It was an unbelievable event to have Mr. Thornton request a $ 3,390.40 raise for Ms. Kern. The odd amount not with standing. There is not one person by and large right now that I am aware of that deserves even the $728. so called "longevity" raise. The staff has been paid right up to what would appear as much as they are worth and in in many cases much above when one gets too the Department Heads/ major assistants such as Ms. Kern. We MUST pay what P'burg pays even if it is three times as large.
The report in the local news (oxymoron), stated it was $5,432 for the City news letter for a year. Again, I noted it was $5,432/ per quarter for 5200 copies. So would be $21 Thousand and change for the year. Lot of money to advise either the 47% or the deplorables depending on one's actual condition in life?
And Mr. Rapp was so cute to talk about reducing some of his budget, but oh by the way, since I am now driving my vehicle (seems a big truck for a little fella?) and need an additional $600 for gas. The beauty of this is that he can be all over the place charging the gas back to the City while doing who knows what? This type of thing IF and I repeat IF not properly monitored is a quick slide into corruption no matter how small the supposed amount. And who would monitor it- Mr. Rapp? RIGHT.
The real highlight of the evening was Mr. Harris of the Parks Department. He came in for a mini excavator and trailer. One of the new City Council Members had apparently been doing his homework and asked a leading question. That being "didn't we buy one last year (or year before- my comment), that was to be divided up on cost with the VUB? Mr. Harris than began the Vienna two step where he noted he could not get it from the VUB enough because of the emergency water line breaks. Apparently without the mini excavator, VUB cannot now repair broken pipes? Wonder what they used in the past? Hand shovels or maybe the sand buckets and shovels that get thrown around all the time when one is not getting his/ her way? Let me ask but what if a pipe breaks while the Park Department is using it? Rush to that Parks job site and shut it down or maybe, just maybe, send out the back hoe? Too much money, no one monitoring and the wasting of Tax Dollars each year. Same old scams each and every year with same music, different lyrics at Parks.
The usual system be it private or public is to have a few that are the "water carriers" and make sure things get done even if not exactly in their area of responsibility. Now all I can seem to see are a bunch of drones? Are there any "water carriers" left, I don't know anymore? Mr. Rapp has seemingly lobotomized the whole crew?
The meeting on Thursday night was the end for the City itself and the NGOs will be in on the 29th. It will be interesting to see how and who wants more money from the City?
I found it interesting that in a recent Poll that 81.16% expect Mr. Justice to raise taxes. Now, only 69 people responded to the Poll, but it shows many could smell the coffee? Sometimes, one has to be careful of what they wish (vote) for, they may get it?
And the Our Opinion column notes that Mr. Justice had changed his mind on cutting the budget. He is absolutely correct at this point that " we won't be able to climb out of this ditch until we really dive into the books to find cuts and cost saving measures". His problem to start with is that the Audit Office is not anyone I would send out to check anything if they did it the way they say they do annual audits?
The Legislative accounting team folks that dropped the dime on the excessive expenses that they alluded too in the transportation of deceased people was a good start. Now some in the local new media seem to think the problem is all in the was the State processes billings? There is for sure a lot of Truth in that as the more layers, the more screw ups and delays. But for anyone to think that some of the folks doing the transporting and have not figured out how to scam the system are naive' in their own right. People are kept honest by checks and balances that are USED. Not just Laws on the books.
It was an eye opener to me but not totally unexpected to find out that in 1980, we had 130 bureaucrats looking over 500,000 students and today have about 1,300 doing the same for 250,00 students. There is a MINIMUM of 200 people to start with that can be encouraged in their new careers. Maybe get their fannies DOWN into a front line teaching position at THAT LEVEL of PAY only.
I see where Mr. Wells is pushing Jazz and Ribs Festival again. Not sure WHO he is talking too about doing it again here in the area. It was sadly a dismal failure here in Vienna. But with all the money and no common sense on Tax Dollars, do not be surprised if Vienna again funds some or all. 'nuff said'.