QUOTE(Robert Giacometti @ Feb 10 2007, 01:43 PM)
Your comments are right on, IMHO!
Anybody who knows anything at all of what has been happening these past years knows full well the cloak of secrecy and questionable deals that have transpired. Anyone who tries to ask questions gets castigated!
The Affordable Housing issue still affects us today....NO one has a true understanding of the huge far reaching affects this issue has had on our community all because leadership didn't have the will to make new development provide their share of affordable housing. Instead, existing neigborhoods are being forced to accept the share that new development should have provided!
The sale ( GIVEAWAY) of the land next to HS, without opening it up to all possible bidders is all linked to the Affordable Housing isssue.
The Firefighters & Library staff all tried to raise issues, but we the citizens collectively didn't assist them when they needed it most and we the citizens were going to be the beneficiaries of their efforts!
I see so many good activists, from both sides of the aisle here on the forum, it is extremely puzzling to me why more aren't up in arms about what has transpired?
The notion of government operating in an environment of transparency is one of the fundamental roots of being a taxpayer. There are times when it may be uncomfortable for those individuals working in the public sector to accept that compensation is being afforded by the community at large - but it is reality in its’ truest sense. The taxpayers drive the City of Folsom, not the other way around.
Kerri states “Mr. Miller’s salary and benefits are public information – anybody out there who works in the private sector want to post their salary and benefits on this website?”
This remark is problematic in a couple of regards:
First: We all have bosses, whether they be business owners or share holders. There is always somebody out there paying our salary. Compensation figures are widely known amongst shareholders and owners of the company – even if the shareholders or the owners are not directly involved in the day-to-day management of the company. The taxpayers of the City of Folsom are in fact the owners and share holders of the City. If council or employees are not comfortable with this then perhaps a move to private sector is in order.
Second: Neither Mr. Miller’s salary nor any of his predecessors compensation packages were ever truly public information. Yes, the City does release bits and pieces so as to appear to be compliant, but the whole picture is never released (see previous posts where this is covered in more depth). If the City was treating compensation as public information then any one on this post could contact the personnel department and request this information. Give it a shot and see how far you get.
Kerry’s response was telling in terms of what it did not disclose. Never did we hear about actual vacation accrual (“I do not have the contract in front of me”). Never did we hear about the bank of vacation time that Mr. Miller was afforded when he started. I.e., most high-level managers start with a bank of hours – many as high as 300 hours, which can be bought down to zero at any time. Never did we hear about admin time accrual (admin time is given to management employees in lieu of working overtime and works just like vacation time). Past City Manager’s generally accrued 80 – 120 hours per year of admin time. Never did we hear about the dollar amount the City pays toward health, dental, vision, life, ltd and deferred compensation.
And most importantly, never did we hear in any depth about the sins of past City Managers. The closest we came was: “Mr. Miller accrues vacation at a lower rate than Martha Lofgren and a much lower rate than Mike Frost.”
Hiding compensation was an art form with the City officials. It was not uncommon for top City officials to have W2 earnings that were often times 30-40% greater than the salaries reported to independent consultant. We all use to giggle a little when we would see the salary numbers posted in the paper. The feeling was always one of: ‘gosh if they only knew how much money we were really making we would all end up on Terminal Island.’
A past City Manager once described working at Folsom as “the wild west.” It is up to the taxpayers to press on this issue. Government must be accountable
