Our Presumptuous Deputy Mayor

Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 10/28/09 @ 7:49 pm - Filed Under City Council, Local Politics

I found one exchange during last night’s budget meeting particularly entertaining. Councilman Mitch Harper offered up an amendment that would cut the mayor’s office wages by $60k. The deputy mayor immediately said that such a cut would mean the elimination of the city’s legislative liaison Ozzie Mitson. Harper rebutted by saying that he was not targeting any single individual.

I found the retort by Deputy Mayor Purcell to be rather presumptuous. I mean whose to say that the $60k cut wouldn’t be to eliminate his salary. After all, a city this size probably needs a legislative liaison more than we need a deputy mayor. Hell, we pay the mayor $120k+ (more than any other mayor in the state) - can’t he come to council and argue for his own budget? He has 2 PIO staff, numerous department heads, a legislative liaison and 4 neighborhood advocates - why in the world do we need yet another layer of management called “deputy mayor”?

Comments

2 Responses to “Our Presumptuous Deputy Mayor”

  1. Mike Sylvester on October 29th, 2009 8:49 am

    Jeff,

    Do you remember when it was announced that Purcell was going to be Deputy Mayor?

    It seemed that everyone thought that Purcell would be able to bring a welth of experience and prevent Mayor Henry from making large mistakes…

    Mike

  2. John G. on October 29th, 2009 9:37 pm

    I think it would be an interesting exercise to set the mayor’s salary at… let’s say…..$500,000 for next year with the only change being that he has to pay for the staff he wants out of his own pocket. I wonder how many of his current staff would be retained.

    The point being it’s easy to add positions when it’s not your money that’s being spent.

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