Evansville City Councilman John Friend, CPA has advised the City County Observer that he intends to hold the ordinance regarding the recommended salary increases for 10 City of Evansville employees for further study. Councilman Friend is going to push for a 3rd Party review of the competitiveness of the salary brackets of the City of Evansville with comparable cities. Upon completion of such a study Councilman Friend intends to include the study as an addendum to the resolution and to make upgrades to the salary brackets if deemed appropriate.
Councilman Friend stressed the importance of having a competitive salary structure with appropriate job descriptions for all City of Evansville employees. He also stated that the capricious way that things have been done with respect to salary increases does not reflect a policy of good fiduciary responsibility.
The most glaring example of capricious actions that undermined the authority of the Evansville City Council happened with respect to former DMD Director Tom Barnett who was paid over $40,000 per year through the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville (GAGE) that was reimbursed by the Weinzapfel Administration through other funds. It was learned at that time that Evansville was not even competitive with towns of less than 20,000 people and lower costs of living than Evansville for this position. Barnett’s contract with GAGE was signed by Mayor Weinzapfel as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. No other signatures were on the contract.
Councilman Friend estimates that the study if authorized will take about 4 months to complete.
Looks like the CCO has saved the people of Evansville more money by forcing some sanity on the city again.
are these competitive cities also gonna be facing major sewer and water improvement projects?
Jbird that is a very good question , hopefully other council members and the powers to be will use common sense and not just pay favors back ..so far Mr. Lindsey is the only city council man watching out for the taxpayer …. Not sure about Stephanie Riley now ?? Lost faith in the other 6 Unsure on mcginn
Make that 5 Mr.friend worries about us some
This is pure trash. The Mayor, Friend and their group of buddies thought that they could reward friends and not get caught. I do not trust this as he will most likely bring it back on the agenda. These people have been part of this administration for less than seven monts and Friend suggests that their remuneartion is too low. Maybe so, but they knew what the pay was when they accepted the job! Further, if the ‘low’ salaries negated competent people from applying does that say that the current employees are less competent? If so, why should they then be elevated to a salary level that would have attracted more competent applicant?
You got it, Whip. CCO originally listed the names of the ad hoc committee that unamimously recommended the raises. Rumor has it a certain someone suggested higher raises than originally suggested, but when it became a hot button his hand got cold?
Yea for the CITY COUNTY OBSERVER you once again forced elected officials to practic “Good Public Policy”!
Once again, the Evansville Courier ran from this story by not taking an Editiorial stand against this proposed raise increase for 10 select city employees.
Outstanding job CCO!
This is a prime example why many of my friends and family read the CCO on a daily basis.
You take on the powerful and win. Your the “People Paper”.
Thanks Counciman Friend and CCO for standing up for the taxpayers.
Mr. Friend it takes a big man to admit he mada a mistake and turn around and correct it. Thanks for that.
How does other Council members feel about this?
The Evansville Courier is really becoming a laughing stock in Evansville. Like it or not we finally have a news paper in Evansvile that not afaid to take a stand for the taxpayers of this community.
The CCO is extremely popular with the rank and file workers at the Civic Center because they understand that the CCO cares about them receiving fair treatment from elected officials.
On behalf of other public employees I want to sincerely thank the CCO for what you have done about this issue.
Mayor Winnenke, shame on you for trying to pull off yet another back room political deal!
Thanks to all of you for the kind comments. Here is a link to an editorial from a couple of days ago regarding the raise for the favored issue.
https://city-countyobserver.com/2012/07/16/editorial-raises-for-the-select-10-send-the-wrong-message/
Thanks.
I missed the Editiorial. Great stance. I bet the Civic Center employees really enjoyed your position on this issue.
Great service you are doing for the community.
This is a victory I’m sure wouldn’t have been possible without the CCO. Good job!
When is the Mayor going to stop allowing his wife run the city?
I qustion whether all the positions at the top level of city government are necessary. It appears to me that the City of Evansville is copying the EVSC in its top heavy structure.
One cannot compare job titles in other similar sized Indiana cities without comparing actual duties. Similar or identical titles do not mean similar or identical duties.
I thought Evansville already had a committee that wrote, monitored and compared city jobs, or was this Vanderburgh County?
Back when I was in budgeting for a mid-major Evansville employer we had a department director submit a request for a new job title and a substantial raise for the employee filling the position. When I questioned the director about the upgraded duties he admitted that there was to be no change. He said the incumbant was at the top of her scale and the only way he could justify a pay increase was to phony up a new job description. Based upon my questioning and the department director’s good sense, the “upgrade” was withdrawn.
At the very least the pay raises should not go into effect until there is another election.
Correction on prior post.
When is the Mayor going to stop allowing his wife running the city?
Answer—never or after he is beaten by Rick Davis or Eric Wiliams during his re-election bid for second term.
Didn’t I just read that County Commissioner Marsha Abell just hired her step son to head a county sponsored and funded department?
Wow-she promised that this practice of hiring your kin would end if she is elected to the Commissioner post.
Don’t you just love political people who claim to be the “taxpayer watchdog”!
Marsha Abell needs to be voted out of office along with her best political friend Mayor Lloyd W.
“Two peas in a political pod”!
Comments are closed.