Restrictions placed on city councilors' self-appropriation

One of the proposals that Sanna Magdalena Mörtudóttir, Socialist city councilor, will present at the first meeting of the new city council is to ban city managers and elected representatives from receiving remuneration for meetings in boards, councils, and committees held during working hours.

"Something has gone seriously wrong in politics when the Mayor of Reykjavík and the mayors of neighboring municipalities have started to take higher salaries than the mayors of New York, London, and Paris," says Sanna. "We should face the fact that these salaries expose the corruption of the political leadership, and we should do something about it. The first step should be to ban these people from taking remuneration for meetings they attend during their main working hours, and which are therefore clearly part of the job duties for which they are paid a fixed salary."

It was recently reported that municipal managers in the capital area attended five meetings of the board of the Capital Area Fire Department (Slökkvilið höfuðborgarsvæðisins) last year and received nearly 11 million ISK for it. Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson is the chairman of the board and received over 205 thousand ISK per month in salary, or nearly 2.5 million ISK over the year. Divided by meetings, that amounts to over 492 thousand ISK per meeting. According to the minutes, the meetings lasted one to two hours. Dagur's hourly wage is therefore nearly 330 thousand ISK on average.

"The public can't tolerate this any longer," says Daníel Örn Arnarsson, Socialist alternate city councilor and a board member of Efling, a trade union. "This is completely out of line and is nothing but self-appropriation by the highest-ranking municipal managers. And self-appropriation by managers is a serious matter. It is not only poison in the administrative system and within politics, corruption that undermines honest politics, but it is also an utterly intolerable disrespect towards honest staff. The woman who cleans Dagur B. Eggertsson's office probably earns minimum wage, 300 thousand ISK per month. Dagur himself then takes 330 thousand ISK in remuneration for one hour at a meeting with the fire department. City councilors must stop this. If only out of respect for the woman who cleans the mayor's office."

Daníel compares Dagur's remuneration as chairman of the board of the Capital Area Fire Department and his own remuneration as a board member of Efling. "I attend meetings once a month for over two hours each time. I don't include the preparation, as Dagur presumably prepares himself as well. For board membership in Efling, I receive 100 thousand ISK per year, over 8 thousand ISK per month, and therefore nearly 4 thousand ISK per hour. Dagur's remuneration is about 90 times higher than this. Without wanting to make too much of myself, I can assert that Dagur is not 90 times more important than I am," says Daníel.

Sanna and Daníel say that not long ago, parliamentary salaries were similar to teachers' salaries. People who dedicated themselves to politics or public service could expect to receive decent middle-class salaries for their contribution to society. During the neoliberal years, attitudes in society changed, and middle-class salaries were no longer considered acceptable or desirable. Instead of aiming for well-paid middle-class individuals, politicians began to compare themselves to CEOs of large corporations. "I'm not sure that politics will improve if it attracts people who want to be like CEOs in capitalist companies, rather than people who want to compare themselves to teachers, nurses, or other middle-class individuals," says Sanna.

It has been reported that Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson's salary was about 2 million ISK per month last year, including fixed salary and additional payments for attending meetings with the fire department, Faxaflóahafnir (Faxaflói Harbours), and elsewhere. "This salary is more than seven times higher than what the city paid its lowest-paid staff last year," says Daníel. "Is that acceptable? Is the mayor's contribution seven times more important than that of the woman who cleans his office? Of course not. If Dagur or others think so, perhaps we should stop cleaning the City Hall and see how long people tolerate it. I have no doubt that people would rather tolerate the mayor's long absences."

"When such proposals are put forward, to lower salaries or remuneration for top managers, the common refrain is often that it doesn't matter much when looking at the big picture," says Sanna. "It is said that this is only a tiny fraction of the city's turnover. That's why self-appropriation is allowed to persist and escalate. But this is a pretext. If self-appropriation scandalizes us, we should stop it. It will become clear at the city council meeting which city councilors are prepared to start dismantling the self-appropriation that has persisted here for too long."