City’s priorities skewed

On Monday night the City Council authorized the further purchase of the YMCA at the cost of borrowing money from the refuse reserve fund. While this transaction is going on, city officials have put pressure on local unions to give back their cost-of-living adjustments for the second time in as many years.

The last time the city talked employees into giving up their COLAs, the city promised to make that up to employees down the road; that never happened. As per the current contract, employees are to receive a cost-of-living adjustment for the year, but city officials are meeting with departments on an individual basis and threatening them with possible layoffs if they don’t agree to compensations to the current contract.

So how is it our city officials have no money to balance the budget or compensate employees as per their contract but have multiple millions to purchase private property, albeit “begrudgingly”?

Priorities should be with services and honoring existing contracting and providing structures for employees that are safe and not near condemning (check out the turn-of-the-century horse stables your street department is working out of) and not real estate deals.

Shelley Anderson

Spokane