Council fixes its mistake
Council fixes its mistake
Certainly Youngstown City Council and Mayor Jay Williams should be commended for recognizing their error in November by approving an overly generous three-year package of pay raises for about 100 city managers. But passage of the legislation was wrong on so many levels that neither council nor the mayor should get much of a pat on the back for correcting their mistake.
It was interesting to see the mayor explain that he wasn’t responding to public criticism — or, heaven forfend, a newspaper editorial — when he proposed legislation to rescind two years of the three year pay package. He was, he explained, never comfortable with the raises, and an eventual epiphany spurred him toward corrective action.
His own words are available in a Dec. 26 posting on his blog, mayorjaywilliams.blogspot.com. He said, in part: “However, the opportunity to set the tone and change the precedent as it relates to the overall cost of government is enormous. It is critical to establish a foundation upon which we can more effectively manage personnel costs which typically can exceed 75 percent of governmental expenditures. As leaders we must be willing to set new precedents and send new messages ...”
In other words ...
That strikes us as a kinder, gentler (and slightly longer) way of saying what we wrote Dec. 2 about the never-ending cycle of public pay increases: “These [management] raises will set a pattern for demands by union employees the next time around, and so it will go. ... Someone has to take the lead in putting a stop to this perversion of public service.”
If the mayor’s explanation for his decision to rescind the 4.5 percent and 3 percent pay raises managers would have gotten in 2009 and 2010 was a little wordy, the explanations from some council members were scary. In short, they didn’t understand how much the raises could cost or how high some of the salaries would go.
Six of the seven council members will be gone within a matter of days. So here’s some advice for the new members: If you don’t understand the financial implications of a piece of legislation, don’t vote for it. And if you haven’t had time to read a piece of salary legislation, don’t take that taxpayer-funded trip to New Orleans the week before the vote, as five councilmen did in November. Stay home and concentrate on earning the $27,817 you’re paid for your part-time job on council, and it will be less likely that you’ll need legislative do-overs.