Move over Otto and Arnold, there's a new guy in town ready to wield the freeze gun.
It's Hillsborough Township Mayor Frank DelCore!
He already got the public works employees, department heads, and non-union employees to freeze their salaries for 2010.
Now he has performed his cryogenic magic on the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3697, Council 73 (AFSCME), freezing off 2.5 hours of each work week, saving Hillsborough Taxpayers an additional $77,000.
No word yet on whether he plans to turn anyone into a Frosty Freezie.
Hi Greg, are you suggesting they shouldn't be frozen? Seems (most of) the rest of the world has had no raises (or worse, lost their jobs) over the past couple of years.
ReplyDeleteWhy should public employees be entitled to raises? I'm not knocking the employees - I find Hillsborough public employees to be lovely and believe they do a great public service to the residents of this town; but when times are tough...
I suppose one alternative would be for Frank to lay off a bunch of people and give others raises...or he could raise taxes...
Hi cd - I think the township freezes and reductions are to be applauded, but of course the real kudos need to go the employees themselves who voluntarily came forward to save their jobs, and, consequently, the quality of life in Hillsborough.
ReplyDeleteI agree entirely. Great job to those employees that volunteered! They are heroes in my book. And they should know that in better times their sacrifice will not be forgotten. Now if only the teachers union would go away and give teachers the right to speak again. I think our teachers would also agree to a freeze for one year and agree to pay 1.5% of their salary to health care. Their only other option is to see more of their colleagues disappear which will mean they will be working harder for those pay raises they decided to keep.
ReplyDeleteI’m hoping our mayor can do what our school board and superintendent could not.
Same goes for the administrators. They too need to share the sacrifice. Did the BOE ask the superintendent to take a pay freeze? I’m sure he can survive for a year at his current salary. Maybe they did and he said no. In that case, you should have a picture of him slowly turning into Scrooge… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BarksScrooge.jpg
ReplyDeleteHi Mike - thank you for your comments.
ReplyDeleteIt is not proper for me to discuss BoE issues here, but I can tell you that all of the non-union employees in the district basically work one year contracts with no built-in pay increases. The contract year ends June 30. That is absolutely all I can say in this type of forum. I am sure you understand.
Thanks Greg.
ReplyDeleteI understand…sort of. I was hoping you’d keep your BoE election blog going as it seemed to be a great way for a BoE member to collaborate with their constituents. I know that this blog helped me decide to vote for you. You are the only incumbent that was reelected and I wonder if others based their decision on this blog as well. That might sound silly to some but in a world of corruption, whether it’s real or perceived, knowing that the person you elected to be your voice appears to be an ordinary guy is all it takes to give you the advantage.
I’ve heard rumors that our own Peter Biondi has a weekly or monthly (don’t recall schedule) appearance at a local convenience store in the town. He “hangs out” there and chats with whoever wants to have a conversation about anything regarding our State. What a great idea! He’s found a way to informally talk to his constituents. Wouldn’t it be great if he took in all the information, made a decision on what he thinks his constituents would want him to do and votes in that manner? He would block out whether it would be what his biggest campaign contributor would want. He would block out whether it’s what his Republican friends want him to do. It seems so simple, especially on the local level.
If I were running for local government or BoE I’d make it a point to find a way to talk to as many townspeople as possible and base my vote solely on the opinions provided to me. Seems fair. The argument that the average citizen doesn’t know enough to make a good decision is not valid on a local level.