SO, here we are in another election year.
In barely eight months from Scotland's 'once in a generation' referendum and a year from the last European poll we'll decide on who we want running the UK.
Next year we'll be saying the same: another election year, this time for the Scottish Parliament. And with the local polls in 2017, the year after that too.
Throw in the possibility of an EU in/out referendum and you can see how frequent trips to the polling booth will in the next few years.
And then, given our tiers of democracy, we repeat the cycle. In the current decade there will be only three years without any kind of election in Scotland. Some years we have two.
I'm not rehashing the too much/too little democracy debate. We're still in holiday mode for heaven's sake.
But with the electoral cycle much more regular and predictable now do we need to treat them as one-off events with special one-off fees to returning officers?
Every time we host an election in Scotland a returning officer, almost always a local authority chief executive, receives a payment of several thousand pounds.
During the Referendum this was said to average out at £6000 per returning officer. Mary Pitcaithly, chief executive of Falkirk Council, is understood to have received a bonus payment of £39,000 for acting as the national returning officer.
Former Glasgow chief executive George Black took in an extra £40,000 for overseeing the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary elections, around £28,000 the following year for the local election and £20,000 for the referendum.
Of course, its a big responsibility. As returning officer, you play a central role in the democratic process, ensuring the election is administered effectively and the experience of voters is a positive one. You want them to come back.
Nominations, polling stations, appointment of officers and clerks, managing the postal votes, verifying and counting votes and declaration of the result are your core duties.
Screw it up and you may be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £5000.
There may nothing as ex as an ex chief cxecutive, and no doubt there will be accusations of double standards, but as he walked out the door George Black made a worthwhile point about the returning officer role.
Now that we have more election years than not this should be recognised and more professionalised. The duties of a returning officer should be consolidated into a chief executive's job description and the responsibilities part of the core salary rather than a one-off fee.
At present they are held responsible separately than as a chief executive. And while you have casual staff coming in on the night, the a core team in the which drive elections forward are already inhouse council staff.
The public sector needs to pay good money to keep the best folk. But in the current climate a £40,000 bonus every 18 months for some additional delegation no longer seems tenable.
I'd vote for that.
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