On Christmas Eve, DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton announced she had reintroduced legislation to allow the DC mayor and council to determine the salary of the city’s chief financial officer. “Giving the District the ability to raise the pay for its CFO will make the position more lucrative and incentivize high quality candidates to apply when a vacancy arises,” she said in a prepared statement.
Glen Lee, who currently holds the position, was appointed to a five-year term in June 2022 by Mayor Muriel Bowser. He earns $292,300 annually, according to his office spokesperson.
The CFO’s compensation is higher than Bowser’s, a three-term mayor. It is also higher than that of the four-term DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson.
How much more does Norton think the CFO should be paid?
Unquestionably, she is fixated on the wrong issue. Of more importance is the CFO’s performance, especially during this time of the White House madman and a stalled local economy.
The CFO’s recent revenue forecast suggests more suffering is likely. The government shutdown and lack of transparency by Donald Trump’s administration have created “data gaps.” Federal job losses stalled for a while, but they haven’t stopped. Unemployment remains high. Withholding and all categories of sales tax collections have declined. Capital gains and corporate profits figure considerably in the CFO’s revenue estimate, “making financial market performance a significant risk” if setbacks occur.
“The S&P went up by 17 points. God help us if the market levels off,” said former Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, who had oversight of the CFO’s operation until 2019 as the longtime chair of the Committee on Finance and Revenue.
“The city has overspent its means,” said Evans, adding that “we have spent money on intentions — not on results.”
Lee told me during an interview last month that trends like remote working continue to hamper DC’s economy and are unlikely to change. “There is no returning to the way things were before.” That means there has to be “far more deliberation with all phases of [the] financial operation,” he added.
