Detroit Council Aides get pay hikes.

[kraig]

Sigh. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100...-get-pay-hikes

[detroitbookhound]

Sigh - 100K aides? For what?

[EastsideAl]

Wow... they sure make a lot more than way back when I had that job. And most of us were let go when a big recession hit back then too.

[Buy American]

Cutting budgets for Police, Fire and essential services and putting those men/women at great risk. Cutting health benefits and increasing co-pays for employees who make much less than $70K. Cutting pensions and benefits for retirees who gave the City their 25, 30,+ years.

This, all coming from the "new" clowncil. They only thing this "new" council, especially Puke, is concerned with is more money for them. Remember, Puke can't pay his own bills and really needs the money. I guess Detroiters will continue to let the thugs rape and pillage them. thug KK is still doing it, so why not clowncil?

[JJD]

I don't know if it due to the fact that I just paid my ridiculously high summer tax bill, but this one really pisses me off. How do we affect change in this city? It always just more fo the same government stealing. Other city councils meet at night and have day jobs. Ours need a staff of aides each making 70-100k? Why? This seems like a complete waste of money and obvious mis appropration of tax dollars. How depressing it is that you have to spend so much to get elected, that everyday folks with an actual moral and etichal code who love this city will never have much of a chance to change its government.

[Searay215]

WTF - Really.....what are they thinking? Cut fire and police and give these idiots more money. 90-100K.....where do I sign up? $7-8 an hour raise....I mean really who has heard of that kind of raise especially now in these times. If they don't like their pay let them quit, there are 100s of qualified people who will work for less. Different council same results......Raping Detroit!!

[maxx]

This is the sort of information that local ministers should be telling their "flocks". I dare say that a lot of Detroiters only get their information from TV and radio.

[JJD]

At that salary they just got a $20,000 raise. I went to school for a lot of years and have never gotten a raise more than 3-6 percent. And haven't had one of those since the economy took a crap. This is absolutely inexcusable.

[Buy American]

Time to get the people together to protest at the City County Building. If there are enough protesters maybe the clowncil will reconsider this ridiculous pay increase.
maxx, you are 100% correct about the ministers and preachers in Detroit...they need to inform their flock of this and organize a protest. They did a good job when thug KK needed funds and they collected lots of money for him and his family while they were living lavishly in Texas. Most of the people in the congregation could barely feed their families, yet they contributed...so now, they are needed to protest.
You need that lady with the bullhorn who was outside the Federal Court Building saying "Free Kwame, free Kwame....we love you Kwame" to get her damn bullhorn and use it for the right reasons, not to push her agenda on freeing that thief.

[Elouise]

This is insane. The council is still not connected to reality.

[Pcm]

"He gave one staffer, a lawyer, an $8.39-an-hour raise that will pay her $90,000 a year. But he noted most staffers work long hours without benefits."

Two days ago, I worked 19 consecutive hours for $12/hr. No benefits. And it wasn't a cushy office job.

Thanks city council, for clearly not giving a shit about real people.

Also, I just sent a strongly worded letter to Pugh. I encourage everyone else to do the same.

[kraig]

Let's face it, this is our fault, collectively, not as individuals. We keep putting these same, raggedy ass politicians in office. Garbage in, garbage out. Whether it's at large or by district, we need to do better research and vote for candidates with a little more integrity. We also need to pay attention to the writing on the wall. Because all of this crap is being led and carried out by the five new council members. Weren't they supposed to be the ones that cleaned this kind of stuff up?

Pugh- We saw the writing on the wall regarding his inability to be responsible.

Brown-Okay, Kwame and Christine have both been in jail and he got paid. no more rewarding him for being a victim.

Jenkins-Got in off of being the Chief of Staff for Maryann Mahaffey [[funny, no one that worked for Maryann can ever remember her being Chief of anything). let's face it, she's no Maryann Mahaffey. She's showing more and more why she's Christine Beatty's best friend that was escorted away from the scene of a car accident by the Detroit Police while a regular citizen was left holding the bag.

Spivey-Another jack legged preacher, nuff said.

Tate-Made a point of saying that he was not a part of Kwame's crew. But, he sure acts entitled like Kwame's crew.

Jones and Kenyatta-Have to give them credit. They never took the extra money that their colleagues did. They've been pretty consistent.

Watson-As crazy and divisive as ever.

Cockrel-Never has a problem rolling with the new five when it comes to something screwy like this. He's just plain weak.

We need to look for more than a new council, we need to look for a good council.

Term Limits. Two terms, eight years and out. Let's be real, most of us can count on one hand the number of council members that were good enough for more than two terms. The bad ones far outweigh the good ones.

[Bearinabox]

Term Limits. Two terms, eight years and out. Let's be real, most of us can count on one hand the number of council members that were good enough for more than two terms. The bad ones far outweigh the good ones.

I don't understand how this solves the problem. If bringing in a bunch of new blood didn't work this time, why should it work any better if we're mandated to do it every eight years?

[kraig]

I don't understand how this solves the problem. If bringing in a bunch of new blood didn't work this time, why should it work any better if we're mandated to do it every eight years?

At least this way we minimize the amount of pensions the taxpayers get stuck with.

[mam2009]

I'm ready to take my lumps on this one...

I don't see what's wrong with paying folks who are lawyers, have Master's degrees and/or years of institutional knowledge or experience a decent salary. Whatever they are making working for City Council is likely going to be less than what they would make in the private sector. Its probably on par with what other people with similar qualifications would make at a local non-profit [[whose resources are also limited). Except in this case, the City Council workers don't receive benefits. Case in point, due to the continuous rise in health care costs, right now a City worker's benefits are worth the quivalent of 50%* of their salary. That means if a City worker's salary is $60,000, the City pays an additional cost of $30,000 in benefits which means that that worker actually costs the City $90,000. I think that an attorney in a City Council office that makes $100,000 is fair considering how much it costs just to buy one's own health insurance. They also must buy life insurance, disability insurance, set up their own retirement accounts without the matching dollars that some employers provide, etc. Contractors aren't paying into the Unemployment Insurance either so they'd have to be saving their own money in case they were unemployed.

Why have I given this so much thought? Because I was recently laid off from my job with benefits and now must consider how much it would cost me to take on a job without benefits and not become another foreclosure statistic.

* I learned later that my 50% figure is outdated. The figure is now actually 77%.

[Swimmaven]

Maybe your elections are rigged. So whoever you think you are voting for doesn't compute in the voting machine. Instead the v. machine has predetermined winners so you keep getting these losers for city council. Then the council members have their aides and this is the result.

That is the only thing I can think of when I look at the leaders in Detroit politics.

[mam2009]

I just asked a friend...

The salary range for an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City is $46,500 - $93,200. That means they cost the City between $69,750 and $139,800. $100,000 sounds like they are well within the acceptable range and if I'm not mistaken some of those attornies are unionized too, another benefit or layer of job security that a contractual worker does not have.

[hamtown mike]

I don't understand how this solves the problem. If bringing in a bunch of new blood didn't work this time, why should it work any better if we're mandated to do it every eight years?

Here here. Let's ditch at large!

[Pcm]

I'm ready to take my lumps on this one...

I don't see what's wrong with paying folks who are lawyers, have Master's degrees and/or years of institutional knowledge or experience a decent salary. Whatever they are making working for City Council is likely going to be less than what they would make in the private sector. Its probably on par with what other people with similar qualifications would make at a local non-profit [[whose resources are also limited). Except in this case, the City Council workers don't receive benefits. Case in point, due to the continuous rise in health care costs, right now a City worker's benefits are worth the quivalent of 50% of their salary. That means if a City worker's salary is $60,000, the City pays an additional cost of $30,000 in benefits which means that that worker actually costs the City $90,000. I think that an attorney in a City Council office that makes $100,000 is fair considering how much it costs just to buy one's own health insurance. They also must buy life insurance, disability insurance, set up their own retirement accounts without the matching dollars that some employers provide, etc. Contractors aren't paying into the Unemployment Insurance either so they'd have to be saving their own money in case they were unemployed.

Why have I given this so much thought? Because I was recently laid off from my job with benefits and now must consider how much it would cost me to take on a job without benefits and not become another foreclosure statistic.

Right now, it's not about what is a fair salary. They signed up for the job at the lower rate of pay.

What is important is while city services are being slashed, the lawyer with the comfy office is getting a raise.

[maxx]

Does every councilperson have a bunch of lawyers working for them as aides? I thought the City had a legal department.

[kathy2trips]

That's a ridiculous salary! What could they possibly do to deserve that much money? As a comparison, Former Duke basketball star Reggie Love makes just over $100,000 as President Obama’s body man. When was the last time you got a raise? Apparently, they want to spread your wealth......to themselves. What nerve!

[sumas]

These comments should go the the Charter Revision Commission.

Over the years, I've watched these aides in action. They show up at community meetings. Glad hand, pass out business cards, then duck out before the meeting commenses unless they are a featured speaker. In which case they are alway first on the agenda [[citing other obligations). Bet they get comp time for those evening meetings. Yep, they work real hard

[sumas]

I am all for cutting their budget but would give that money to the Ombudsman's office. Maybe then citizen complaints would get addressed.

Ever put in a petition to be heard by council? Keep a copy of your petition number because somehow they always get lost.

[Gannon]

Sumas,

Those are one thing that should be tracked publicly...like on a page on the City's website. Imagine being able to peruse ALL of the petitions that are being considered by council, even getting an e-vote for them. Now that would be democracy.

No reason why it couldn't work.


I'd be open to term limits, with some allowable over-ride to allow a super-majority to extend them if a particularly gifted and capable person happens along.


But yeah, ANY increase in pay [[beyond mandatory cost-of-living and other contractual obligations) needs to be vetoed, even retrospectively...in case some OTHER more egregious ones were already snuck through under the cover of darkness!


Off with their heads...if that has already happened.

[GOAT]

You voted for them! Also explain why they have city-owned vehicles? You Detroiters are being taken for a ride and the only response it to ask for the to put the window down. lmao! Suckers are born every minute.