[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish president's salary to jump almost 40percent in 2012

[Westley Annis]

John,

Used to be (whether it was just lip service or what) people would say they
were running for office for the "honor and privilege" of serving the people
or the community or whatever.  Nowadays they frequently mention how "hard it
is to live on, say, a Congressional salary (The current salary (2010) for
rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $174,000 per year.).  

My first instinct is to say "no one is forcing you to run for this office".
Some of these folks have private businesses (such as Mr. Landry) which I'm
sure provide add'l income to them.  Craig had his private practice and other
things that provided him compensation. 

It has also been said that if you don't make the salary attractive enough,
only rich people will be able to run for political offices because the
typical person could afford to campaign for office, etc.  I don't buy that.
It's certainly not terribly expensive to run on the local level.  

How this is handled will speak volumes about our local elected officials.

JY
 



	-----------------------------------------------------
	I'll make it even more simple.  Has the current or past lower salary
of the
	Parish President ever had trouble attracting people to run for the
office?
	You could cut the salary in half and you wouldn't have any less
number of
	people qualifying for it.  But that would certainly show who's in
for the
	salary and who's in it for the good of the parish.
	
	John