Accountability of City employees

     All of the serious issues confronting our city are confronted by City Council  and city Staff  in a way to avoid accountability for performance. It is time for that to end and we must demand accountability, transparency and integrity. It is extremely lacking in our city government. It is costly to the taxpayers and hinders the city's progress.

Wasteful,

Ashkicker it is not to hard to understand.  It is a simple matter of economics, nothing to do with the Performance of workers or anything else just economics 101.  Sooner or later the money will not be there to sustain the raises and benefits of the Public Safety workers under the current system.  Much of the rest of the country is foregoing raises and even taking pay cuts to keep their jobs.  This has been mentioned by Mr. Becker many times at council and it is basically ignored.  Sooner or later the hammer is going to fall and unless some agreement to concessions by employees can be reached most likely employees will loose their jobs or the city will have to look to another type of system that is more affordable.   Government

A word to the wise

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By: Fred Sennet

Public employees may have to forego raises for awhile

Middletown City firemen apparently haven't gotten the message. We are heading to a deep recession which some economists say mirrors the way the Great Depression began. While many of us haven’t felt the full impact yet, reports are that many municipalities are soon or already feeling the pain.

City Treasurer Russell Carolus recently reported that income taxes will take a major hit and that, of course, means that the city’s General Fund will have a shortfall. It looks like belt tightening will be in order. The recent contract with the firemen provides them with a 10 percent salary increase over the three years of the new contract, with 1 percent coming retroactively. There also will be changes in squad and apparatus pay, certification pay, clothing/uniform allowance and step-up pay eligibility (no estimate of cost of those items was included in The Journal’s report on the increases.)

Councilman Bill Becker, former police chief and city manager as well as onetime police union president, said it was tough to approve the contract when he’s seeing neighbors losing their jobs or their houses. “The system is broken and cities like us are going to hit the wall (financially),” he said.

The police budget will be $11.37 million while the fire budget will be $9.1 million, with part of the funding coming through the public safety levy voters approved in November 2007. Budgets for the two departments, according to Carolus, will be 70 percent of the total city budget.

No doubt there will be little left for running the city and likely there won’t be any increases for other city employees.

After hearing reports from the fire and police chiefs, Becker said changes need to be made in the way their departments are funding. “My challenge to both chiefs is to find other ways to do business,” he said. Becker also said that it is doubtful if voters will be able to afford another safety levy in the foreseeable future.

It’s my belief that both the firemen and policemen—who deserve the best we can provide—could curry favor with the taxpayers who pay their salaries by turning down any increases for 2009 with the caveat that if the economy improves and we have a short recession that pay increases be negotiated at a later date.

And if I were still serving on City Council, I would suggest to my fellow Council members that they show leadership by not accepting a salary during 2009 or until the economy recovers if the firemen and policemen agree to forgo their pay raises.

By the time 2009 rolls around, the cost of gas, food, clothing and other items likely will be down to match the salaries of those who still have a job or own a business in the community.

We certainly need and appreciate fire and police protection but we also have to recognize that in a time of crisis we all need to make sacrifices.

Pacman,

Pacman,

ashkicker wrote: Pacman,   Less than amicable?  Yes.  When you call the Union President, ask him if the City Manager requested a pay freeze from the Union.  Then ask him what he did in response.  I believe the Union President was willing to work with the City to hold down costs and was blown off by the City Manager.   Did you find it odd that Public Safety seemed to be an afterthought at the budget meeting?  More than that, why were neither the Fire Chief nor the Police Chief not present?  Were they asked not to be there?  Just wondering.   Ashkicker

Hermes

moon are you saying they are trurning the mall into hud section 8 housing? or did i miss understand your post?

Lrisner you can disagree all you want.  The fact of the matter is revenues are declining from a declining population.  A population that is becoming less affluent or middle class and more poverty stricken.

This is only my opinion so if goes against your position on this matter, oh well. Your statement that it is unreasonable to expect contract employees to take cuts in bad times unless they get more (or over and above contract requirements) in good times just reinforces my belief that the unions should be disbanded. How do you think an employee feels who has devoted say 15 years to a company gets laid off but someone who has only been there 4 years stays because they are "union".  And why should they get over and above their contract if the economy got better? That comment just baffles me.  Just because they have a "contract" that does not entitle them to more than their contract requirements.  If they are union, usually they are getting more than a non union worker anyway.  And yes most people cut back when times are bad and pick back up as the economy improves. That is only common sense and human nature unless you have a money tree in your back yard or are in the upper income bracket. The problem with your LOGIC is that it appears  you think union employees are in the same category as the Wall Street and Banking executives who take exorbitant salaries and bonuses with no regards to the companies stabilty. Once again this is my opinion just as your post is yours.

I think Irisner makes some good points.  We do expect city employees to take a cut when things go bad, but we are in no hurry to give them raises when things are good.  I'm sure if the economy was booming right now, maybe the unions would call for a contract RENEGOTIATION.  Yes the unions have contracts that should be honored, but if they ALL want to stay employed, maybe they should consider a renegotiation.  Who knows, maybe the city can buy some hanging pots and bring in some more Dollar General Stores

Pac,

Mike must be Old Age setting in.