It was the mid-1970s and I was hosting a late-night radio talk show that ran from 11pm to 3am the following day, 5 days a week.  It was aired on a 50,000 watt station adjacent to Marion County.  The program had a much larger audience for that time period that one would imagine.

I had a variety of regular callers to the program, many of them characters that kept the show lively at times.  One person that regularly called and seemed to have his head on straight called to ask a question.

How could anyone ever be in favor of a pay raise for elected officials?  He could not, in his own mind, justify any pay increase for any elected person under any circumstance.

I then posed a question to him.  Understanding that everything must be justified and within reason, do you want a set of elected decision-makers consisting only of those that can afford to serve?  Would that not result in only the wealthier class among us making our major government decisions?

He paused for a moment and then said, yes, he could see some circumstances where elected officials’ pay raises might be justified.

That exchange came to mind while reading the latest piece written by IndyStar Columnist James Briggs.  I read Briggs regularly.  Sometimes I agree with his stances, other times I do not.  But you can always count on a well-thought-out argument from him.

His most recent missive makes the case that a pay increase for members of the Indianapolis City-County Council might be justified.  You can read his commentary at this link.  (NOTE:  You must be an IndyStar subscriber to access this story.  One again, please support you local media!  Online IndyStar subscriptions are not expensive.)

When reading Briggs, I recalled an issue that came before the decision-makers of Fishers in 2016.   Fishers had converted itself from a town to a city.  A 2012 referendum from the voters created the city form of government.  The first city election was held in 2014 and the City of Fishers stood up on January 1, 2015.

The town council had established the council member pay as $12,000 per year around the year 2000.  The town council kept that rate of pay for about 16 years.

It was in 2016 that a study was conducted to compare Fishers council member compensation to similar cities in our geographic area.  That study found our council members compensation far behind every municipality in that report.

So, when the Fishers City Council set council member salaries for 2017, they each received a $7,000 increase in their annual salary.  The idea was to include elected officials in the annual pay raise so a large one-year hike in compensation would not be needed in the future.

In having covered Fishers for nearly 10 years on this news blog, I know the amount of time and effort that each council member devotes to city duties.  It is not a small time commitment.

Most council members either have full-time jobs or are retired.  The council salary is not what they count on to make a living.  But they should be reasonably compensated for the work they do.

As Indianapolis considers what compensation is best for their councilors, yes, they will get criticism for raising their pay, as Fishers did in 2016.  But consider all the factors when making a decision like this.

“Paying City-County Council members like the professionals they are (or, at least, closer to it) will lead to better candidates, better elected officials and better government,” James Briggs wrote on his IndyStar commentary. “The field shouldn’t be limited to people who either can afford to work for almost nothing or who are willing to sacrifice financial security for the call to public service.”

This time, I do agree with Mr. Briggs.