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have two leaving, I only have three. And then I remember Mr. Wurdeman was telling you about the problems on quorums and what you need to vote, and so when we do have three, that presents a problem in the appeal process because it -, you need all three to agree. But we did not make any proposal with respect to that particular issue. My Salary Commission is made up of nine, and that's because of the -, I think -. Well, first of all, the nine is basically to represent the different geographical components of the Island, and the Civil Service Commission isn't. And that's because the Civil Service Commission really isn't representing the geographical areas of the Island. The Civil Service Commission is representing the Civil Service law itself, so it doesn't lend itself to these nine Commission members. The Salary Commission, I think the idea is good representing your geographical areas, but the problem is we can't find Commissioners. For the longest time now, I've only had five or six Salary Commissioners. We've been unable to fill the vacancies. Nobody wants to be on that Commission. At this point, could I introduce another -? RAY: Sure. BEN: My Salary Commission hasn't been able to meet because one of the problems is we can't get a quorum together. But one thing the Salary Commission has been pushing for quite a while now, and Mr. Wurdeman is fully aware of this, is they would like to have the authority to set the salaries for department heads. Right now, they set the salaries for elected officials, and part of the criteria for doing so is looking at the compensation received by civil servants. Now civil servant salaries are set by collective bargaining, and what they see is the civil servants' salaries pushing against the department head salaries. And the Salary Commission, in turn, because they must take into consideration the Civil Service salaries, therefore, adjust the elected official salaries. So you have the Civil Service salary is pushing from the top and the elected official salaries moving away, and the department heads are just staying there. And it's always been a political process. And, basically, the last time we made a report, I think Civil Service salaries went up 30 percent while department heads had nothing. So it's an issue with the Salary Commission and, you know, we weren't able to put it down in writing because we could never get a quorum, but I feel very confident in telling you that the Salary Commission is definitely -, would definitely like to make that proposal. RAY: Okay. John. SANTANGELO: And, Mr. Ben, you say that because -, having been on the Council, there's so much political pressure, and yet, this is an administrative matter. You've got to have the ability to hire the caliber and also -, and retain them, so the recruitment becomes very difficult, as we're seeing with our engineer, although the -, recruitment and the quality that you get. 32