The LuLac Edition #1943, February 13th, 2012
The Greater Good?
GOOD WORKERS? GOOD CITIZENS?
The Times Leader did an incredible analysis of the Luzerne County budget in Sunday’s paper. The newspaper crunched some numbers, a lot of them to come up with some pretty good conclusions as well as eye opening figures. Here’s what the newspaper found:
Luzerne County’s 2 percent property tax hike — set for final approval by County Council on Tuesday — could theoretically be avoided with a 3 percent cut in the salaries of 1,573 employees, according to a Times Leader analysis.
Now no one wants to take a pay cut because that is totally un American. However, wouldn’t it be refreshing if County employees who have enjoyed the benefit of employment all these years do something to contribute something back to the county they serve? I wonder how many of these employees would get so angry they might quit and find something similar in the private sector? The Leader brought up the fact that many of the other employees have multi-year union contracts that, by law, would require the unions to agree to reopen them for negotiation — an idea all county unions rejected in the budget debate. I know it is the business of unions to always get more but what if a Ronald Reagan type came in as County Manager and just fired everybody?
The Leader again makes the point that with their figures,
it would not even have been a cut; freezing wages would have stopped contractual increases of 2 and 3 percent in most unions.
But reducing everyone’s pay by 3 percent would have saved nearly $1.9 million, more than enough to avoid the 2 percent tax hike.
Intriguing possibilities. And I give the Leader credit for taking on such a big assignment. But looking at the breakdown provided by the paper, I saw a few interesting things.
1. There seems to be a few departments that in my mind have less employees to do their job (6-Controller’s) and more (10-Voter Services) than they need. Shouldn’t the Controller’s office have financial detectives looking to make sure the money is being allocated properly? I mean it is an office of oversight, right? And Voter’s Services, are all those 10 people busy 5 days a week? Voter Services does a great job but if there are seasonal peaks, surely there are valleys.
2. Assessors Office: do these employees have a financial goal or quota they have to make in terms of garnering more tax revenue?
3. The top 10 employees make nearly a million dollars. The County Manager and DA are joined by 8 County Detectives. The County Detectives make $100,000 per. What Mannix or Jim Rockford would give for a salary like that! And in terms of productivity, is there any documentation of the contributions a specific detective or detectives made to a specific conviction? I’m not being a smart ass, I’m just wondering.
4. I noticed a few salaries of people in the Court system. There are many Attorneys who are getting salaries of about 26 grand a year to be Conflict Counselors. This is a part time job. If they come with benefits, how can that be fair to full time workers that get the same package? Also in the courts there are salaries for about $39,000 or that neighborhood. Nearly 40 grand a year for ordering lunch for a jury?
5. The Leader talked about the median income for Luzerne County at about $42,000 a year. There are 20 people receive less than $20,000, while 25 get more than $70,000. The biggest group — 576 — are paid between $30,000 and $39,999; another 335 people are paid $20,000 to $29,999. If you take the people who are making between 20,000 and 40,000 you see that 911 people are making wages between 5 dollars an hour or up to $100.00. an hour. But that is based on a 40 hour week. It might be interesting to see an analysis of time clock records to see how many hours are being put in. Plus the median income figures here in Luzerne County are just averages. When you take into consideration the fact that many people here work in private industry at a part time rate with no benefits, that the average starting salary is ten bucks an hour, and that the unemployment rate is so high here, you can make the argument that the salaries offered to this segment of the county is pretty generous. Unlike private industry shifts, work doesn’t start before 8:30AM and never lasts past 5PM. There is no mandatory overtime except of course for Emergency Services and no weekend work expected. So even though the Leader did compare it to the median income and statistically it comes in low, from a reality standpoint it just doesn’t.
6. By publishing this story, the Leader and certainly I don’t intend on slamming county workers. The reaction by many of them is to say that they are under attack by writers of the paper and by me. Not at all. I’m sure most put in a good day of work. But the Courthouse has long been a bubble of economic unreality. For what workers do and the time they do it in, it is evident that they have a good thing going. When the taxpayer (homeowners) need to pay for the salaries (which is the highest cost of any business) and there is no recognition that the well is being dried, maybe it is time for all the employees to reassess their positions. The County Council, by the slimmest majority and at great political expense, gave the employees the status quo in raising taxes. (Except for the 56 on the chopping block).The status quo means that the employees will keep on getting raises. The status quo means the county residents will need to pay more taxes. It seems in terms of staffing and salaries, there is a reprieve. But if the new County Manager really wants to make an impact, he should look at how these departments are staffed. As a person just looking at the sheer number of employees vs the services being offered, even I know adjustments can be made. A leaner, meaner county government might raise up the income level of the lower paid staffers and perhaps give a tax rebate to the long suffering taxpayers.
This weekend, County Council Chairman Jim Bobeck gave back part of his salary as recognition of just how bad this county budget situation is right now. I think the County employees should do the very same thing. Most of the names I see were hired during the good times of County government. I’d venture a guess that a majority of them (even those in the 30s) would not be making the same money in private industry in this area. (Except of course if they were working for the Wilkes Barre Chamber!) For the most part, you’ve been good workers at the County level. Now is the time to give back some of your salary to get our county, your county, back to higher ground. It's time to be a good citizen too. It's all about the greater good, which we all a part of in this County.
EMPLOYEE LIST & SALARY
Source: Times Leader
EDITOR'S NOTE: We did try and publish the salary list but we were told by our tech people it would overload our system and a reader would not be able to view past Editions. So, instead, here's the link to the Times Leader page:
http://www.timesleader.com/news/County-Salary-List.html.
posted by David Yonki @ 1:05 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Students,
The problem with civil service employees is that they are part of a multi-generational slacker society.
An exclusive club comprised of Uncle John's nephews; Cousin Bill's son; Aunt Jennie's daughter, son, nephew, nephew's best friend,etc. You get the idea.
What is also exclusive in this club is ineptitude. Most civil servants possess an average IQ at best--many have very low scores which would qualify them in the real world as a professional basket weaver.
I have stated the facts, but how do we get out???
It will not be easy.
First of all, government at all levels, federal,state, municipal, and of course, county must be streamlined. Most of these MANY jobs can be done by only a few, thereby saving an abundance of tax dollars and giving those remaining employees actual real time to fill in their workaday world.
This can be done and I believe on the federal level it WILL be done once President Romney takes office.
Mail delivery, for instance, should be cut down to only three times a week, thereby leaving the delivery responsibilities to fewer carriers.
For example, postal worker JOhn, who finishes his normal route today by noon and spends the rest of the day in the bar waiting to punch out his 4 p.m. clock, will have quadruple the routes he previously had over a several day period.
YOU see class, there are simple solutions to what seem like gargantuan problems.
More on this in later lectures, and of course, something to think about this morning.
CLass Dismissed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3:10PM
Corbett opens as expected with the birth at the jail. I turned off the radio not because I would agree or disagree with Steve or the callers. Bottom line, here's what I think, The people at the jail, on sight, did the best they could. The situation was handled. The Warden was obviously negligent in communication. Punish him, but dont crucify him. He wont make the same mistake again! The death of the baby is tragic. The circumstances are horrible and too soon reminiscent of a similiar birth at a local jail! It shouldnt have happened. It should never happen again! That said, The woman should not have been having babies she did not care one breath about! It is not realistic to think the babies would be born healthy. They didnt have a chance!
The guilty party is the person who created the situation, the "mother"! God Bless the surviving child.
Pete Cassidy
Professor: I am with you 100%!! Look at the names of the people on that list. Tooles, Leightons, Kanes......all political names no? Keep on posting Professor. We is a learnin'.
Professor, I think you might have been a little hard on the folks under the dome. The problem is that they are being held hostage by the union heads and their own inability to break free from those leaders. No one wants to lose a job, but maybe a giveback in the short term would be the most reasonable thing to do. Just saying.
As usual, the prof. groups all people in a situation as Idiots, slackers and no accounts. So very typical of him. As he made some valid points in his rant, why does he ALWAYS have to condemn and belittle people in his writings. I would like to call his nibs to task and ask him to prove so many of his venomous accusations that he makes. Yonki always threatens to edit any writing that gets personal but never for this particular writer. Just saying.
Working in the public school system I hate to say it but the professor hits close to the bone. Unfortunately, we trade security of the job for pay for performance. Most education majors these days are NOT the brightest of the bunch. That's not to say their intentions aren't noble (at first). The brightest and most motivated choose other career paths.
A lot of the civil service employees are good at what they do but their performance is often diluted after 10 years on the job when they realize that the less than mediocre worker next to them gets the same amout of money. Its only natural.
Another thing people at the Courthouse should look at is accrued vacation time. Having people accumulate days and days and then cash them in is wrong. Use or lose it...that's what private business does.
Yonki, I wrote a post that took you and the TL to task for your attitude toward the county workers. It also took you to task for being hypercritical about fairness and doing what is right. I guess it was to close to the truth for you to have the balls to print it. So you are too small to print a strong opinion but big enough to kick public employees. I never thought you to be unfair but I guess I pushed the "small" button and you did the small thing and deleted my post. OK so now you can delete this also.
IN RESPONSE
Yonki, I wrote a post that took you and the TL to task for your attitude toward the county workers. It also took you to task for being hypercritical about fairness and doing what is right. I guess it was to close to the truth for you to have the balls to print it. So you are too small to print a strong opinion but big enough to kick public employees. I never thought you to be unfair but I guess I pushed the "small" button and you did the small thing and deleted my post. OK so now you can delete this also.
I DELETED YOUR POST BECAUSE YOU CAME AFTER ME WITH STUFF THAT IS INACCURAE AND NOT CURRENT TO MY SITUATION, WHICH BY THE WAY IS NONE OF ANYONE'S BUSINESS. I'M GOING TO MY TAX GUY ON WEDNESDAY, YOU WANT ME TO RELEASE MY RETURNS? YOU WANT THE MILEAGE ON MY CAR? YOU ALSO CAME AFTER TOM PRIBULA WHO IS RELATED TO ME. MY MOTHER HAD 12 BROTHERS AND SISTERS SO I'M PRETTY SURE HALF THE FREAKING VALLEY IS RELATED TO ME IN SOME WAY SHAPE OR FORM. BUT YOUR COMMENTS ON HIS JOB PERFORMANCE ARE JUST PLAIN WRONG. IF THE GUY WERE PERMANENT, OR ANY OTHER PERSON WERE PERMANENT, THINGS WOULD BE DIFFERENT. RIGHT NOW HE'S LIKE A BASEBALL MANAGER THAT'S BEEN TOLD, GET US OUT OF SPRING TRAINING AND TO THE FIRST GAME AND HE'LL TAKE IT FROM THERE.
YOUR COMMENTS THAT THE TIMES LEADER IS TRYING TO GIN UP CONTROVERSY IS SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT. IT WAS YOUR OPINION AND I STATED IT.
I AM NOT AGAINST COUNTY EMPLOYEES BUT I TRULY BELIEVE THERE IS OVERLAPPING. THERE NEEDS TO BE A RECALIBRATION OF HOW THINGS GET DONE. EVEN LOOKING AT THE SALARIES, WHY SUCH A DISPARITY? SHOULDN'T THE ONES WITH THE MOST SACRIFICE THE MOST?
THE EMPLOYEES NEED TO BE LEAD BY THE UNION HEADS AND THEY AREN'T BUDGING. THAT'S THE TRAGEDY IN THIS THING. I DO NOT KNOW THE NEW INCOMING MANAGER BUT MARK MY WORDS, HE IS GOING TO TAKE A MORE CRITICAL LOOK AT THIS THAN THE TL OR I EVER DID. AND UNLIKE ME, HE HAS NO TIES HERE. I'M JUST PREPARING THE EMPLOYEES FOR WHAT MAY HAPPEN..IF THEIR UNION HEADS CHOOSE TO DO NOTHING.
AND BTW, I HAVE A RIGHT TO EDIT ANYTHING I WANT. BIG OR SMALL.
Yonki ... Yonki ... Yonki!
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