Checking over the Eau Claire City Council agenda, we noticed a proposal to raise the council’s annual salary by 1,000 smackeroos. They make $3,000 a year right now, so they’d go up $4,000 (the council president gets an extra $600). WEAU.com quotes councilman Brandon Buchanan:

• "If you look at our council, we don't have a single person who has family members with children at home serving. All this increase does is simply allow people the ability to afford daycare so they can run and serve on council."

Seems to me that the proposed increase is fair, but as everyone and their big fat dog will point out, the timing is pretty bad. Hutchinson is laying off a ton of workers, the city is plowing snow less often (the horror), and things generally feel like the end of the world economy-wise.