A few critics of Tiered Democratic Governance have taken a look at my hypothetical TDG. I estimate that a city of 100,000 citizens will have about 600 TDG positions.
It is logical to assume that each of those positions will come with a six-figure salary, an office, and a partisan staffer or two (or three or four). That is how our current democracies work. The TDG seems to be multiplying this practice. So the budget for governing will increase dramatically. So I need to address this.
About 500 of these positions will be neighborhood representatives.
A large part of their job is to chat with their neighbors, getting a feel for what their neighborhood is thinking, and convey those feelings to the higher tiers.
While informal discussions are important, I hope each neighborhood representative holds a town hall meeting once or twice a year. This will be a good chance for neighbors to express their concerns (and get to know each other a little better). The neighborhood representative will likely not have any power to do much about those concerns, but he/she can certainly convey them to the higher tiers.
As well, the neighborhood representative should be attending meetings at the district level. This group should meet once a month. With these meetings, the representatives will find out what other neighborhoods are thinking. Unified concerns should be passed to the higher tiers.
The neighborhood representative position should be about 20 hours a month. While there will be a little juggling of time to fulfill the TDG obligations, neighborhood representatives will continue to work in their current occupations and attend to their family needs as before they were elected.
At this level, there will be no office and no staffers. No six-figure incomes.
I recommend the neighborhood representatives receive a small stipend for the formal meetings that they attend. But that would be something for each TDG to work out for itself.
In essence, a neighborhood representative is a volunteer or mostly volunteer position.
Similarly, the district representatives and most of the advisory positions will be volunteer or mostly volunteer. Many more citizens will serve in the TDG, and that experience will be an important part of their lives.
So, there won’t be a big cost to all these “new” positions. Even the cost of some stipends will be covered by more effective governance.
Published on Medium 2024
