If you are interested the Johnson County Sun on Wednesday published a candidate survey. You can find it for all Johnson County candidates here.
Overall, I thought the answers were safe. I'd be seriously worried if someone blew an open book test.
I thought it was interesting Andrew Osman suggested that Leawood City Council members should take a pay cut during this difficult time.
I think it is a cheap shot aimed targeted directly to people who really aren't very informed but think all politicians are getting fat off of us. JOCOeveyman is here to inform you.
Let me hit you with some knowledge on Leawood City Council compensation. They don't make squat especially when you relate it to the time they spend doing the city's work for us. This is public service folks....streets and curbs........there aren't perks.
What do you think a Leawood City Council person makes per year? I looked it up. $5000 per year. That's it. And it hasn't changed from what I can see since 2000. In addition to study sessions and city council meetings all of them also attend the meetings of committees that they are assigned. I'm also guessing there is constituent work (for those of you in Wyandotte County that means citizen's bitching) on a daily basis via email or telephone. I could probably assume there are some appearances they have to make as well. I bet City Council members would laugh at this as way too low but for the sake of argument I'm gonna estimate that your run of the mill City Council person spends 12 hours a week serving us. Give them 2 weeks for good behavior and multiply by 50 weeks and you get 600 hours. Again....this probably low. Divide by $5000 and you get $8.33 per hour.....gross. I bet they end up with $300 a month after taxes. They also get $200 a month reimbursement for car mileage and expenses which hasn't been changed since 2002. Do you remember the price of gas in 2002? I looked it up for you......$1.31 a gallon. Let's agree that City Council compensation really is nothing more paying their expenses for serving.
But, to wit............his point is everyone should share in the cuts and pain. I get it and I'm all for saving money. So let's take a look at it.
8 Council People making $5000 each. Cut 20%?? That's $1000 each or $8000 total. How about cut pay all together?? Now you really limit service to people who are higher earners because it will cost them to serve but you only save a whooping $40,000.
Compared to the city's budget for 2010 which is $29.6 million dollars eliminating ALL City Council compensation would save the city .001%.
I'm just saying.........here are the facts. You decide. Seems a little symbolic to me.
Posts
2 comments:
After reading the Sun's profile on Leawood's candidates, my co-worker suggested I read your blogs about this interesting race. Good God - does Mr. Osman have any idea whatsoever about what the city council really does? I don't, but I have a feeling he is out in left-field. Has he ever been to a council meeting other than what might concern his personal business or been on any city committees? He says he has (yes, I've read all the articles now) but I would have to challenge that on the basis of his ignorance of what the city council actually does. Or could he be running for this position out of a grudge against the city because of something to do with a personal development project in Leawood where he had a vested interest that did not proceed? Not sure of the details, but found that information as a matter of public records. I don’t know politics, but let’s not put ourselves in jeopardy of having someone with conflicts of interest making our decisions.
Thanks for finding the blog. I don't always know up front but usually by instincts are pretty good.....and my instincts tell me developer on city council is not good.
I'd be interested in knowing more about the project that didn't go through where he was involved or where I can find the information.
Thanks for posting the comment.
JE
Post a Comment