Sometimes it’s hard to take the summer off. Due to the number of people who have questioned me about recent conversations at council regarding councilor’s compensation and last week’s letters to the editor, I decided to come in from the sunshine and go back to the keyboard.
Before we get into the debate on council compensation we should look at the background. In 2012 council members were eligible to receive up to a maximum of $800 a year based on the number of meetings they attended. When the Charter Commission reviewed our charter, one of its proposals was to increase the base council pay to a maximum of $1,500. In keeping with my belief of transparency, the deputy mayor receives an additional $250 and the mayor receives an extra $500. The new charter states that any councilor can refuse to take his or her stipend.
One of the first questions asked by a number of our councilors at the start of the year was whether we could forego the increase. Due to the wording in the charter it is an all or nothing scenario. I know there is interest on council to bring forward a referendum to have this changed for the future. Now we can fast forward to the present situation.
One of our councilors recently wrote a letter to the editor stating that he asked city councilors to forego compensation for the remainder of their term. This councilor had already announced at our recent workshop that he would forego his compensation and requested that all other councilors do the same. He also felt that the city administration should voluntarily reduce its pay by 5 percent. The rationale was based on the tough budget year and the cuts employees were receiving along with the cuts in services to our citizens.
Just for clarification, there have been no cuts in employees’ salaries or wage rates. We have downsized through attrition and the layoff of one person by contracting his function out to a private employer at a reduced cost to the city. No departments such as the Nylander and Emergency Management have been eliminated.
Council has looked at various programs and services in the city including reduced hours at the library and various programs at the recreation dept. but the only change I am aware of is the closing of the game room at the rec center at 6 p.m. each day, and according to our rec director, it never got much use after 6 anyway. As far as reducing staff or hours, that is at the discretion of the department managers and the city manager, and I would hope they will continue to look at opportunities to reduce the city’s expenses. If the decisions involve eliminating departments or reducing services, I am sure council will be involved in that decision-making process.
As far as the councilor’s request that councilors forego their compensation for the rest of their term, I have already explained both in this letter and at a recent workshop, that the City Charter states that we accept all of our compensation or none of it. We cannot just give up our compensation as requested for the balance of our term, according to the City Charter.
Most of you who read my column on a regular basis realize that I normally just try to state the facts or provide information. I have made the odd exception by stating my personal opinion, which I will do now. I feel that it is everyone’s right to decide how they should spend their own money. If I, as a councilor, decide to return my compensation to the city, or give my compensation to charity, it is my decision and mine alone. One thing you can be sure of, regardless of what I decide to do, now or in the future, I will not be getting up on my soapbox and publicly telling everyone what I’ve done and stating that I think it is shameful that other councilors are not doing the same.
Just to correct a few items in Mr. Pelkey’s letter last week, there have been assistant managers in Caribou before Mr. Bleess’ time. In fairness to Mr. Pelkey, it was probably before his time. I know it was before mine, but as always I like to do a little research before I make statements. It is also obvious that Mr. Pelkey has not followed council’s meetings in person or on Time Warner, nor read my column or the Aroostook Republican. If he had he would have realized that the Assistant City Manager was not an additional person added to the city payroll.
Once again for those of you who aren’t aware, the City of Caribou restructured departments and eliminated two positions and developed two new positions, one of which was the Assistant City Manager. From what I have seen since the changeover, and what department managers and employees have told me, we have become far more efficient and productive since these changes were made. As far as cost to the city, our expenses were decreased by approximately $17,000 per year since making that change. In my business life being more efficient and decreasing your costs at the same time was always a good thing.
There is no question that neither council nor the citizens of Caribou are always going to agree what is the right thing to do. Since I was elected to council I have literally been told one of two things hundreds of times. It’s either “We pay enough taxes already”, or “Our taxes are too high.” Not once has anyone come up to me and told me we should pay more taxes. I would encourage all those people out there who want to pay more to e-mail me and I will make sure there is a mechanism in place to allow you to do so.
To be continued.
“What have you done today to make Caribou a better place to live?”
This column is strictly the opinion or view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of the City of Caribou’s administration staff, its employees, or other council members. Gary Aiken may be reached at garyaiken @hotmail.com.
