At the last Board of Selectman meeting, Town Manager, Russ Dean, dumped a new pay plan on the Selectmen telling them they needed to approve it to be retroactive to July 7th. No explanation, no questions asked. He did offer that for the half year it would cost an additional $5,000 above budgeted pay raises and $10,000 for an entire year. He gave no explanation where in his budget he had built in slack to cover these costs. Oh, wait. Forgot about the $250,000 extra money in the budget that the Selectmen let him keep when looking to lower the 2014 budget.
There is a pattern here where Dean continues to ask the Selectmen to approve unbudgeted expenditures. Also on Monday night he asked the Board to approve spending an additional $3,350 on the Reynes Barn roof, an item that was buried in the 2014 budget, the previously floated warrant article having been defeated by voters.
On the subject of the pay plan one might ask why a new one? Have employees, in general, reached the maximum in their salary range necessitating a new plan? Are our employees being fairly compensated compared to similarly sized towns, or is an adjustment needed? It certainly would be refreshing if Dean spent as much time using some creativity and innovation to find ways to save the Town money to offset all the increases he conjures up.
It amazes me that there seems to be a complete breakdown in the use of common sense in our town, state, and federal governments' decisions. I have suspected for a number of years that most of our citizens and government employees must be on over-the-counter and/or prescription drugs. I realize that we have a stress-filled society here in New Hampshire and the U.S.and a lot of us have taken to use of legal drugs to relieve stress or help us forget our troubles. Our governments and the employees of these civil services need to start making good decisions and the citizens who elect or appoint the layers of bureaucrats and managers need to stop taking these drugs in order to do so. Our judgements are obviously impaired when we elect unqualified, spineless officals. This is one of tne conclusions I can come up with as to why our country is going downhill as each day dawns. Let us start in electing new town officials.
ReplyDeleteJust reviewed the following union contracts: SEIU Local 1984 - 1.50% COLA increase July 1, 2014 and 2015. Exeter Professional Firefighters’ Association Local 3491 - 1.00% COLA increase July 1, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Exeter Police Association contracted ended 11:59 pm December 31, 2013.
ReplyDeletePerhaps there is additional monies in the Police budget under salaries as negotiations reached impasse.
A careful review of the pay plan will reveal that salaries are within range established in 2009.