Vice Mayor Lane’s Time Sheet

I’d like to tell you about my job as a Santa Cruz City Council member.

Considering how much people comment about how well I do my job and how I allocate my time, I find it remarkable how few people actually know what I (and my colleagues on the City Council) actually do.

And, considering the news media’s and commentators’ interest in the level of compensation of public officials, I find it remarkable how little the media and commentators do to explain the nature of the work.  It seems important for people in the community to know what work is required, how much responsibility the job entails, how much time is required and the quality of the work performed before people can assess whether someone’s compensation is appropriate.

So in the spirit of improving the community’s knowledge and assisting the news media, I would like to present a report—a brief job description and a “time sheet”—so that my constituents can evaluate whether or not I am doing my job and earning my massive salary, which is currently just under $1,400 per month.

Here is my report:

My daily routine includes a good amount of time reading and responding to email from community members and city staff.  On a typical day, I get somewhere between 15 and 30 substantive emails.  Some I simply read and digest—others I respond to briefly, and still others get a longer response. I spend at least an hour per day on this—and during periods when there is heightened period of concern about a particular issue (e.g. last year’s spike in violence or this year’s debates on water), I spend well over an hour per day on this.

On top of this, I listen to city-related phone messages (received at home and on cellphone as well as at City Hall) and respond as needed. Then there’s reading all the written material I receive: letters, periodicals, city memos, invitations, etc.

I also have frequent one-on-one conversations with my colleagues on the City Council on a variety of city issues.

Then there are meetings.  When some people ask me what I do for a living, I frequently quip, “I go to meetings.”  I say that not primarily in reference to formal City Council meetings, which take about 15 hours in the course of two or three days per month. I refer mainly to all the other smaller meetings I participate in, week in and week out. For instance, I serve on the City Council’s Public Safety Committee and the Economic Development Council, which meets with leaders from the business community on a monthly basis. I’m one of the city’s representatives to the task force looking at a possible new desalination facility for our water system. I’m involved in a couple of regular group meetings on local policies related to homelessness. I’ve regularly represented the city at meetings to develop a countywide response to gang violence and youth violence. I’ve been attending some of the meetings of the local Climate Action Compact, of which the city is a key player. These add up to at least another 15 hours a month.

In addition to those fairly structured meetings, there were many one-time meetings related to special city projects I’m involved with.  I spend many hours in meetings with community members on these and many other topics: Highway 1 widening, new uses for the local rail line, medical marijuana dispensaries, gang intervention programs, local tobacco control ordinances, long-term city budget issues, immediate budget issues, local economic development, neighborhood concerns, affordable housing, city water supply, alternative transportation, downtown panhandling, parking issues and city employee concerns. These easily take up 10 hours each month.

I also attend informational events such as a presentation on the United Way’s Community Assessment Project, a presentation on the city’s new website, a Santa Cruz Neighbors meeting, a tour of the a local nonprofit organization’s facility, a press conference on a city public safety effort, a community workshop on the city’s planning process, a violence-prevention workshop, and more.

Speaking of events—you wouldn’t believe how many things I get invited to.  I can’t go to everything, but I try to attend a good variety of events around the community to learn and to chat with people about city concerns.  This category includes things like the dedication of a hotel by the beach, a community clean-up, a political gathering at UCSC, a reception at the museum, an employee retirement event, a gathering focused on alternative transportation, a downtown business mixer. I typically attend somewhere between 10 and 20 of these events each month. Chalk up about 25 hours per month for attendance at informational and community events.

Did I mention preparation for City Council meetings? We get a big agenda notebook prior to each regular meeting. There’s a lot to read. When we go through a special situation like the last year’s hiring of a new city manager, there are even more meetings and more homework and more reading.  Speaking of reading, I also got thick reports like the recent Water Supply Assessment and the Community Assessment Project report for 2010. I don’t  always read every word of these monsters, but I do read till my eyes glaze over. I’ll cautiously put down 10 hours a month for all of these.

And there are the little “investigations” I do—like visiting a street where a neighborhood resident had reported chronic drug and alcohol problems or walking in a park area to check out the city’s maintenance levels or to an area where there have been complaints about parking. And, of course, there are conversations I have about city business with people who catch me at a store or walking down Pacific Avenue. I often ride my bike or walk or drive different routes as I go about my day, just so I can check things out—like the new roundabout at Depot Park.  I’ll put down 10 hours for all this.

All this adds up to at least 115 hours in a month of work as a City Council member. That comes out to about $12.00 per hour.

I think most council members feel fortunate to be elected to their position—but I don’t think many of us do it for the money.