A simple farmer’s point of view

To the editor:
    At the March 24 Caribou City Council meeting, the council, by majority vote, passed the Wage and Classification Tool for the Caribou employees who are not unionized. These non-union employees would include salaried positions such as the city manager, fire and police chiefs, director of finance, city clerk, etc. It would also include non-union hourly employees such as the deputy city clerk, custodians, assistant to the tax assessor, etc.    The purpose of the Wage and Classification Tool was to give the city’s non-union employees a salary structure outline for their positions that is understandable to everyone in today’s workplace, plus includes future expectations. The city’s non-union employees have been working on and have requested a salary structure outline for their positions over the past five years. A similar method was accomplished with the city’s union employees contract. It is a tool that would meet the criteria addressed in the city’s personnel policy: “To keep wages and salaries comparable with other similar communities, agencies and firms, and also maintain a salary schedule for all positions.”
    We call it the Wage and Classification Tool. A response to this request is not only justified, but also, in my opinion, much deserved.
    The vote was 5 in favor, 1 opposed, and 1 absent. This simple farmer was absent for that vote. I was absent because I didn’t know that  a vote was going to take place that evening. I thought the council meeting was closed and the council went into executive session to talk about the wage and classification tool. At the start of the executive session meeting I excused myself to the mayor, informing the council that I had already decided to vote “no.” The reason for my “no” vote is a lengthy one, and will be explained over the next few weeks.
    I have worked on this project for the past two plus years. I have taken the time to educate myself and to understand the methodology to create such a tool. I would never have missed my opportunity to vote on this issue. I take voting very seriously. I feel honored to be on the Caribou City Council and with that comes the obligation to vote. Had I known there would be a vote after the executive session, I certainly would have never missed that obligation.
    But then I wondered how would I have ever missed such an important vote in the first place. There was no mention of a wage and classification vote on the city council agenda for the March 24 meeting. There was no wage and classification documentation in my packet. There was no mention in the Motions & Information packet which was prepared by the city manager. When the mayor asked me to stay for the executive session, he did not mention that a vote would follow. The television camera was never turned back on after coming out of executive session to properly recorded the transaction of this vote. And what “troubles” me is that I had assumed that we, the council, council leadership and city administration had agreed that no motions or votes would come to the table unless they were stated on the agenda. My mistake.
    But then I started wondering again. If I didn’t know that a vote was going to take place, how was the public supposed to know? The taxpayer should have had the opportunity to request time for public input, had they wanted to do so. One cannot do that if one does not know what will be voted on during the next meeting. I take labor relations with our employees very seriously, and the lack of opportunity to explain my “no” vote and to have it recorded concerns me. Sometimes a minority “no” vote can be informative to the public for future opinion. Sometimes knowing the reason for a “no” vote is as important as a majority “yes” vote. Winning is not everything.
    But then I got thinking again, wouldn’t one think that due to the content and nature of this vote, that city administration and council leadership would keep this vote as transparent (easily seen through or detected, open and candid) as possible?
    I wrote on transparency earlier “the bark has been taken off that tree.” When business is conducted in an honest and above-board manner, transparencies need never be a concern. Keep it simple and understandable.
“farmer” Mark Goughan
Caribou city councilor