Sunday, March 16, 2014

Council Pay Raise Slippery Slope


 http://medford.patch.com/groups/joe-vigliones-blog/p/what-the-city-council-doesnt-do-for-the-money-of-yours-they-take-for-themselves 


WHAT DOES PUBLIC SERVICE MEAN FOR THOSE GETTING PAID TO DO IT?

269-271 Spring St. Medford in Haines Square is a rickety rocky mess.  And it is also where the local office of State Rep Paul Donato happens to be.  Last night, going to the variety store next to Anthony's Liquors, it was appalling that the road which many Malden and Revere residents traverse is just a fractured mess.  Look at the crosswalks (or the lack thereof) in desperate need of paint.  The yellow line down the middle of Salem Street erased.
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And the Medford City Council handed itself a nice, fat pay raise.
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What a slippery slope are elected officials are on, including a freshman novice yet to display a solid vote on behalf of those who voted for him - when the Medford City Council immediately vote to give themselves a raise?

(Adam Knight hardly had nine council meetings under his belt, they skipped out on one because of snow!  And he votes himself a raise. Oh that sent a real good message, Adam.  A real good message.  The minute he gets into the council he votes to pay himself more money when he hasn't done a damn thing behind the rail just yet.

In the private sector you don't get a raise until you prove yourself. So what was this raise for?  Being good at running a campaign?  Since when do you get a raise for knowing how to campaign and not knowing how to govern; not knowing how to do the job you are being paid to do!

Remember that one, voters.  We'll remind you come election day!)

WHAT DOES PUBLIC SERVICE MEAN FOR THOSE GETTING PAID TO DO IT?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Bell_scandal

The City of Bell scandal is a scandal involving misappropriation of public funds in Bell, California over a period of several years in the late 2000s. In July 2010, two Los Angeles Times reporters, Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives, wrote an investigative journalism article on possible malfeasance in the neighboring city of Maywood, California. In their exposé, they revealed that the city officials of Bell (a small blue collar community) were receiving salaries that were reported as the highest in the nation.[5] Subsequent investigations found atypically high property tax rates, allegations of voter fraud in municipal elections and other irregularities which heightened the ensuing scandal.[6] These and other reports led to widespread criticism and a demand for city officials to resign.[7][8]
In February 2011, six city officials – Mayor Oscar Hernandez, City Council members Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal, and former council members Luis Artiga, George Cole and Victor Bello–pled not guilty to misappropriating public funds.[9]
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WHAT DOES PUBLIC SERVICE MEAN FOR THOSE GETTING PAID TO DO IT?

How can Adam Knight and Rick Caraviello, the freshman and the junior councilors - with residents so lacking in simple city services like crosswalks and road infrastructure - justify handing themselves a raise for services not rendered?  In the private sector they would be slapped with an MGL 93a letter for deceptive business practices.  It's a damn shame that - rather than have an independent thought - those puppets did what they were told and get oh so defensive about being called out on the carpet for it.

They seem to forget that they work for us and we didn't give them a raise.  They hijacked the raise.  Just two more immoral politicians swiping a pay raise because they can.
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WHAT DOES PUBLIC SERVICE MEAN FOR THOSE GETTING PAID TO DO IT?

Aberdeen mayor and city council raises not justified [editorial]

May 31, 2013|Editorial from The Record and The AegisWhat's the fair going rate to pay someone who has been elected to public office?
It's an open question, and one that needs to be asked often and, once settled for one generation, asked anew again for the next generation. These days it's being asked in Aberdeen, thanks to a proposal from the city's elected officialsto increase the rates of pay for the offices they hold.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-05-31/news/ph-re-ag-edit-raises-0531-20130530_1_government-off...
Famously, Ulysses S. Grant, after serving as president in the wake of his decisive role in helping preserve the Union in the Civil War, was far from set for life in his retirement. Struggling against cancer, but encouraged by Mark Twain, he penned his memoirs and secured a publishing deal to ensure those in his family he left behind wouldn't be left wanting.
In the early days of the republic, running for public office to take the responsibilities of government could more easily have been likened to volunteering to cut the grass or take out the garbage. Sure, there's always a level of prestige that goes with holding office, but many of the tasks associated with government aren't popular. Collecting taxes to pay for road repairs isn't glorious work.
A balance needs to be struck.
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WHAT DOES PUBLIC SERVICE MEAN FOR THOSE GETTING PAID TO DO IT?

This Tuesday night I will be asking the 7 City Councilors to rescind the Mayor's unethical, unnecessary and outrageous pay raise, as well as their own.

When this writer had the courage to say "The Mayor doesn't need the raise" one of the councilors - either Camuso or Caraviello - shot back "You don't know that."

Oh, really?  We DO know that.  Mayor McGlynn, with his daughters in the school system, his wife Sheila, his sister Bernadette McGlynn Davis, his brother-in-law Jonathan R. Davis (both on Governors Ave,) his brother Jack, his cousin John Granara, all very fat monetarily from the public sector, are all enjoying the spoils of a paltry victory, a disgraceful amount of votes to get into office for a city this size.  And they take thorough advantage of voter apathy and attempt to besmirch the messenger.

Those who don't listen to history are destined to make the same mistakes.  I'm talking about the voters, not the slimy politicians who abuse their positions to help themselves, not the city they are supposed to be fixing.

http://www.freep.com/interactive/article/20130915/NEWS01/130801004/Detroit-Bankruptcy-history-1950-d...

How Detroit went broke


Detroit is broke, but it didn’t have to be. An in-depth Free Press analysis of the city’s financial history back to the 1950s shows that its elected officials and others charged with managing its finances repeatedly failed — or refused — to make the tough economic and political decisions that might have saved the city from financial ruin.
Instead, amid a huge exodus of residents, plummeting tax revenues and skyrocketing home abandonment, Detroit’s leaders engaged in a billion-dollar borrowing binge, created new taxes and failed to cut expenses when they needed to. Simultaneously, they gifted workers and retirees with generous bonuses. And under pressure from unions and, sometimes, arbitrators, they failed to cut health care benefits — saddling the city with staggering costs that today threaten the safety and quality of life of people who live here.

WHAT DOES PUBLIC SERVICE MEAN FOR THOSE GETTING PAID TO DO IT?

Voters needs to write letters and come up to the Council and give a piece of their mind to these jokers.  But the residents appear to be afraid of retaliation.


WHAT DOES PUBLIC SERVICE MEAN FOR THOSE GETTING PAID TO DO IT?

Adam Knight, Rick Caraviello, Paul A. Camuso and especially fat-wallet Freedy, Fred Dello Russo Jr., are behaving more like Frank Pilleri, Harvey Alberg, Ronald Delucia and Arthur Deluca, writing out "expensive Christmas bonuses" for themselves as Deluca told Johnny Byers, "for doing a good job."  The good job was at taking advantage of the residents they had an obligation to serve.

No wonder Camuso, who gorged on access TV like some hungry little swine, kept the City Solicitor and Stephanie Burke from bringing up the tv 3 issue. Camuso runs the City Council the way Frank Pilleri ran a non-profit.  Into the ground.

WHAT DOES PUBLIC SERVICE MEAN FOR THOSE GETTING PAID TO DO IT?



What a slippery slope elected officials are on, including a freshman novice yet to display a solid vote on behalf of those who voted for him - when the Medford City Council immediately voted to give themselves a raise that was not based in services performed, but in pure gluttony.