SAN JOSE MAYOR Matt Mahan wants to withhold up to 5% of his colleagues’ salaries if they fail to meet citywide goals — a policy numerous councilmembers said would come at the expense of already underserved residents.
The “Pay for Performance” policy was introduced as part of Mahan’s March budget message after he said City Hall needed to show more accountability in addressing issues such as homelessness and public safety. Councilmembers including Pamela Campos, Domingo Candelas, David Cohen, Rosemary Kamei and Peter Ortiz responded by raising concerns during last month’s budget discussions on how the policy could have city leaders chasing popular priorities over communities with specific needs.
The proposal is set for a final City Council discussion on June 10 as part of the 2025-26 budget approval process.
“It’s straight out of the toolkit of authoritarian governments where they’re trying to quell dissent,” Cohen told San José Spotlight. “In a representative democracy where we have 11 elected officials trying to make decisions, every vote shouldn’t be unanimous. We should accept the fact that people have different ideas on how to get to the solution.”
Cohen said he worries this Tuesday’s budget discussion will focus mainly on another Mahan policy proposing the city arrest homeless people for refusing offers of shelter — potentially rendering the discussion on Pay for Performance as an afterthought.
“When I was raising what I thought were legitimate questions about whether this really had to come now, or whether we could delay it and have a more thorough discussion, the mayor was very dismissive of that,” Cohen said.
Proponents cite improved accountability
Vice Mayor Pam Foley, who co-sponsored Pay for Performance, said it will benefit underserved residents rather than hurt them. She said the city manager will return to councilmembers in September with an analysis of the policy, and potential implementation in the next fiscal year. The most recent proposal disregards Mahan’s originally-drafted policy to avoid needing San Jose voter approval.
“In some ways, it heightens the voice of the minority, because it elevates what you’re saying to the group of the whole,” Foley said at the May 14 Rules Committee meeting. “It’s important to know I’m being held to a standard, and to be perfectly honest, this isn’t going to affect me because I term out. I’m gone before this affects me at all, but it doesn’t mean I don’t have a role in the decision.”
At the meeting, Mahan said city leaders will be judged annually on focus area scorecards and dashboards using the same performance-based compensation model used for city department heads. His policy is similar to Silicon Valley’s tech culture, where workers are judged based on merit.
“In some ways, it heightens the voice of the minority, because it elevates what you’re saying to the group of the whole. It’s important to know I’m being held to a standard. …” Vice Mayor Pam Foley, co-sponsor of Pay for Performance proposal
Mahan did not return a request for comment.
If the mayor and councilmembers’ collective performance falls below 100% of the adopted targets, 5% of their salaries will be proportionately reduced based on the actual achievement of the prioritized targets.
Pay is currently decided by the four-member Salary Setting Commission, which independently sets salaries for the mayor and councilmembers. The commission sets salaries that are revisited every five years, with the council and mayor receiving annual raises based on cost of living increases — but no more than 5% a year. Councilmembers previously approved their own salaries, but that changed in 2018 when voters approved Measure U. Commissioners are appointed by the city’s Civil Service Commission.
Showing ‘we have skin in the game’
The Pay for Performance proposal would supersede the commission’s authority. Instead, the commission would receive a yearly report on councilmembers’ goals and performances after the report is first reviewed and approved by the council.
“As my colleague Councilmember Cohen recently wrote, ‘accountability comes through elections, public hearings, audits and media scrutiny,’” Campos told San José Spotlight. “More exploration is needed to ensure that how we measure success in public service is reflective of the collaboration and leadership needed to bring long-term solutions to the communities we are elected to serve.”
Councilmembers George Casey and Michael Mulcahy support the proposal. Casey said many of the performance measures already exist in both the public and private sector.
“There’s a level of malaise and apathy folks have towards our political process, and the disconnect they believe exists between local politicians and actual issues that are important to them,” Casey said at the meeting. “Demonstrating to them that we have skin in the game hopefully will engender some sort of revitalization or reinvigorate them and let them know that we are serious about the issues that are important to them.”
Contact Vicente Vera at vicente@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @VicenteJVera on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.