Perspective: Because They're Worth It ; From This Month Councillors in Birmingham Will Get Pounds 14,471 Annual Allowance. Chris Game, Senior Lecturer in Local Government at Birmingham University, Calls Them to Account

Birmingham Post › February 04, 2005

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Summary

The Birmingham Post editorial headline: 'Public duties means public accountability' (November 24) caught my eye.

The argument was clear enough. The newspaper was endorsing the recommendation of the city council's Independent Remuneration Panel for a 'rigorous' system of performance measurement for all councillors.

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Perspective: Because They're Worth It ; From This Month Councillors in Birmingham Will Get Pounds 14,471 Annual Allowance. Chris Game, Senior Lecturer in Local Government at Birmingham University, Calls Them to Account

In addition to being able to vote them out of office, we should have quantifiable records of their performance by which to judge if they're giving us value for money.

Should we really?

Let's look first at the amounts of money involved. We know the chief executive, Lin Homer, was on pounds 165,000 when she was appointed in 2002, but it would take a whole committee's-worth of councillors to reach such figures.

True...

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