Budget Breaking Pay Increases Recommended by Council

What was City Council thinking last night, Monday, June 28? A two-percent raise for all non-bargaining personnel? Well, not quite. City Council members were not included. The two-percent increase was an increase from the one-percent increase recommended by the Salary Committee. Councilman Lautenschleger did not feel one-percent was enough for the elected and politically appointed New Philadelphia city officials. Lautenschleger is quoted by the Times Reporter as saying, “I personally believe that’s appropriate at this point.”

Appropriate must have different meanings depending on whether you have a salary protected job, as in government employee, or are unemployed, as in 11% unemployed in Tuscarawas County. The 11% figure does not include those no longer supported by the public dole, folks who the government has just written off. The probability of increased income taxes on the citizen of New Philadelphia to pay for salaries of elected officials and others is rising daily, but is of no concern to city employees. After all, their jobs are secure, their wages paid by those who are lucky enough to have jobs.

So what about city officials salaries? With a two percent increase they are doing pretty well. Take a look at the following figures of yearly earnings, bearing in mind that these are salary figures only and do not include benefits the city pays such as pension contributions, workers compensation, Medicare, health insurance, life insurance, and others which average another 48-percent. An easy rule of thumb to figure it out is add half-again as much to the salary.

Police Chief: $60,432
Fire Chief: $60,432
Service Director: $56,731
Water Superintendent: $54,653
Auditor: $52,977
Law Director: $50,325
Mayor: $48,903

It isn’t like everybody is underpaid. The Police and Fire Department clerk receives in excess of $15,759/year without benefits added.

The cost of wages, without benefits, of the 2% increases amounts to $25,566 for the year should they be passed by Council. But there is more to it than that. The Clerical Union contract, which was approved by Council after being agreed to by Mayor Taylor, allowed only a 1-percent wage increase to the clerks of the city. They originally requested 1.5-percent but the clerks settled for one-percent. I found that interesting at the time as the some members of the Police Department received more than a seven-percent increase and the Fire Department got seven-percent over three years. Go figure.

What’s this going to cost the City in the long run this year alone? In excess of half-a-million dollars when you figure the benefits in, not the $26,000 the auditor reported when asked by council. The difference? Well, it’s evidently hard to know what the real cost of insurance, workers compensation, and similar items paid by the city as these costs are handled by an outside contract and the city pays a monthly bill without really knowing what costs are to individual employees. The problem is that the City just doesn’t have the money to pay these high wages.

There was an interesting editorial in the T-R a short while ago admonishing the Council in these troubled times for even considering pay raises, interesting because last year, the T-R editorial spoke of the necessity of increasing the pay for police and fire departments. Then, okay. Now, no-no. It’s very confusing.

The mystery in this whole thing is that nobody involved seems to know, understand, or care that the United States, and Ohio, and Tuscarawas County, and New Philadelphia, are in serious financial trouble. The economy is not getting better. It is on the verge of collapse. At what point will the Mayor realize that spending money without money coming in will cause deficits, insolvency, and the inability of the city to pay its bills. It’s called cash-flow, Mr. Mayor. You must limit spending to what you can pay for, and we are close to not having the money to pay the bills. Mr. Mayor, you have an opportunity to become a legend in your own time. If this legislation passes City Council, stand up to the responsibility of your office and veto it. Show council and the citizens that you really do have the welfare of New Philadelphia as your prime concern.

Addenda:

Wages for 2010 with 2% Wage Rates, Benefits Not Included:

Police Chief: $60,423
Fire Chief: $60,423
Service Director: $56,731
General Services Supervisor: $55,883
Water Superintendent: $54,653
Park Superintendent: $54,376
Sewer Superintendent: $53,592
Auditor: $52,977
Health Director: $52,871
Assistant Sewer Supervisor: $52,276
Cemetery Supervisor: $51,003
Law Director: $50,325
Prosecutor: $49,836
Environmentalist: $49,094
Mayor: $48,903
Nursing Director: $48,691
Income Tax Administrator: $47,693
Assistant Park Superintendent: $45,339
Assistant Service Director: $42,029
Assistant Prosecutor: $34,731
Assistant Prosecutor: $34,731
Mayor Executive Assistant: $33,118
IT Guy: $32,164
Health Office Secretary: $31,421
Maintenance Director: $31,209
Part Time Nurse: $26,057
Assistance Maintenance Director: $26,053
Assistant Environmentalist: $15,912
Police/Fire Clerk: $15,759
Receptionist: $14,280
Treasurer: $11,924
Safety Director: $9,378

Total Cost for 2010 Wages Without Benefits: $1,303,853.

Add 48% to above wages to include benefits.

Safety Committee to Meet on Possible Property Seizure

A little bit on the late side, but the Safety Committee will be meet on Monday, June 21, 2010, at 6 PM, in Council Chambers of City Hall, to discuss the widening of West High Avenue. Residents of West High between the railroad tracks and Five Points should be especially aware of this as the decision made by the Safety Committee will play a big part in the eminent domain seizure of private property on that stretch of road. It is our understanding that none of the residents who own property on West High, which is under consideration for the street widening, have been informed of this meeting, a situation which we hope is not true. If it is the case, we take umbrage with the committee, as these residents have the right to be informed of the city's plans for property seizure before any formal action is taken.

Residents should take advantage of the opportunity to attend this important committee meeting, ask questions, and make committee members aware of their feelings. Failure to do so could see the seizure of property without the owners consent. Interestingly enough, invitations to attend the meeting were sent to a local realtor and ODOT representatives.

For further information contact your City Councilman or the Mayor.

Residents, get involved. It's your property the city will take should this project be approved.

Pelosi Ethics Come to New Philadelphia

Last Monday, June 14, New Philadelphia City Council took another step to distance itself from the citizens of the city. There was a day when administrative and legislative members of the city displayed a responsibility to the folks who live here. Today, the agenda of most elected officials in New Philadelphia seems to be to protect themselves, even if it means breaking faith with the citizen. An oath is taken by every elected official in the city in which they promise to uphold the law. Words are words, but actions define character. A case in point is Resolution No. 32-2010.

32-2010 finally, we hope, brings the melodrama of OH Holly Corporation, operators of the Perfect Landing Restaurant at the New Philadelphia Airport, and the City of New Philadelphia, owners of the building which houses the restaurant, to a final close. The melodrama concerned itself with disputes over the lease agreement, a typical he-said-she-said type situation. It dragged on for quite a while, opposing lawyers complaining that they couldn't get together with each other, that sort of thing. About a week ago, agreement was reached, at least by the lawyers. The OH Holly Corporation agreed. All that was needed to close the deal was agreement by City Council to make the whole issue disappear. It was at this point that the city government system unraveled.

During Monday's council meeting, the Law Director requested an executive session to discuss changes to the OH Holly lease. The executive session was requested, the Law Director stated, to deal with an ongoing lawsuit. The executive session was approved by Council. What occurred during that session is unknown, and by law should remain that way. There are, however, concerns as to why it was called in the first place. Evidently, the ongoing lawsuit was no longer ongoing. The judgment had already been agreed to by both parties and approved by the presiding judge. All that was needed was approval by council. By going to an executive session any explanation or discussion of the agreement the City was to be bound to, was lost to public knowledge.

Here is where it begins to get sticky. When the executive session closed, and the normal council meeting resumed, a motion was made to add Resolution No. 32-2010 to the evening's agenda. It was added by a vote of the council. One thing was missing. According to the rules of procedure for bringing legislation to the floor of city council, it must first be approved by a council committee in a scheduled committee meeting. This was not done, and apparently, not by oversight, but by a conscious disregard of standing council rules. The originator of this disregard of standing rules is not known as the action was taken in the executive session. This action proposes another breach of procedure. Decisions are not to be made in any executive session. These sessions are for information purposes only. It is obvious that a decision was made during the session Monday evening to break the rules and bring 32-2010 to the floor for a vote without it being heard in committee first.

The argument that there was not sufficient time to have 32-2010 heard in committee before the Council meeting doesn't hold water. The Finance Committee met that evening prior to the council meeting on another matter, and 32-2010 could have been discussed at that time under the statement on the committee meeting notice "and other matters which may be brought to the attention of the committee." The resolution itself, then was faulted, as it states it was sponsored by the Finance Committee, which it was not, as the Finance Committee never discussed it.

Another concern about the request to ignore the procedural rules by council revolves around the time involved in bringing 32-2010 to the attention of City Council. The court case was completed on May 7, 2010, according to the court records. That provided ample time for the matter to be brought before Council and considered without the necessity of blatantly ignoring Council procedures. While no time limit was set for the signed agreements to be returned to the court, a five week delay in returning the necessary documents to the court may be considered excessive. The cause of the delay remains an unanswered question. Was an unacceptable delay a factor in the extraordinary method used in getting 32-2010 legislation passed?

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Law Director was asked why the resolution did not go through committee. The Law director stated that it didn't have to go through committee as "this was a settlement that just came out of trial." He further stated that Council can bring items to the floor without going through a committee. "I'm telling you," he said, "that Council can void that rule with anything by putting it up, by voting to put it on the agenda. When they put it on the agenda, they bypass that rule. They have a right to do that. It's a procedural rule for order of Council." He went on to say that City Council is not bound to its own rules. What council wants to do, it may, with no restrictions.

The implications of last Mondays action by City Council are far reaching. A dangerous precedent has been set. With no constraints on procedure, there are no safeguards to the public. No longer are citizen comments assured. No longer is any operational rule or procedure of City Council viable.

My objection is not to the legislation of 32-2010. It is to the blatant disregard of standing rules and procedures.

With the decision to ignore City Ordinance 121.01 in this case, the precedent has been set which paves the way for city council pass legislation without the knowledge of New Philadelphia citizens. It also admits the New Philadelphia City Council into the Pelosi Get Legislation Passed No Matter How Society.

If the Law Director and City Council don't respect their own rules, what sort of respect do they have for you? Wake up folks. It is your future they are dealing with. Get involved.

Apathy Stalls New Philadelphia Legislation

Every once in a while there are things which need to be mentioned, none of which are big enough to make a full article, but never seem to get said. They kinda' pile up and eventually get thrown into a potpourri of thoughts. Today's the day to dig into that pile.

There are a lot of things sitting in City Council which should be acted upon. This is not unusual, but City Council needs to get on with the City's business, get them out of committee, and do something, anything but ignore them.

Last year a request for action was passed to the Safety Committee from the President of Council concerning noise in the city. This has become a problem over the years and came to a head a couple of years ago when a resident complained of the loud music from Bud and Tooties, a bar on West High Avenue. The matter was resolved by an agreement between Bud and Tooties, the Police Chief, and the resident who had complained. Unfortunately, the matter didn't stay resolved and the noise continues. The problem doesn't end there but spreads like a blight across the city through loud mufflers on cars, trucks and motorcycles. Even worse are the boom boxes in automobiles which vibrate house windows as they drive by. The police department states that there is no ordinance to cover noise, although the City's Codified Ordinances seem to disagree. It's been in committee for about a year, with only one committee meeting to my knowledge. But, we still have the noise. The EPA can define illegal noise levels. Why can't the City?

There is a proposal in Committee to widen West High Avenue. There have been meetings with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) concerning this street "improvement," but the folks who live in the effected area generally have no knowledge of the plans being considered, which include taking of their property by eminent domain by the City. To this date, neither the City, nor ODOT, has had any communication with residents. Does that make any sense? Cost of the project is estimated at $600,000 for the City's share alone. Yeah, that word was estimated. Who knows what the cost will be when the project gets under way in a couple of years.

Three and a half years ago a change was made to the City Codified Ordinances concerning how legislation was brought before City Council. In the updated, a really loose term in this case, City Ordinances, this change still is not included. From time to time the New Philadelphia Law Director makes noises like he is going to bring the ordinances up to date. Doesn't work. I guess it is a case of priorities because the Codified Ordinance book, and the reproduction of them on the City's website, are still out of date. Many of the resolutions and ordinances under which the City operates are not included in the published Codified Ordinances, or have been changed over the years so the published information is incorrect and/or misleading. This is an Administrative problem, not a Council problem, one which should have never been allowed to exist. It is dereliction of duty on the part of the Mayor and the Law Director that the New Philadelphia Codified Ordinances, which are used by the citizens and public officials of New Philadelphia, are not correct. I guess if you can't see 'em, you don't have to follow 'em. Makes life easier, I guess.

The Mayor has requested a Downtown Urban Planner be added to his staff. It appears that he recognizes the need to do something with the deteriorating downtown area. Evidently the survey he requested on conditions in Downtown New Philadelphia confirmed what was already well know to the residents here, but remained a mystery to the Administration. The request for an Urban Planner raises a couple of interesting questions. Didn't the Mayor appoint a Select Committee made up of influential citizens to make recommendations to get downtown up and running again? Isn't this the Mayor's job, to plan for the City's future? But the biggest question was raised by the Council President when he placed the responsibility for considering the creation of the position for Urban Planning. He assigned the task to the Zoning Committee rather than to the committee responsible for Economic Development. Are we missing something here? It appears that of late President of Council makes committee assignments for reasons which have no relationship to committee expertise on any given subject. What's going to be next, the President of Council taking on personally chairing the committees? Whew. The way things are going is it possible that the Council President wants to become Mayor?

One last thing. The White House was ecstatic about the increase in jobs last month. It made great headlines and soundbites in the media. The numbers look great with 431,000 created in May. Of course, 411,000 of those jobs, 95.4%, were census takers. The jobs are temporary, will cost the taxpayer in the long run, produce no increased production, nor monetary gain to the economy. But then congratulations to those 20,100 folks who found permanent jobs in May.

D-Day Lessons Lost On Obama

Sixty-six years ago today, June 6, 1944, 100,000 soldiers landed on the shores of France to begin the liberation of Europe, the majority of them American. American forces suffered the largest number of casualties. Of the 4,400 Allied troops who died that day, 2,500 were Americans. Of the 10,000 casualties that day, 6,600 of them were American.

The commitment and sacrifice of the United States on that June day is all but forgotten. But without it, there would be no freedom in Europe, and quite possibly none in the United States. It is only through the efforts of those brave young men, and many not so young, who who fought in what General, later President, Eisenhower called the Crusade in Europe, was it possible to free Europe from a barbaric, totalitarian regime, a Germany led by the madman Adolf Hitler.

In the Pacific, Americans fought and died to destroy an equally barbarous enemy, Japan, whose cruelty, murder and sadism, had taken by force most of the Pacific basin. American youth died on small islands with names like Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Luzon, and in unmapped jungles of Guadalcanal and Burma. They died in prison camps through torture, starvation, and outright murder.

Had the United States not become involved in the Second World War, we would be living in a totally different world than we have today. If the United States had not become involved in the reconstruction of Europe and the Pacific, there would have been little if any economic recovery in either. The United States destroyed its enemies. It devastated their property. But unlike any country in history from the beginning of time, as a victor, it rebuilt their economies, their cities, prevented worldwide starvation, and asked nothing in return.

But today, things have changed. In the past eighteen months, President Obama has disgraced the United States in ways unimaginable two years ago. He has apologized for what he perceives the United States has done in the past. He has become subservient to Muslim countries and leaders whose priorities are the elimination of Christianity and Judaism. He has forsaken the integrity of our country, blaming the United States for the corruption of South American governments. He condones Mexican border jumpers and wet-backs who come into the United States with drugs. He lets murderers from Mexico who kill United States citizens, sell drugs, steal from our social services, go unpunished. Obama punishes American soldiers, sailors, and airmen, for protecting us and making it possible for most of us to sleep secure in our homes at night. He increases, on a daily basis, our dependence on foreign oil, mostly from Muslim countries. He has taken control of private banks, two of the world's largest automotive companies, nominated Supreme Court justices, one who openly declares her dissatisfaction with the Constitution of the United States and another who has no judicial experience. He has increased income taxes on both individuals and businesses, and usurped medical care in the United States.

Obama has aligned himself with politicians whose priorities are not the welfare of the United States citizen, but control of the United States for their own purposes. Pelosi, Reid, Biden, and Obama have created a legislature and administration which is destroying the liberty we once enjoyed. What we are seeing today is a replay of Germany in the 1930s. Obama told Americans during his campaign what his intentions were and nobody listened. Adolph Hitler told the Germans, and the world, what his intentions were and it took a world war to depose him. Nobody listened to Hitler and nobody learned.

The United States was the hope of the world. In less than two years, Obama turned the Uniterd States from a world leader, economically, militarily, morally, into a blossoming communistic state, with the now predictable end of totalitarianism in the foreseeable future. The success of the Obama takeover and the communist bias of the congress, is founded in the lack of concern of the American public. The five hundred plus federal officials who make the laws, and administer them, were elected by American people who believed the lies, forgot the lessons of past history, want something for nothing from the federal government, and gave up their chance for freedom and liberty not only for themselves, but for their children and all future Americans.

Wake up citizens. You are being sold into slavery. Wake up while you still have the chance to do something about this theft of your country. Become informed. Become vocal. If the Obama crowd is allowed to continue you will lose your life, liberty, and right to happiness. And even worse, those thousands who died at Normandy and on those Pacific islands will have died for nothing.