Well, unlucky for me that we couldn't know what these positions were currently being paid before the Council voted to adopt these new salary ranges (See the December 29th Post).
Silly me, you'd think that if someone was asking you to consider raising the salary ranges, the first question you'd ask would be - How Much do the Positions Currently Pay to see if the proposed changes make any sense?
But nah, not this Council. Didn't hear anyone ask any questions about that in any meetings and when I tried to reach out to some of them, they couldn't or wouldn't tell me the current salaries for the positions listed in the Ordinance.
Hence, the OPRA Request on December 17th, which seems like more than enough time before the December 27th vote to look up the salaries of 17 individuals, but nah - on the 7th day at 4:03 PM they responded by saying they need an extension to January 11, 2024.
Having now looked at what they eventually sent as the current salaries, it's easy to see why they didn't want to public to see any of this. It raises a whole bunch of questions that should of been asked and answered before the vote - but weren't.
Look at this schedule (below) which compares the current salaries to the old and new salary ranges. Under the Ordinance adopted (which excludes those positions in red) there are only 3 positions that had salaries at the top of the old salary range and required an adjustment. Only 1 position was even close to reaching the High under the old salary range in the near future yet they all were substantially increased.
What's that all about - would of been nice to of heard an explanation before the Council vote?
And what's going on with the two non-employees? The finance guy has a contract for $201,000 and the change to the High was to $195,000. Not for nothing but we pay the Director of Finance $201,000 and we pay a CFO $144,200 - that $345,200 and from what I can see, we have serious deficiencies listed in the 2022 Audit report? Have to get a copy of that report.
And what's with the Planning guy? He has a contract for $130,000 but they pay him $175,000? That doesn't concern anyone on the Council? And they issue and adopt a new contract for that $175,000 on January 10, 2024.
And seriously, what going on with the change in the Director of Parks and Recreation position? The old range went from $110,000 to $160,000 but they increased that $160,000 to $195,000, and the position is currently only paying $132,613 - Yikes!
There's obviously more going on here than just the arbitrary nonsense about being comparable to what other towns do and no one is willing to tell you.Who cares what other town do? Every town is different and have their own idiosyncrasies to deal when hiring .We have enough problems worrying about what this town does.
Here's the 17 positions with the Current Salaries provided:
You know, these are questions you'd think our Council would be asking and explaining to the public before they voted. If they had been helpful in getting the current salaries at least the public could of asked the questions before the vote - but they weren't. Unfortunately, this Council has long relinquished their responsibility over the purse strings and any modicum of transparency.
Anyhoo, who'd of thought 7 days isn't quite enough time to look up the salaries of 17 individuals?
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