An Alderman's Notion of "Sharing in the Sacrifice"
This is a follow-up to my August blog entry titled “Alderman Ament’s Antics”.
In June, for “budgetary reasons”, the New Berlin Common Council approved a maximum of four unpaid furlough days for city workers.
At a July meeting, Alderman Ament presented a Requested Action Statement (RAS), which contended that the mayor and aldermen should take the equivalent of furlough days by having each alderman refund $26.96 for a day of furlough and the mayor refund $322.24. Ald. Ament argued that the aldermen and mayor should “share in the sacrifice” being required of city employees.
All four unpaid furlough days were imposed in 2009.
Mayoral and Aldermanic Salaries
Comparison data of city executive pay was published last week in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. By city executive, they mean mayor/village president and city administrator/manager. Unlike some other cities, New Berlin does not employ a city administrator. It relies on its mayor to perform those duties.
Among the suburban communities listed, New Berlin’s had the second lowest city executive pay-$83,772. (Greenfield at $73,472 was lowest.) However, Greenfield’s mayor appears to have more generous fringe benefits/expense allowance than New Berlin’s) According to the chart, the mayor of Greenfield gets full benefits plus $300/month expenses; $200/month mileage. New Berlin’s mayor receives health benefits; no vacation or sick days; $100/month expenses.
Click here to view the Journal Sentinel’s chart of comparison data.
Poshepny's Back on the Council
When elected officials become ill or injured for awhile during their term in office or are deployed to foreign lands to serve their country--- and consequently are absent from meetings-- their constituents tend to be tolerant of it.
But when government bodies deny citizens representation, that is truly intolerable.
Re: Protecting Children
Shouldn't our state legislators do their utmost to protect children?
Sen. Mary Lazich’s Conservatively Speaking blog post yesterday (Sunday, January 17) titled Protecting children, refers to child care scams, the Wisconsin Shares program and fraud, reports of child-care centers connections to drug operations.
Kids & Technology
In 2000, New Berlin Public Schools Superintendent James Benfield recommended slashing the District’s technology budget to help pay for the 5-year Facility Capital Improvement Plan he presented.
Dr. Benfield would not have suggested such a drastic cut if he’d considered technology of great educational value and importance.
NB Web Site Ads--the Rest of the Story
At its January 12 meeting, the Council discussed allowing advertisements on the official City of New Berlin Web site.
Perhaps you saw the subsequent Jan. 19 Journal Sentinel news story headlined “New Berlin seeks Web revenue.”
