Full-time council members?

Salt Lake County Council member Randy Horiuchi has a plan that would allow elected officials to spend more time with the public and more time to study the issues, all with no budget increase.

But the plan — still in its infancy — could provide some county council members with more pay than their colleagues.

The compensation proposal will be discussed Tuesday during a council subcommittee meeting. As written, it would let council members choose whether to work full-time with the help of part-time aides or to continue working part-time with full-time assistants.

The part-time official, full-time aide arrangement has been in place since the county changed its form of government eight years ago, Horiuchi said. Each of the county's nine members hires a full-time aide, whose compensation amounts to more than $100,000 per year when benefits are combined with their $70,000-plus salaries.

The elected officials are paid around $30,000 per year and are expected to work about 15 hours a week, he said. But that arrangement can be unworkable, particularly for brand new council members.

"What I'm trying to do is make it easier for the elected officials to do their job without a tax increase," said Horiuchi, who has been a county representative in both government forms.

If Horiuchi's proposal has any takers, the net result for the taxpayers could be a budget decrease, he said. That would occur if an aide were transferred to a part-time position, thereby losing his or her benefits package, Horiuchi said. Under such a scenario, the aide would be paid around $35,000 per year and the elected official would get his or her pay doubled.

By Monday afternoon, Horiuchi had not discussed his idea with the full council so didn't know what to expect in terms of opposition, he said.

"I will admit to you that just the idea that someone might get some more money is always controversial," the Democrat said. "But in my mind, that's counter-weighed with no budget increase and the public will get an opportunity in interfacing with the person they elected rather than an aide."

Horiuchi went on to extol the other benefits of his plan. It would allow for better county representation at the Legislature and at trade associations, he said. It could also allow lower-income officials to continue in their public positions without maintaining full-time employment elsewhere.

"Our government is very complex," he said, listing disparate issues such as the jail, the Salt Palace, arts, police and library services. "Some members have over a dozen governmental entities they have to deal with. Some may have bitten off more than they can chew."

Horiuchi will not be among those who changes his work schedule under the proposal, he said. The councilman said he did not know whether any of his colleagues were interested, either.

"It may all be much ado about nothing," he said.

E-MAIL: rpalmer@desnews.com