Colleagues cool to Windsor councilman’s proposal of stipends

Dominic Foppoli, one of Windsor’s recently elected Town Council members, believes there is a way to broaden participation of the people who volunteer their time to serve as town commissioners - pay them a stipend of $100 per meeting.

A payment, in his view, could attract commission candidates who have difficulty serving because of their jobs or child care commitments.

Windsor has a high per-capita rate of young families, and Foppoli, at 32 the council’s youngest member, said they are not well represented on the town’s three commissions: planning; senior citizen advisory; and parks and recreation.

“This would allow us to stop essentially disenfranchising a lot of people in our town … from being involved and having a voice,” he said. “While $100 is not a lot, it’s enough to cover a babysitter, or a couple hours of lost work for younger parents, or people who might be on a fixed income or regular work hours.”

But getting his fellow Town Council members to go along with the idea proved to be a tough sell at last week’s council meeting.

No one seconded his motion, even though Town Council members were open to having commissioners apply for reimbursement of babysitting expenses and directed the city manager to look into it and bring it back for future council consideration.

In rejecting the stipend idea, Councilman Sam Salmon said, “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to provide benefits for someone in a young family to feel they can replace the time and money. It’s rare you find young people being able to get involved in government.”

He also said there were a number of well-qualified applicants to the commissions.

In dismissing the compensation suggestion, Mayor Bruce Okrepkie said, “It’s called public service. It’s something we manage to do.”

Councilman Mark Millan said doing any voluntary work is an honor. “You do give up your time, but you get something back,” he said. “That’s partly what drives people to do it. It’s part of service.”

In Sonoma County, none of the nine cities pays a stipend to its commissioners, according to a survey done by Windsor staff, although staff cited cities in California that offer commissioners $25 to $50 per meeting.

The county of Sonoma has a variety of boards and commissions, most of which offer stipends. They range from $25 per meeting to as much as $150 for a Planning Commission meeting lasting more than four hours.

Like other cities in the county, the elected officials in Windsor get a stipend for their service. In addition to health coverage, Windsor Town Council members get $300 a month, which Okrepkie said “doesn’t even make a dent in our time.”

In Windsor, the Planning Commission meets twice a month and the other commissions less frequently. Paying commissioners $100 per meeting would cost as much as $21,840 annually.

Even though that is only a small fraction of the town’s $4 million annual employee payroll, the majority of council members said Windsor needs to remain fiscally conservative.

Councilwoman Deb Fudge said Windsor is tight with its budget and that’s why its reserves are healthy. But she said a stipend is something that could take away from other discretionary spending items, which include things like road paving.

Salmon said nonprofit groups that get a town subsidy routinely see their requests for additional funding denied and a stipend for commissioners could eat further into those allocations.

Foppoli protested that the Town Council at its last meeting routinely approved $2.4 million worth of expenditures “and we’re having an argument about $21,000.”

He said the challenge of getting more young people to serve was driven home to him by a mother he sought to appoint to the Parks and Recreation Commission. He said she declined because there was no compensation to cover her time off, or for a babysitter.

Foppoli, a former planning commissioner, noted that the position can require a significant time commitment. He said his last Planning Commission meeting before he was sworn in as a council member lasted five hours and that didn’t include the preparation required.

He observed that the Town Council is made up of a retired PG&E executive, two business owners, a successful insurance agent and a retired lawyer.

“We are not the demographic of Windsor,” Foppoli said. “It is not possible for anyone who’s young, fairly middle class, who has kids, to even take a position of leadership, which I think is a travesty.”

You can reach Staff Writer ?Clark Mason at 521-5214 or ?clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@clarkmas.