Bush League Move By County Council
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 12/19/08 @ 10:17 am - Filed Under Featured, Local Politics
In a surprise move at yesterday’s meeting the county council has decided to cut the commissioners’ pay - effectively making them part time employees. Their new salary will be $35k starting in July 1 - a reduction from their currently salary of $65k. Evidently councilman Paul Moss wasn’t happy with the commissioners’ progress (via Kevin Knuth at ACDP blog):
County Councilman Paul Moss was on WOWO this afternoon (around 4:35pm) and he said this move was done primarily because commissioners had an “inability to get things moving forward”. Councilman Moss specifically mentioned the lack of progress on combining the 911 call center with the city.
There has been tension between the commissioners and council for some time and the truth is we don’t need 3 full time commissioners, but I hardly doubt the citizens will be better served with 3 part-time commissioners. The county council could have waited as the state legislature will likely pick up the issue in the upcoming session when they debate the idea of a single county executive - a model that would be much more efficient than the 3 person commission.
But there’s another aspect to this that isn’t getting enough attention, namely that it is a bush league maneuver to sandbag the commissioners the way the council did. If you are going to make major administrative changes then you should be professional enough to give the people involved a heads-up - it’s common courtesy.
I will be the first to admit that there are many issues that I think the commissioners have been wrong about but the county council has always struck me as the least impressive board in all of county government - perhaps the recently elected Bob Armstrong will improve that image.
So while one might view the commissioners as ineffective you might want to consider that the county council filling that void could be an even worse alternative…
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13 Responses to “Bush League Move By County Council”
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$30k is a pretty substantial whack!
As I understand it, Allen is the only county in Indiana with full time Commissioners. Does this mean that Linda Bloom will have to give up the county car and buy one of her own now?
City Resident,
I hope she’s been saving as a $30k salary reduction is going to make buying that new car mighty difficult…
City Resident,
Paul Moss said on WOWO yesterday that the benefits would not change. I assume she will keep the car provided by the County.
Mike Sylvester
Dont at least two of these people have businesses that they continue to be involved with on the side? I dont believe this is their only income and the rumors are that atleast one of the three commissioners has been treating this as a part time job for years.
Bush League? maybe. But my gosh, its about time somebody made a bold move on this front. I give councilman Moss credit for having some guts.
Green Jeans,
I think the 3 person commission is a real problem. And the fact that our commissioners like to do things by unanimous consent doesn’t help matters. But I just didn’t like how the council handled this.
Hopefully the state legislature will follow suit and fix this problem once and for all.
Jeff and I are on the same page on this one. Many of his comments echoed what I was thinking when I first heard that it had happened for a fact.
What surprised me (with a smirk on my face) is County Council has less work as so many of their residents have been moved into the city. Hence, I wonder why they did not cut their own pay?
If Paul Moss will pull this kind of stuff in public one has to wonder what kind of games he plays behind the scenes? I would have thought much more of Mr. Moss had he gone to each of them, even in private, like on Tuesday and told them what he planned on doing.
County council made a gutless move by not having the commissioners there to discuss the move.
At least when city council did their budget cuts, the people they were cutting were allowed to present their side of the argument.
When the city council looks like the more mature group, that should be cause for concern for the county body.
Typical county council, trying to use their control of funding to force policy…
If three full time commissioners can’t get things done, does Moss think that 3 part time commissioners will? Who do these council members think they are, trying to decrease the hours of the Commissioners? These are elected officials that I voted for to run the county. I didn’t vote for County Council members so they could attempt to force in an executive.
Who are they to talk anyway? How long did it take them to decide on the Maplecrest Road project? They are a glorified budget committee and need to be put in their place.
A county executive is probably a good idea, but I don’t think council should try to make the decision. The legislation proposed last session put it to a referendum, I liked that, this I don’t.
This is really ugly politics! Why do have we have both Council and Commissioners anyway? Bob Armstrong is a great guy but I am afraid that he will be in a den of inequity. Moss is an unprofessional idiot for doing it this way!
While having one county administrator might (not very likly) save some money, it will give just one person a pretty heavy axe to swing. Even as crappy as these current folks may be, they WERE elected. The more political plums there are to pick, the more likely greed and corruption become.
One the other hand, paying these drones 70K a year won’t make them any better. Now or in the future!
[...] suppose I will. I am sick and tired of seeing county council President Paul Moss talking about the reduction of the commissioners’ pay as some sort of surprise move that happened during the December 18 meeting. Here’s an example [...]
[...] Back on December 18th, 2008 the Allen County Council voted (5 in favor, 0 against, 2 abstentions) to reduce the County Commissioners to part time and to reduce their pay as of July 1st, 2009. [...]