(R) Allen, Janet F
(R) Boyce, Laurie J
(R) Clark, Charles L
(R) Flanders, Donald H
(R) Heald, Bruce D
(R) Millham, Alida I
(R) Nedeau, Stephen H
(R) Pilliod, James P
(R) Russell, David H
(R) Thomas, John H
(R) Tilton, Franklin T
(R) Tobin, William B
(R) Wendelboe, Fran
(D) Aresenault, Beth
(D) Morrison, Gail C
(D) Reever, Judith
(D) Wood, Jane
« September 2007 | Main | November 2007 »
Right To Know requests have now been filed with both the Town and the SAU for the information in this post. While this is no way mitigates the discussion that went on during last week's BudComm meeting, that data will be made available to the public for those that are too shy (fill in other adjectives here) to do so on their own.
Frankly, I may not stop there - there is the County and State levels too......
Let's see, what else is on my plate again?.......
This past week's BudComm meeting had a lively discussion as to whether or not the Town and School Board employee information (salary and burden information should be printed in the Town Report).
It seemed clear that there were two camps, and who were in which camp (listen to the entire meeting notes here). Dale is in the camp that believes it is not.
Opinion
It seems fairly clear that this would not be received well by town or school employees, and I think it's easy to understand why. Which of us would be happy if our incomes were posted for all to see?
Whether or my salary is posted or not is a strawman argument. That said, to be perfectly honest, I could care less if someone did - it doesn't matter to me, as it is what it is. I have come to that stage of life where salary is not the end-all-be-all that it used to be at the beginning of my career. It's not that it isn't important, but I learned a long time ago that letting one's career define you is a losing proposition for all other facets of your life (if you allow yourself to have a life outside of "career" - something that for many years, I did not).
Anyways, the fault with this argument is that I am not a public employee, and neither is Dale. We made the choice to be in the private sector - thus our income numbers are "private" (at least theoretically). It is a different case for public employees - that data IS public.
True, taxpayers are technically the employers, and have every right to have this data. But let's be clear about what we're talking about.Dale should have stopped at the first sentence...
And that is one of the primary differences between private and public sector employees. One expects to have the cloak of privacy envelope them - the other has made the decision to forgo that cloak. Unlike private sector employees that rely on the profit motive for a living (for if there is no profit, neither will there be jobs at some point), the public employees exist solely to work on behalf of the needs of the townfolk and are renumerated by the tax monies of the tax payers.
Total salary expenses for each department are already readily available to everyone (including right here on this site - just go to the 2008 Budget page, then click on the department, and on the budget spreadsheet for that department). And if you're not happy with a combined department salary number, you can head on down to town hall and ask for more detail.
Salaries make up about 60% of the budgets of the Town and the SAU (roughly). Dale's info is true enough if all you have interest in is in the aggregate. However, based on the simple Town Salary Comparison that the Budget Committee did last year (of which I was a part and posted it here at GilfordGrok), it was clear that a number of eyebrows were raised when the numbers were made public.
And if the townfolk are to make logical, rational decisions in the voting booth or in getting the attention of the Selectmen over the size of the payroll, that information has to be made available.
What we're talking about here is listing each individual name within each department, along with their salary, in the town's annual report booklet.I'll go further, as I want to know what each employee is costing:
The above should give a good picture as to how much an employee costs the taxpayers - information that any employer or manager needs to know in order to effectively manage the payroll part of the budget. Just as in materials or services costs, payroll costs need to be managed as well. While there are paid managers in place, the Selectmen and School Board are in place, and BudComm watching out, taxpayers should be reviewing the numbers as well to make sure that nothing is sliding out of line.
Given the response I got for posting the numbers last year of the comparison, there are those that believe some numbers are out of whack and need to be adjusted over time. It is very true that individual taxpayers have no say over an individual's salary - that is up to the Administration and Selectmen / School Board to set and administer. Don't like? Either get folks to agree with you and do some voting, or run for office and replace those with whom you disagree - that's how one can set policy. But not until.
The handful of Gilford residents who don't sleep well because they don't know exactly what Jane Doe in the Planning department is making will be spared a trip to town hall.
Is that worth it? Not in my opinion.
Dale's whole emphasis during the campaign was that some were being "divisive". Yet, is the above a "diss" on some citizens? Some of us on the BudComm know that there are those in town that want to see the info but for whatever reason, cannot muster up the courage to go to town hall and ask. That's why we want to ask the Selectmen to include it in the Town Report. By his own words, he does not.
Does he represent the townfolk and make government more open and transparent, or the folks that work for the townfolk?
Note: I also notice, that just like this blog site, Dale is now offering opinion now at his site. Way to go Dale!
Well, tonite was interesting, but not just for the budget review that was done.
This past Monday, Dick Hickok, Terry Stewart, and I met with Evans Juris and Deb Shackett to review the Admin budget - the summary that was presented is below. During tonight's meeting Dick did the review and it went fairly smoothly.
The complete audio of the meeting can be heard here.
Video here (and no, not much time was spent swiveling the camera around to watch the different speaker this week - better luck next time).
I am hoping that next week, we will live stream the entire meeting. If so, I'll put up an announcement before hand.
What was a bit controversal was the discussion around the idea of whether the Budget Committee should write a letter to the Selectmen asking that employee salary information be included in the annual Town Report. Reports from Loudon, Hampstead, and Hudson (small, medium, and large towns) showed that some include it as a matter of course.
There were some that were against the idea, taking the employee side. Others were advocating for the information to be presented for taxpayer review.
The letter idea was tabled for later discussion.
Yes, last Thursday was the kickoff of the Budget Committee season here in Gilford. Both Evans Juris and Deb Shackett did the overall presentation. While there are areas that will merit significant discussion, overall I was quite pleased that the overall proposed budget was less than last year's.
While the new Gilford Channel (CCTV of meetings and other goings ons in Gilford) is not quite ready, it soon will be. For me, that will be a great thing as being a working stiff, I cannot make it to the Selectmen meetings - but I can watch it on cable once and IF they do real time broadcasting (a ways away just yet).
Anyways, I'm doing some experimenting. Since we moved GraniteGrok and GilfordGrok (and our other web sites) from shared servers to a dedicated server at our hosting company (basically from our sites being on any server in their "farm" to one I could actually point to), we get to try some things.
One is that I tried some video/audio recording of pretty much most of the presentation with a decent webcam. Much of it is kinda run of the mill stuff - nothing earth shattering, nothing controversial. While the meeting was also taped with a camcorder, I decided just to see what might happen.
Well, look here for yourself. Audio is just OK. Video? Well, let's just say that nothing ventured, nothing gained (WARNING! It is 136MB in size - if your player does not start streaming it, it may take a while, based on your connection speed, to download). While it works fairly well for recording Meet The New Press, not so much for people standing further away. Oh well, time to look for something better.
Also, we may start live streaming at least the audio of the meeting sometime soon. Stay tuned!
There is a word that engineers use a lot when confounded by a situation, or when things aren't quite going right, or when they believe the scenario placed into their lap is going to require rational thinking, a bit of luck, and lots of unpaid overtime.
That word is "interesting"
I think that may be the operative word going into our analysis, information gathering, decision making, and presentations (did I forget a bit of politicking?).
Anyways, as we start to review the budget, keep the following in mind; from InflationData.com:
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The following press release was issued by the town of Gilford:
The Gilford Police Department voted yesterday to be represented by Teamsters Local 633 of NH.
The vote was held yesterday afternoon and was conducted under the supervision of the NH Public Employees Labor Relations Board.The Gilford Board of Selectmen was informed yesterday after the voting concluded by Town Administrator Evans Juris.
This is the second union to form in Gilford with the first being formed by the Public Works Department, who is represented by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 534.
The Town will be beginning negotiations with both groups shortly. The current Public Works contract expires March 31, 2008.
October 5, 2007
