Yahoo! News/Providence Journal: ‘Relentless grind’: Providence City Council is a big job. Some members aren’t always doing it.

Yahoo! News/Providence Journal: 'Relentless grind': Providence City Council is a big job. Some members aren't always doing it.

"Certainly the fact that it is very low-paying, that’s kind of a reflection of the value that has pervaded for a long time in America – that legislatures should be made up of regular citizens or residents of the state or city that they’re representing," said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. "But we know that it can result in bodies not being necessarily as representative of a community as [they] could be because the lack of pay means that people who don’t have flexible jobs or don’t have a source of wealth that allows them to serve what is a pretty substantial commitment – that creates incentives for certain people to run for [city council]."