Councilman explains his vote

Councilman explains his vote

As a member of city coun- cil, I voted in favor of an ordinance restoring pay cuts in the city of Struthers. The ordinance had two distinct parts to it: establish base salaries for all department heads and key city officials and to address the unsatisfactory performance of the auditor.

Base salaries needed to be established for several positions within the city. We had a police and fire chief that were nearing retirement after 25 years of service and we felt the new chiefs should not be coming in at their predecessor’s exiting salary.

If a teacher retires after 30 years in the school district the new teacher doesn’t start at the higher rate. Nurses, GM employees, YSU professors all start at a base salary when they take positions held by long term employees.

Mr. Stocker’s salary was not cut. Mayor Mamula worked hard for 16 years to earn his salary. Mr. Stocker’s salary was going to increase, moving from the position of council-at-large to the position of mayor. Mr. Stocker’s experience on council did not include writing state/federal grants, negotiating police/fire contracts, being educated in brownfield redevelopment and many of the other duties which go along with the day to day operations of running the city.

The section of the ordinance addressing the auditor was an issue of performance. Payroll errors, budgeting problems and an overall lack of communication with council members all lead to the need to send a message to the auditor. Ms. Morell constantly complained her office was not automated and she had to do several things by hand which lead to some of the errors. She was asked to present council with a proposal to update computers and software, and it never happened.

One example of the magnitude of some of the errors included over paying a Worker’s Compensation premium by $55,000. In the real world a controller making this type of error would be fired or at least demoted from their position. As an elected official, we didn’t have the ability to fire or demote.

The decision was far past the fact of liking Ms. Morell or not. When pushed to explain an issue Ms. Morell retreated and stopped communicating with council. Then, council would be accused of picking on her. Ms. Morell may be a nice person who is active with the Mom’s Club or Democratic Women’s Group, but it doesn’t mean she has the skills necessary to run an $8 million dollar corporation like the city of Struthers.

Paul Garchar, Struthers