Voters may see plans to downsize council - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Voters may see plans to downsize council - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Motznik said a seven-member council would cut costs, increase efficiency of government and still allow enough seats for minority representation across the city. A five-member council would be too small, he said.

Motznik's plan is a hedge. It is less political, because it is less urgent. So, it is less effective in its roll out. The theme of too little and too late comes to the forefront again from this council.

I still think that council and every elected official in the city should be living on half of its pay until the OVERLORDS are removed from the landscape. We've got ICA and Act 47 still here. Once they are gone, then normal pay could resume. And, the ICA and Act 47 folks should only get their full pay once the job is done and the city stays OUT of its financial crisis. Pay them a small retainer and put the funds into escrow.

I think the real problem is yet to be addressed. City council needs to be a legislative body. They need to write ordinances. They don't need to follow-up on pot holes. They need to oversee the spending. They need to write a budget and plan on financial matters. For the reasons that are obvious, they fail at what they are to do and then go ahead and do other things that they should NOT be doing.

Council needs to stick to its jobs. The Mayor needs to stick to the administration's jobss. But, we've had TOM MURPHY that fired the Mayor's Complaint Center staff. And we've had council folks who gladly filled those roles because they didn't understand what really needed to be done.