New Philadelphia Councilman Wants Fire Chief Paid $95,700/Year

If you work full time, as an hourly paid employee, eight hours a day, 52 weeks a year, including vacation, holidays, sick days, and other paid days off, your wages are paid on 2,080 hours a year.  Any time over that is paid as overtime, generally paid at time-and-a-half which translates to your hourly wage plus 50% more.  If, for some reason, you do not work a full eight-hour day, your pay is reduced by the amount of time not work times the hourly rate you are being paid.

If you work full time as a salaried employee, you work the same number of hours as an hourly worker but are paid  an amount, usually quoted as an annual salary.  Overtime is not paid to salaried employees.  Tardiness and missed days are not deducted from earnings as as their wages are agreed to by both employee and employer at the time the employee is hired.

The difference stems from the position.  A salaried employee is paid at a higher rate than the hourly employee because of his increased responsibility, knowledge, and the necessity of his being available at all hours to make decisions and direct the company operations.  Management personnel accept long hours, as a part of the job, the higher pay compensating for management “overtime.”

These practices are generally accepted in business, but not, evidently, by the New Philadelphia Fire Chief, and John Zucal, New Philadelphia Ward Two City Councilman.

On Monday, November 25, 2013, at 6 p.m., Mr. Zucal reportedly will present legislation to the New Philadelphia City Council which will increase the salary of Fire Chief to $41 an hour.  Let me repeat that.  $41. No.  That is not a typo.  That hikes The Fire Chief’s base salary to $85,300 a year base salary.  That does not include job benefits like city retirement contributions by the city, uniform allowance, medical, hospitalization insurance, life insurance.  Business generally figures benefits costs to average 12% of income which could add another $10,700 to the Fire Chief’s income bringing it to $95,700 a year.

But, wait.  There’s more.  Zucal and the Chief feel that the reason for this pay increase is because the Chief doesn’t get paid overtime while the firemen who are on an hourly pay schedule do.  This they think is discriminatory.  Therefore, the legislation Zucal will present at the Monday meeting contains that in addition to the Chief’s salary increase, he should also fall under the work rules and benefits contained in the fire department contract with New Philadelphia.

Part of that contract states that if a firemen is called in because he is needed to fight a fire, or man an ambulance, he gets paid a minimum of one hour double-time pay.  If the Chief is covered by the fire department’s union contract with the city, working more than eight hours a day would increase his overtime wage to $82 an hour.

We know why The Fire Chief wants the increased pay.  He feels that it is unfair that people who are under his direction are making more money than is he.  But wait.  He knew this was the situation before he politicked for the Chief’s position.  Once he got the job, and the prestige that goes with being Chief, he wanted more money for his retirement.  Retirement from government jobs in Ohio is based on income from the job one has when he retires.  This is the reason why the Fire Chief wanted to resign his position go back to being a firefighter.  A firefighter’s pay, with overtime, is greater than that being paid to the Fire Chief.  It’s the overtime that counts.  After all, when it comes to money……

But Zucal?.  He will be remembered as the councilman who gave everybody possible pay increases.  I guess, because I don’t know, that he needs Parrish for his future plan, whatever that may be.  Is he trying to buy the fire department’s support for a run for mayor?  Who knows?  But this I do know.  He has pushed for pay increases for New Philadelphia city employees since he was elected four years ago.

Only one problem.  How does Zucal plan to pay for the fire Chief’s pay raise?  Where is the money coming from?  Strangely he never seems to have an answer on how to pay for schemes like this one.  The city auditor expresses concern for New Philadelphia’s solvency in 2014 without such irresponsible pay increases.  New Philadelphia is close to insolvency, bankruptcy, going broke, you name the terminology.  Schemes which include spending city money without an accompanying city income increase at this time is fiscal insanity.

Fire Chief Parrish knew when he applied for the position what the pay scale was and gladly accepted it.  Chief, quit your whining.  Live with it.

As for councilman Zucal, it is time you quit playing games with the citizenry and admit that your fiscal knowledge is insufficient for the position you hold.  If you can’t understand that you can’t spend the city’s money without the ability to pay the bills, a situation that increases with every passing day, it may be time to reevaluate your position on city council.

 

 

New Philadelphia In Financial Difficulty

      There is a way to explain the difference between ignorance and stupidity.  If you don’t understand it before I explain it, you’re ignorant.  If you don’t understand it after I explain it, you’re stupid. 

      Earlier this year, non-union employees, excluding members of city council, were given three percent salary increases, the raises made retroactive to January of 2012 for elected officials.  Recently a similar salary proposal was brought before council, again by Mr. Zucal, with a retroactive clause which would pay the increases back to January of 2013.

      On November 12, a letter was sent to Mrs. Cox, Council Woman at Large, and Chairwoman of the Finance Committee, supposedly from Mayor Taylor.  The question of authorship arises from an interesting phrasing in the first line of the correspondence which states, “you asked if the mayor wanted to add salary increases for non-bargaining personnel to the Temporary Budget appropriations.”

It is unusual for someone to refer to himself by his title.  A member of royalty may refer to themselves as us, or we, but never as king or queen.  Could it be that the letter to Cox was ghost written, and sent to Cox by someone other than Taylor?

It stated that Cox asked the mayor if he wanted to add salary increases for non-bargaining personnel to the Temporary Budget for 2014.  Her minutes for the November 11 Finance Committee meeting call this scenario into question by reporting that following a discussion on Temporary Appropriations for 2014, Cox asked Mayor Taylor and Auditor Gundy for comments.  The Mayor had no comments.

However, the letter to Cox has an entirely different tone, one that speaks of salary increases to be made retroactive to January 1, 2013.  It goes on to say, “The Auditor can provide you estimates with the cost of implementing these increases in the Temporary Appropriations.  It has been stated that a recommendation should come from the Administration to address this issue.  You now have my recommendation,” that recommendation being increased salaries for the administrative and non-bargaining staff. 

A report from Auditor Gundy on the financial position of New Philadelphia indicates that the ending cash balance for 2013 will be $867,977, which on the surface may look good until it is understood that in 2012 the ending cash balance was $2,132,381, a difference of $1,264,404.  The auditor’s estimate of ending cash balance for 2014 is a $1,130,119 loss, for 2015 is a loss of $3,490,419, and the year-end loss for 2016 to be $6,253,677.

In spite of this, the writer of Mayor Taylor’s November 12 letter advocates granting salary increases to city employees who are not presently in unions.  In addition the writer wants the addition of a me-too clause for all employees which would specify that whatever favorable contract agreements are made to any employee group would automatically apply to all employees, regardless of position, who work for the city.  The cost would be more than the city could bear. 

Mayor Taylor confirmed his own position in a radio interview after the November 11 meeting when he stated that administrative personnel deserved salary raises of five percent and more because “they deserved them.”  What ever happened to earning a pay raise? 

Fiscal responsibility is totally lacking in the New Philadelphia administration.  The answer is to push the problem off onto other people, preferably onto people who are not responsible for the situation, or to underlings who can only assume blame and cannot fix it.  This is where New Philadelphia stands. 

Mayor Taylor is unable to take responsibility for the poor financial status of the city.  It is his job to make recommendations to solve problems in the city, not to pass them on to city council.  It is his job to put a budget together with which to run the city.  It is his responsibility to respond to his staff, city employees, citizens, and others, on matters of concern to the city, and bring those concerns to city council with his recommendations for their solution.  Administrative decisions lay with the mayor and his staff.  Legislative responsibilities belong in city council.

You can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility.  This is true in business, politics, family life, you name it.  And the ultimate responsibility for the condition of New Philadelphia politics and its financial situation lays with the New Philadelphia citizen.  You don’t explore the issues.  You don’t vote with a knowledge of the issues, or you don’t vote at all.  The situation the city is in is your fault because you don’t give a hoot about who is destroying your city, how they are doing it, and what this means to you. 

So where do you fit?  Ignorance?  Stupidity? 

You can make a difference.  Get involved.  Go to council meetings and make your voice heard.  Bug your council representatives and let them know how you feel.

I wonder who did write the November 12 letter.