I’ll tell you what, these meetings get crazier by the day. Here are some highlights;
Quen Be De must have been watching TV again because after a 15 minute council conversation about changing the way the budget hearing proceedings go in the future, De finally chimes in, “Am I missing something here?†Yes De, you have been asleep for the last 15 minutes. It’s simple really, they just want to spread out the hearings over a few weeks instead of a few days. Big whoop.
The city council’s leading drama queen and rocket scientist comes up with a proposal to help people out in this lagging economy, he wants to hold an ‘Economic Summit’ with councilors and citizens. Are you Barack Obama now? He proposes that local developers should get preference points for doing development and never mind the obvious conflict of interest Jamison’s development company would have if he voted on this proposal (please wakeup ethics board). More development during a lagging economy won’t do a damn bit of good if nobody is buying or leasing the new development. Build all you want, not sure if you have looked around lately but there is tons of retail space and homes for sale in Sioux Falls. I don’t think people are snatching up building permits left and right Greg. Of course Greg is partially referring to city road construction, which I think state law already mandates we use local contractors first, and besides, I think it would be good public policy to do so. Maybe you should read your employee handbook first Greg before making suggestions at the council meetings in the future. After the topic is changed by Beninga, Greg goes back to his ‘Economic Summit’ idea again and has the city clerk schedule a council coffee for this Saturday (even though they have proven to not be well attended by the public in the past). I’ll give you my idea ahead of time, Greg (if you could pass it on Jodi, I would appreciate it). Tell the Mayor to not give 9% raises to department heads, cut back all the city department spending by 10%, don’t hire new city employees, freeze the 2009 CIP projects until 2010 and review again in the Fall. All of these things can be done by the council and mayor. I suggest you get on that horse and git-r-done. And BTW, revoke the 2nd penny tax increase also since those roads really don’t need to be built now because of the lagging economy and slowing of new home construction.
Beninga is still hung up on staggering terms on the council and is worried about the potential of having a new mayor and potentially five new councilors in 2010. I for one am not. He thinks there is a learning curve for new councilors, and he is right. But I have a feeling he is referring to learning how to do big business’ bidding for the city. See when you only stagger in a couple of councilors a year it is easy to manipulate them and get them to vote with the established council on the side of big business. But when you have a new mayor and four new councilors there is a chance that there is going to be some major changes when it comes to city business. I’m a big believer in drastic change, and one way that change occurs is by starting fresh. We have a lot of dead wood on the council and it’s time to shake things up. I have already said that Costello or Staggers will be our next mayor, and I like both of their perspectives when it comes to budgeting, progress and property rights in our city. So Gerald, give it up already. I am sick of you whining about it every chance you get. City clerk Debra Owen points out there is no reason to change things because it was a ‘fluke’ it turned out this way because of Howes and Smith resigning early. It’s too bad you don’t speak up more often about other important issues at council meetings like you do about this one.
The highlight of the meeting was when the city HR director showed up to bullshit his way thru explaining the city raises. He starts out by reminding the citizens and council that the city employees are the ones fulfilling customer service for us. Pat, pat, pat – pat yourself on the back. Oh and we are so eternally grateful that they spy on us and harass us with blanket code enforcement. May I remind you that we pay their wages.
He goes on to explain that the union employees get a 3% increase while appointed officials (department heads and non-union) get a 6% raise that is based on performance and COLA (cost of living). I guess the union employees do not deserve performance raises just the big cheeses. Talk about equality in the workplace!
Staggers points out that the department heads are basically overpaid when compared to other cities and  the HR director says he would have ‘to look into that’.
Kermit also points out that city employees generally make more money than private sector employees in the same fields and that the COLA is bogus because it really isn’t based on cost of living increases, it is merely a contract negotiation. The HR director agrees that it is only ‘part’ of the raise. So Staggers says, “Why call it COLA then?â€
Of course Brown defends the high pay of city employees because there is no comparison in the private sector in some of the fields (like firefighters and police – ironically the lowest paid city employees.) Knudson says that turnover is low. Damn right it is, the money and benefits are good and leaning on the shovel is permissible, they don’t have to worry about making their employer a profit like the private sector does. Some city jobs are a cakewalk (not all of them though). Litz and Staggers get into about how hard city workers work then accuses Staggers of laughing at him about it. Of course (we) are laughing at you. Anytime councilors want to defend wasteful spending they only bring up the positive points. Litz praised the public works department employees for going out in the middle of the night and fixing mains in the winter. I commend them to, but they also get paid for overtime Bob, so it is hardly a thankless job. Then De goes off on a tangent about how they deserve their raises because we put $5 million back in the reserves this year. What does that have to do with anything De? That just means we are overtaxed. She must have a degree in irrelevance. Of course Brown kisses the HR Director’s ass some more by telling him he is doing a great job (Brown and Knudson can’t get thru one single info meeting without praising some overpaid city worker for their service). Costello points out a low cost of service for the city when compared to other cities. Well guess what, it reflects on the customer service we  receive. I have often been a believer in hiring quality employees instead of mass quantities of unqualified ones. We have almost 1,200 city employees, way too many. I also believe that the low man on the totem pole deserves the same kind of raises and merit pay as his boss gets, it encourages them to work harder and do a better job. What good does it do to give management merit pay when all they are doing is assigning the work? Ironically the man who appointed and gave raises to the overpaid department heads was absent from the meeting – big surprise there. Must have been hanging out with Ronald McDonald getting pointers for his next job.