will consider tonight whether to put initiatives on this spring鈥檚 ballot that would slash the number of council members -- and their pay.
The received petitions in November from . The grassroots group was founded in the early 1990s by John Kandah to advocate for better government. He says he鈥檚 confident the issues will pass based on the response to the signature drive.
鈥淚f you ask the average Clevelander, 鈥榳hat kind of response do you get from your councilman?鈥� -- they laugh. Very poor service [and] very poor communication. It鈥檚 been that way for a while. Time to change. And to be quite honest with you 鈥� [the] numbers that came to sign our petitions, in the manner that they came to sign them 鈥� was extraordinary.鈥�
The ballot initiatives would cut council from 17 members to nine. And it would cut salary from about $83,000 to $58,000.
Kandah says he was motivated by a . It showed that council has more members 鈥� with higher pay -- than in similarly sized cities such as New Orleans, Wichita, and Tampa.
Council President Kevin Kelley that the changes would be bad for the city in part because each ward would nearly double in population.
