In 2018, San Jose voters transferred salary-setting power from elected officials to an independent Salary Setting Commission to ensure fairness and transparency. Mayor Matt Mahan's new pay-for-performance proposal threatens this reform by reintroducing council-controlled salary decisions, linking 5% of councilmembers' pay to self-evaluation. Such performance-based pay, considered ineffective and potentially corruptive in governance, undermines accountability, which should depend on public elections and scrutiny, not self-defined metrics. Experts indicate that tying pay to poorly measurable performance risks losing focus on long-term community needs in favor of short-term gains.
Performance-based pay models for elected officials can risk corruption and manipulate accountable governance, leading to short-term political wins instead of fulfilling long-term community needs.
The shift to a pay-for-performance model undermines democratic accountability, which should be rooted in elections and public scrutiny rather than self-set performance benchmarks.
Collection
[
|
...
]