get a better job with a full-time council."
Fortune agrees
Councilman James E. Fortune Sr., D-6th, the Democratic nominee for council president, agrees. Fortune says to get good council members, you need to pay them for their time.
"A council member uses his own car, his own gas, his own clothing, and gets no compensation for anything," he said. "You want good people, and to do that you need to make the job more attractive."
Not so, says John Green, director of the University of Akron's Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.
"It's believed that a full-time legislature does a better job because they become professional legislators and are not distracted by other factors in their lives, such as their full-time job," Green said. "But there isn't evidence of that being true. One would wonder how many ordinances Youngstown needs to warrant the attention of full-time council members."
Green said it was unusual for Youngstown to consider a move to a full-time council system because "it's not clear that such a move would make government a lot better."
In other cities
Cleveland council members split their time between city hall and offices in their respective wards handling constituent issues, working on housing and business development, and holding regular council and committee meetings, said Maureen Harper, council spokeswoman.
The part-time council member system in Cincinnati and Columbus has worked well in those cities, said Robert Nely, Cincinnati council deputy clerk, and Dan Trevas, Columbus council spokesman. Both also said there has been no discussion in those cities about making city council a full time job.
"Frankly, it's a full-time job, and the out-of-office time is demanding," Trevas said. "But the largest city in Ohio hasn't shown any interest in going to a full-time council. The current system works well."
Like Youngstown, the seven Columbus council members have aides who help them with their positions, Trevas said. Those aides earn about $45,000 annually.
Unlike Youngstown, however, none of the aides in Columbus is related to council members, Trevas said.
skolnick@vindy.com