Huckleberries Online

IFF: CdA ‘Recognition’ Costs $4500

Posted by DFO

Dec. 16, 2009 9:36 a.m. • 15 comments

The Coeur d’Alene city government spends thousands of taxpayer dollars every year to show city employees they are appreciated. In fact, according to public records obtained by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, expenses under the heading of “Employee Recognition” totaled $4,489.42 in FY2009. “Employee Recognition” line items are listed under the Human Resources department’s expenditures. Included in the total are $914.20 in expenses related to a chili cook-off, $448.53 spent on an employee barbecue, $849.27 for various “celebrations”, and $2,096.25 for awards and gifts. According to the records, items purchased included engraved retirement coins, peer awards, gift cards and lots of “celebration” odds and ends/Jay Howell, Idaho Freedom Foundation. More here. H/T: Treasured Valley

Question: Is this a good use of taxpayer money?

15 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

nic on December 16 at 9:45 a.m.
I don’t think the Idaho Freedom Foundation hasn’t shown Jay how much they appreciate him.
nic on December 16 at 9:46 a.m.
sorry for the double negative.

Correction: I don’t think the Idaho Freedom Foundation has shown Jay how much they appreciate him.
WayneH on December 16 at 9:50 a.m.
Thank you for caring. I promise Jay gets lots of appreciation :)
scootermom on December 16 at 10:02 a.m.
I’m fine with it. Employee morale is worth a few thousand dollars in the big picture.
brentandrews on December 16 at 10:03 a.m.
Not a CdA taxpayer, but this doesn’t sound like much money to spend on birthday cakes and plaques or whatever for city workers, who after all deserve to feel appreciated, don’t they? The IFF should keep pushing for public records but this revelation kind of falls flat and even smells a bit like sour grapes. Why not just send someone from the IFF down to City Hall to stick a dirty finger in someone’s cake on their birthday? Or steal someone’s retirement plaque? I’d keep looking for a bigger target than employee parties. Unless some of that money was spent on strippers or drugs or something like that … this seems like a non-issue.
brentandrews on December 16 at 10:14 a.m.
I liked the previous fight over matching employees with their salaries, a lot better. Now that one had meat. This one seems like payback or something over that fight. What about it, Wayne? Is it payback time? Because surely your experience would tell you this is small beans, otherwise.
WayneH on December 16 at 10:18 a.m.
“Sour grapes” implies IFF wanted something but didn’t get it. I’m not seeing how that fits here. The point of the story is to show how money is being spent. You decide if it is OK or not.
brentandrews on December 16 at 10:24 a.m.
I’ll buy that, Wayne. Just asking.
WayneH on December 16 at 10:39 a.m.
Jay interviewed both sides and presented both sides in his story. The story doesn’t say, “gosh, this is terrible. Can you believe it?!” Nor does it say, “Isn’t this wonderful! Why aren’t other cities doing this?” No, it says “here’s what happened.” People were unaware. Now they know. You draw your conclusions. If you’re saying that how government spends money is unimportant or not worth discussing, that’s something we’ll have to disagree on.
Joker on December 16 at 10:57 a.m.
Too bad the Freedom Foundation didn’t bother to figure what it costs each taxpayer annually for some perspective.

Is it a wise expenditure of money? I don’t know. I can see both sides of this debate.

I’d rather talk about the OUT.OF.CONTROL. salaries at city hall. Should secretaries make nearly $100,000 a year? I think not.

Should they pay their city attorney nearly $124,000? Or some police captains more than the police chief? NOPE.
Escapee on December 16 at 1:05 p.m.
Maybe CDA should recognize its taxpayers?
Stickman on December 16 at 4:02 p.m.
Sorry, I am with scootermom.
eagleeye on December 16 at 4:15 p.m.
I agree with Joker on this one. The amount of money that is spent on employee recognition is peanuts for an organization that size and I am all in favor of recognizing and rewarding good employees. The points that Joker makes are the ones that really need to be scrutinized.
DFO on December 16 at 4:23 p.m.
A couple of Hucksters called today to point out that the Coeur d’Alene Press online site is running the Idaho Freedom Foundation post in the breaking news spot today: http://www.cdapress.com/. They wondered why the Press is treating this report as though it was staff-produced news. Anyone able to answer that question?
Phaedrus on December 16 at 4:28 p.m.
why the Press is treating this report as though it was staff-produced news.—dfo

Because they don’t have reporters that do investigative work, or, Because stories or only used to fill the space between ads. Take your pick. BTW, Gookin* comes off sounding like someone peed in his lemonade.

*( And what’s with the Al Queda look sported by one of his sons on the front of the Sunday Press? is he hiding his face from authorities?)

« Back to Huckleberries Online

You must be logged in to post comments.
Please create a profile or log in here.

About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.