Martian Man is on the button

Boardman Township Administrator Jason Loree has received a whopping $11,000 raise, bringing his annual salary to $80,000. Not bad for a guy who got his government job a decade ago on the strength of his experience as a sandwich maker.

So, how do the township trustees justify such questionable spending of taxpayer dollars?

Long-time township fiscal officer William Leicht pointed out that Loree’s $80,000 salary is in line with the state average for similar positions in comparable communities. Leicht told Vindicator Reporter Jordyn Grzelewski that other large townships pay their administrators between $90,000 and $115,000.

That may be so, but it still doesn’t negate the fact that Loree got his job because of his family connections – his grandfather who died recently was the creator of the Sandwich Factory shops. And that whatever experience he has garnered has been paid for by the public. It’s called on-the-job training.

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that he got on the township’s payroll with no discernible qualifications to manage one of the largest township in Ohio.

But there is one aspect of his background that may provide the justification for his whopping raise: He’s the township’s Martian Man.

One starry night in the summer of 2009, Loree was taking out the trash when he saw a collection of orange lights above his Boardman home.

“They were in a diagonal pattern,” he told The Vindicator’s reporter at the time, Denise Dick. There was no sound coming from the light source

“I went in and got my wife and she saw them, and I called my mom, and she saw them, too.”

Hovering

The thing hovered for a few minutes before disappearing.

“I’ve seen a lot of different aircraft – I’m not an expert – but I’ve not seen anything like it,” the administrator told Dick. The lights seem to be rising from the horizon, he added.

Now for the rest of the story.

In December 2009, a poster to The Vindicator’s message board recounted a similar sighting of a lighted object in the sky.

What the message board poster did not know is that the craft he saw was the same one Loree had spotted during the summer. The Martians had returned from outer space to make contact with the man they had seen carrying out the trash.

They landed in his backyard and knocked on his door.

“We come in peace,” they said.

Loree invited them in and offered them something to eat and drink. The sandwiches he made were an instant hit. They asked for take out.

And from that day forth, Loree and the Martians have bonded. And unbeknownst to him, they did something very special for their new friend: They secretly implanted micro computer chips in the skulls of trustees Larry Moliterno, Tom Costello and Brad Calhoun and fiscal officer Leicht. Thus, every time they mention Loree’s name, only nice things about him come out of their mouths.

Thus, when they decided to give him the $11,000 pay raise, it was actually the Martians’ mind control at work.

That’s the only plausible explanation for the $80,000 salary Loree is now raking in, thanks to Moliterno, Costello and Calhoun.

Not only isn’t there justification for any public employee in the Mahoning Valley to receive such a huge raise, but as Moliterno told The Vindicator Editorial Board last year when he was seeking re-election, Boardman Township government had to deal responsibly with its finances. The budget had taken a $3 million hit, and Moliterno was well aware that without responsible governance, the township could again face fiscal problems of the past.

“I wanted to establish a transparent government that operated as a business, developing long-term sustainable solutions, not knee-jerk, rash decisions,” he said.

The newspaper strongly endorsed Moliterno because he promised good leadership, a forward-looking strategic plan for the township and the biggest bangs for the taxpayer dollars.

Giving Loree a $11,000 raise is contrary to what the trustee had pledged.

The argument will be made – as it always is when public employees hit the jackpot of taxpayer dollars – that Boardman would risk losing its administrator if he weren’t wined and dined – in a manner of speaking.

Here’s a reality check for the trustees and any other officeholders in the region who try to justify the exorbitant salaries paid to public employees: Government is the goose that’s laying golden eggs by dozens. These so-called public servants aren’t going anywhere because many of them serve not on the basis of qualifications and experience, but political connections and relationships.

It’s a rough world of work out there – not the cake walk that’s the public sector in the Mahoning Valley.

The biggest challenge facing our hard-working public employees is how to avoid the pitfalls of bribery and corruption that have landed many of their colleagues in prison.