Wednesday, April 17, 2013

City Manager's Pay Raise: To late to complain, you have had plenty of chances.


What happened last night, in awarding the city manager with a $40k pay increase, is our local government followed the established rules for awarding pay increases.  That the public now, after the fact, feels that the increase was out of touch with the local economy. A little too late if you ask me.

This is what you get when you have an electorate who can best be described as passive.  You get politicians who are not looking out for you, the taxpayer, constituent, but are looking for the easy way out in the deal making process that is governance in these United States.  An example of this is that not one council person voted against this raise.  I am not saying the raise was too much or too little, that is not the point here.  What I am saying is there was no, none, nada, descent among the council.  All seven representatives agreed that the raise was appropriate and commensurate with the duties of city manager for the City of Laredo.   The easy way out.

Our city council is not held to any standards by the community.  Don't believe me.  Ask yourself this question, and be honest:  Did I do everything I could to find out what the city council candidate I was voting for planned on doing when they got into office?  Did I know how the candidate I was voting for would represent me on different issues?  Did I demand a debate between candidates, and did I participate?  If you answered no to all these questions, then you are the problem, not the person who voted for the raise.

If our city council persons can pull the wool over the eyes of just enough people to get elected to their seat, which is not very many given the size of this city, we will never have any better governance than we have now.

You ask how a city council can give a city manager a 21% increase in pay?  Well, how can a city council allow the police and fire unions to run the police and fire departments.  How can we as a city spend over 60% of our budget on fire and police protection?  How can we allow our roads to be half completed?  How can we allow our water and sewer lines to deteriorate to where they are today?   How can we allow bid rigging?  How can we allow a person who wishes to file an ethics complaint be intimidated by the city's website?  How can we allow city council persons be allocated a "discretionary" (sluch) fund of millions of dollars to use how they deem fit in their districts (of course the expenditures are voted on by the whole council, but it is just a cursory vote)?   I am sure you can come up with a list of statements about the city that you can preface with the words, "How can we allow a city council that.......(fill in the blanks).

I will tell you how we let this happen.  Only a few people pay attention to politics when it is election time.  Then they forget about politics until something drastic comes up, like this raise.  Yet, if you followed the council and knew what they were doing full time, you would not be surprised when these type of events happen. We, with a few exceptions, ever write letters to the editor to complain about these types of issues.  Maybe that has something to do with fear of reprisal.  But still is no excuse in a democratic republic.  We have low expectations of our politicians.  We never ask them to excel.  We only ask that they do what we want done for us personally, after that, we lose interest.

You may be saying that the city council will not change, the city manager will not change, and there is nothing I can do that will fix any of this.  Well I say you are wrong.  You must stand up for what you believe and let people know how you feel on an issue.  Write that letter to the editor, call the television station you get your news from and let them know how you feel.  Check out the local alternative media, blogs, websites, talk shows and let them know how you feel.

But most important, you must let your council person know how you feel.  You can call or email them.  Their cell phone numbers and individual emails are listed on the City of Laredo webpage.

PS:  A 21 percent pay increase given that our city leadership has been cutting third party funding, and complaining about lack of funds to do this and that, is out of line with our financial climate.  And especially since the non-union employees got such a small wage increase.

Secondly, the methodology is lacking in the way the salary was arrived at.  In order to do an apple to apples comparison of wages, you need to look at the following:


  1. Talent availability
  2. When comparing city to city, you must look at ( and not limited to):
    1. population
    2. $ amount of budget
    3. median family income 
  3. Any specialized requirements for the position of manager, ie, bilingual, specific degree, specific knowledge requirements, etc.
Once you compare these things that a city requires and consist of, then you can look a comparing city A with city B and so fourth.  Any one of the listed items alone does not give you a true comparison, but in quantity they do.




16 comments:

  1. We get the government we deserve. You're right, we can't all complain when we're not paying attention.

    And I agree with you that everybody should contact their respective council member to voice a concern. With the whole world having a cell phone, it's so easy to get your point across.

    About a year ago I texted Alex Perez and complained about him voting in unison with all the other council members. He said that council does that to support each other, and that when he has a project that comes before the council, he expects everybody to be on board; A quid pro quo of sorts.

    The only person that I know that would speak out against things was Dr. Michael Landeck. But you don't see that now. I guess no one wants to rock the boat.

    I still text some council members and the mayor. Some just don't reply, and some thank you for your comments. Something needs to change.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It will take a different kind of political leader than Laredo is used to to make the needed changes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah something needs to happen. Lets comment on each others blog to make us seem really important. Then we should comment on it with bullet points to make it seem like we are on top of the current climate. Then we can thank the 3 people who actually took the time to comment on our blog. Or let's get VIDA involved so that our "causes" can be positioned prominently in the back of our council persons radar. Yeah. Lets do that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So let's see if I have your comment correct, you have no opinion on what we are talking about. You are only concerned that KR and I occasionally comment on each others blogs. And you don't like bullet points.

      If you really have read my post in the past, I judge what VIDA does on the merits of what they are arguing for or against.

      PS, blogs are not measured by commentors, they are measured by traffic...and I assure you, that Wake Up Laredo is read by many more than three people. And I know LaSanbe is read by many more people than Wake Up Laredo.

      Many of us bloggers in Laredo share links so we can make it easy for people to get varying opinions on different topics. You obviously don't like that.

      Delete
    2. Oh no. I do have an opinion on this. The fact of the matter is that I believe CV deserves the pay increase. However, once that is said then I become the person to hate against. Just look at the comment below. "Go shine the city managers shoes.". CV is the CEO of a large mid-level city with a multi million dollar budget. Should we just put some average Joe in there and pay him 60k a year. You and KR are free to blog about whatever you like. I find the blogs very amusing. The comments sections are especially funny. Like when your readers point out that "all" politicians are worthless. Or that this person or that person makes too much money.
      Message to My fellow Laredoans....there are jobs where you can make more than 60k a year here in town. You don't have to criticize those who earn more than you do as being undeserving.
      And finally I seriously doubt you have much traffic but ok. I'll assume there are more than 3 people who actually read these blogs.
      P.S to X Laredo Onda.... Posting as anon is the same as x laredo Onda. No one knows or cares who the hell you are either. Another high and mighty poser.

      Delete
  4. Nice try brown-nose you sure get around from blog to blog. Now go and shine the city manager's shoes like a good boy or is it girl.

    KR Tom, what do you say about recalling a councilman to send a message. I'm sure there's plenty of grounds for that and it would only take 10 percent of the voters in that district that voted last time.

    We can get the lowest-votes and recall that one. They all vote the same way anyway so one would be as good as the other. I'm thinkin this is not a very popular option but it's an option.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Recalls are a valid political tool to remove a person the voters feel is not representing their issues the way they think they should be. It takes a petition of 10% of the number of people that voted in the last election. They must be residents of the district in question.

      Once the petition is validated a special recall election is called.

      Delete
    2. They vote all the same because Carlos has them in his pocket. He takes them all on vacation, to New York, Washington, Mexico City and all get rolexes from E, Garza, and when they go to P Island it is for his account.

      Delete
  5. "Where you going William"? "I'm going to pick a fight!" "Well, what should we do then"? "Just be yourselves." "I'm glad we didn't get dressed up for nothing."

    I believe in those who believe in something and are not afraid or intimidated by outside influences,,, especially when it comes to Justice and the greater good. Apathy's hold on this city has done enough damage. When people are elected based on how good the "carnuca" was or whether the free beer served was canned or bottled,,, well you get what you vote for.

    It is also funny is how "raza" over here,,, jumps in to fight under the moniker ANONYMOUS. ANON's mildly clever approach it illicit a specific response from the blog keeper was merely that “mildly clever”. It offered no tangible evidence in support of or any intelligent argument against the original subject matter. The best offering was a cheap shot at gender placement. Must have worked on that one all day.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, I just a discussion with a gentleman from Brownsville on Alex Perez's Facebook post of the recent poll on plastic bags. It seems there is a push to consider the Brownsville ordinance a "reduction" in plastic bags and not a "ban". Brownsville let's shoppers use plastic bags, if they pay a $1 tax per bag,which goes into a clean-up fund.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think Laredo will have it's day in the bag debate very soon. I believe the environmental group is getting close to proposing an ordinance.

      Delete
    2. Chris, I just added a few comments on Alez Perez's FB page myself. Thanks for the heads up.

      Delete
  7. Thanks for the blog first time on good stuff

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Robert...

      Delete
    2. I agree. Great points. Laredo needs to wake up and speak up. Thanks for pointing us in the right direction. I was not exactly sure how I, as a voter, could express my disapproval for the outlandish behavior that has been going on in our city.

      Delete
  8. The things that we (as city employees) could say.. would fry your brain.
    Did you know ... that a certain department head demands to be the ONLY emergency contact after hours? (micromanaging?)..and that he never answers his city issued cellphone? or door? yes, we have to go that point .. sending someone to find him in the middle of the night.

    or, that another department... will NOT respond to calls, even though they are ON call?

    or another department .. is so decimated of employees that the the overtime budget is out of control?

    the list is endless.
    but so is retaliation .. so we quietly look for other jobs and keep quiet.

    ReplyDelete