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San Jose mayor proposes tying 5% of council pay to citywide performance; council raises equity and democracy concerns
Summary
San Jose Mayor (name not specified) proposed linking 5% of council base pay to measurable, councilwide performance goals; the council asked the city manager to return in the fall with a scoring rubric but voiced sharp differences over equity, accountability and unintended consequences.
San Jose Mayor (name not specified) proposed linking 5% of each city councilmember’s base salary to measurable progress on agreed citywide performance measures, prompting a lengthy council debate about equity, accountability and unintended consequences.
The mayor described the proposal as modeled on existing performance contracts for appointees and senior staff and said the city manager would return in the fall with a simple rubric for scoring: “the city manager has requested September…to look at best practices from other sectors and bring us a proposal for how that formula would work to keep it simple,” the mayor said.
Councilmember Ortiz asked how the system would operate in practice and whether pay adjustments would be applied individually: “Am I just gonna sit here while my colleagues vote to not give me a raise, or what?” Ortiz asked. The mayor responded that the metric would be applied “as a body,” because the council approves…
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