Justin Jeffre: No one really cares about council salaries.

It seems like every two years, politicians become "concerned" about council's salary -- which I must admit is a sweetheart gig for what is officially part-time work. But this talk is just campaign season rhetoric.

Remember the race of 2005? Leslie Ghiz made a big deal about how council was overpaid. And guess what? Nothing has changed!

The talk about salaries is just a way for candidates to express their alleged concern about the fiscal health of the City. We'll hear talk about swimming pools, and health clinics -- and we will experience the threat of shut downs -- but at the last moment the right thing will happen, and the politicians will swoop down to take credit. This is like a game to them -- a disgusting ballet where the vested few push their smoke and mirror games into our faces, meanwhile our attention is off the real money grabs and power plays that affect our City behind closed doors.

Cut all the council salaries by $10,000 -- and we're still talking less than $100,000. That's a big chunk of change, but not in the context of the whole City budget. And it really starts looking like chump change when compared to the corporate welfare we hand out in this town to the favored few, with weak clawback provisions that don't adequately protect our interests.

And let's not forget -- if we start cutting council salaries by half or more, then what message are we sending? What kind of people can even afford to be a Councilmember in the first place? Regular, concerned citizens, or primarily high-paid lawyers with lots of flex-time in their schedules?

Do voters really care about council salaries? What is more significant than council salaries? Why are certain small topics given such big play, while big topics get little or no play at all? We suffer from a political and media environment that has inverted priorities.

I want to serve on City Council because I believe in public service, so I would be fine with a pay cut. But we need to focus on more important issues, like campaign finance reform -- which is too important to be left to the politicians. (Can you believe that some will raise a quarter of a million to make what is, in comparison, a lot less money?)

www.JustinJeffre.com