Mayor must balance the need of three million people

To the editor:

Re: 'Putting council salary debate in appropriate context,' Editorial, Aug. 12.

Indeed, let's do this. But why limit the comparison within the public sector across Canada?

What about the private sector where leadership is rewarded in the tens of millions of dollars? How many CEOs with budgets of $8 to $9 billion can we draw comparisons with?

Do these CEOs have to contend with colleagues (board directors) who represent divergent antagonistic views?

Do their portfolios and duties fall under public scrutiny? Are they really accountable to the same constituency (shareholders versus citizens)?

A mayor is accountable to the city's citizens, taxpayers and residents, comprised of about three million people in Toronto's case.

The mayor of our city must grapple with brokering a multitude of public interests with a view to being fiscally prudent (and efficient) in managing the operating affairs of the city, while being its spokesperson on a variety of levels.

In addition, the enormous civic bureaucracy must be motivated and led by a clearly articulated vision for how the city should look and feel like, in serving all three million of us. Serving in the office of the mayor commands more than just "a desire to want to give back to society" as the editorial is phrased. Rather, they must possess a unique set of skills and talents to marshall the kinds of resources in a direction to serve the public interest in the highest order. Throw in the odd crisis and let's make the job really comfortable.

What CEO must balance these enormous challenges amidst a cynical and poisoned political environment led often times by the nonsense of what is purported to be responsible journalism?

The media has done a tremendous disservice to this city by diminishing the value of the office of our elected officials. The lack of imagination and optimism is prevalent in the editorial with an underlying contempt that must be demoralizing. It's no wonder so many good people flee or shy away from civic service.

I bet if my neighbours were informally polled about this salary issue, they would secretly support it despite the muddling nonsense that is often written in these newspapers.

Mario Silva