Letter-writer finds GilfordGrok a helpful tool.
The following letter has appeared in the local papers. He writes that he found GilfordGrok to be helpful as he tries to understand the town's budget and why his taxes keep going up. This sentiment is certainly nice to hear, as this is why Skip and I created GilfordGrok- to be a place for ordinary citizens to find information on all things Gilford, free from the filter of the local "main stream media".
Addressed to the editor, GilfordGrok,.As I was searching for information about the Gilford salary debate, I found a web site that had a lot of helpful information. ( gilfordgrok.com ) This site has figures from credible sites for anyone to confirm. Or if you don’t have the countless hours to compile and compare this enormous amount of information, you could trust that our elected officials on the budget committee have "accurately informed" us! This site also has the letter from the selectmen, also elected officials, questioning the validity of the budget committees report. If , in fact, all of our "elected" selectmen feel the need to chastize the committee taxpayers have elected, and intrusted, to oversee spending, we have more problems than out of control spending. I would think the civil thing to have done would be to have privately compared notes instead of slamming the budget committee in the local newspapers for doing their job. It is quite embarrassing. One would assume that the people on the budget committee must be, at least, a little offended. Even IF the figures were a little off, it’s clear to see our town employees are over paid for their responsibilities..
It would appear that when an employee leaves the town that many times the new employee is brought in at the same, or close to the same salary as his predecessor. This may explain why our town administrator with about two years on the job is fourth highest, at $89,542.00, to the 30 or so towns compared. Lets not forget that he also has a fourth ranking assistant at $70,570.00. This may not be the explanation. I don’t believe anyone can even begin to explain the mega salary of our school superintendent! I DO know that my taxes are out of control..
Again the site gilfordgrok.com may help you come to your own conclusion about the generous salaries, don’t forget benefits, of our town employees..
Doug Plummer, Gilford
And we appreciate Mr. Plummer's kind words about this site. And his thoughts on the wage issue here in town!
Comments
I have seen many posts and informational news articles as to some salaries of town employees. Is there a list of town employees and their salaries available to be found anywhere? We receive the list of assessments every year and the information on taxpayer's properties is fully accessible at Town Hall. Would having this salary information posted be any invasion of privacy? It seems that there is a right to know issue here. The current papers are all full of stories on the right to know. Do taxpayers have a right to know who is getting payed what and just not what high profile salaries are?
Posted by: Tim Sullivan | August 26, 2007 01:50 PM