Editor's Note: Ben Meisner wrote a popular weekly column for The Citizen for five years between 1999 and 2004. Reprinted below is his Aug. 20, 2003 column. The numbers and some of the names have changed but we suspect Ben would write the same column today.
The population of this city, the number of people employed and the condition of the place may be sliding, however, we can take salvation in knowing that there is one area in the city where things are looking up; namely salaries for city hall management. Between 2001 and 2002, salaries paid out in six management positions at city hall rose by a whopping $127,802.24.
George Paul (city manager) - $118,821.48 (2001), $161,353.86 (2002), Increase: 35.6 per cent
Frank Blues (transportation mgr.) - $75,006.81 (2001), $83,734.77 (2002), Increase: 11.7 per cent
Tom Madden (leisure services director) - $89,329.26 (2001), $109,094.09 (2002), Increase: 22.1 per cent
Bob Radloff (development services dir.) - $92,126.49 (2001), $97,760.50 (2002), Increase: six per cent
Kathleen Soltis (corporate services dir.) - $87,683.36 (2001), $120,047.63 (2002), Increase: 36.9 per cent
Rob Whitwham (administrative services dir.) - $87,575.13 (2001), $106,353.92 (2002), Increase: 21.9 per cent
In addition, city purchasing manager Scott Bone received $83,004.15, up from $62,452.60 and Diane Rogers, who manages the Multiplex and Civic Centre, went from $66,661.08 to $82,169.79.
City manager George Paul says a part of the salary was the fact that the sick bank holidays were paid out to management last year as the city went to an insurance system. According to Paul, performance ratings for city hall managers will take place later this year for the year 2003. Earlier on this summer, after reading the city's financial statement (which did not include specific salaries), I contacted the city manager and asked, "General administration has risen from $3,577,000 to $4,387,000; an increase of 21 per cent or $810,000. What expenditures gave rise to this?"
The reply was as follows: "Of the $810,000 increase, $719,000 is due to the city's assumption of responsibility for Initiatives Prince George. Previous to the city's assumption of this function, the city's share of the costs for the former regional development corporation were collected through the regional district requisition. As well, the tourism portion of the cost was funded by a grant to Tourism P.G. as a non-profit society."
Gee, as I look through the reply now, I cannot find any mention of the fact that of that $810,000, $163,802.24 or 20 per cent of that increase came as a result of eight people receiving more money. That amount would seem significant to me. What further puzzles me is that not one single councillor has raised the issue, unless of course I have had my head under a potato plant in the garden all summer. One would think that increases of this nature should be made public, especially when, on one hand you have been cutting back on the outside workers who actually are the folks on the end of the shovel, and on the other you have just completed a study on how you might get rid of some more.
In an interview Monday, Paul said the city will now consult with those outside workers before moving in any direction with the Business Task Force report. We paid $50,000 for a consultant to help draft that report and they didn't even seek a five-minute meeting with the outside workers. Meantime, the outside workers put up some signs to say the city's a mess, let's clean up our streets and fix some potholes. Those signs, however, didn't stay up long. Management pulled them down, and at those salaries, I can only hope that we didn't have to pay overtime.
I asked Coun. Glen Scott and Coun. Don Zurowski in a radio interview why the city hasn't approached the jail with a view to having, say, 40 of the inmates work for 10 bucks a day to clean this place up. I said give them a few city CUPE workers as supervisors and I'll bet they would go for a scheme like that. Both councillors said nahh... the union wouldn't go for it. This week, as I waited for a commercial break to end, I asked CUPE head Kevin McConnachie if his union would go for such a deal in the interest of trying to make this city look better? He replied, "No problem."
Isn't it amazing what you can get when you ask? The problem has been, however, the city managers, or for that matter, the city council and mayor, haven't been asking.
