By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 15, 2007; VA03
Alexandria Mayor William D. Euille (D) has appointed a committee of prominent residents to look at the possibility of changing when city elections take place, creating staggered terms for elected officials and upping the salaries of City Council members.
The seven-member committee, which was scheduled to hold its first meeting yesterday, will review whether city elections should be moved from May to November in an effort to jump-start declining voter turnout. The committee will report its recommendations to the mayor no later than June 30.
"One of the major concerns is that the turnout of city elections has gotten to be really low, just below 20 percent in the last election in May of 2006," said Bernard Caton, the city's legislative director.
Caton said voter turnout in November tends to be much higher than in the spring because national and state races are also held in the fall. But, he said, some residents are concerned that if city elections are moved to November, the focus on the local races will be diluted.
"It's worth taking a look at it to try to increase [voter] participation," Euille said.
Committee member Robert L. Calhoun, a lawyer and two-time former City Council member, said the issue to be examined is whether the city wants more voters to come to the polls "just for the sake of more turnout" or whether more voters truly result in a more representative electoral process. "I'm not a great fan of uninformed voters," he said.
The four-man, three-woman committee will also look at whether the salaries of City Council members and School Board members should be raised. Alexandria City Council members are paid an annual salary of $27,500; the mayor is paid $30,500. Council salaries have not been raised since 2003.
Caton said elected officials in Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun and Arlington counties are paid substantially more. Those jurisdictions are counties rather than cities, however, and have substantially larger populations.
In Arlington County, whose population and demographics are the most similar to the city of Alexandria, the annual salary for the chairman of the County Board, roughly equivalent to the mayor, will be raised to $53,900 from $32,474 as of Jan. 1. Salaries of County Board members will increase to $49,000 next year, up from $29,530.
Alexandria's population is about 130,000, while Arlington's population is just under 200,000.
"We need to be able to allow common citizens to run for public office but to have sufficient enough compensation to cover their personal expenses -- babysitting, parking fees and things like that," Euille said.
But "if you make the salary too attractive, it becomes an occupation," Calhoun said. "I don't want to see my city government run by people who have made it their job. But the counter-argument is that you don't just want the rich, the retired and the well-kept either. That's a concern too."
The third issue the committee will explore is whether the terms of elected city officials should be staggered, rather than all seats being up for election at the same time. For example, Arlington County Board members are elected at-large for staggered four-year terms.
Such a change would require approval by the General Assembly.
"The staggered-term argument is that more people focus on a particular election when they're not all at the same time," Calhoun said. "The present city elections are a mob scene. You can get as many as 15 people running for City Council. That tends to confuse people."
Supporters of staggered terms contend that frequent polling means a continuous referendum on policy.
Other members of the committee include: Christopher M. Campagna, Lynwood Campbell, William C. Cleveland, Iris Henley, Anna Leider and Becky Davies.
Public hearings on the committee's recommendations will probably be held in the fall, Caton said. "Alexandria residents will be able to weigh in on this," he said.
