Spokane7
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February 9, 2010 in City
City adds hours for assistants
Council cuts pay in three positions to cover $50,000 expenditure
Spokane City Council members’ secretaries will make more money, getting an additional eight hours a week under a budget plan approved unanimously Monday evening.
The council began hiring personal assistants in 2008. Monday’s vote will increase their hours from 20 hours a week to 28 hours a week.
The extra work will cost about $50,000 in pay and pension benefits, which will be covered by cutting the pay of the council’s unfilled auditor job and of the council’s two full-time employees.
Officials stressed that the addition of hours will not increase red ink because of those pay cuts. While the 2010 budget is balanced, city leaders estimate a $10 million hole in 2011.
Councilman Richard Rush noted that the city’s Salary Review Commission recommended in 2008 that an additional full-time employee should be hired to help the council research proposals under consideration.
Rush said adding additional hours is a cheaper alternative to the commission’s proposal.
City Councilman Steve Corker said demands on the council have grown tremendously in recent years. Members are expected to attend neighborhood council meetings and serve on more boards and commissions.
The proposal, he said, was the result of the council answering the question: “How can we make ourselves more efficient?”
Most on the council say the assistants help them research proposals and be more responsive to citizen inquiries. That, they say, results in better policy.
Mike Allen, a former city councilman who lost his seat in the November election, said raising staff hours probably wouldn’t make a “material difference” in the council’s work.
“I thought the assistants were largely underutilized,” Allen said in an interview last week.
In Seattle, city council members have multiple personal assistants.
But in Tacoma, the nine-member city council shares two full-time assistants, said Tacoma City Councilman Joe Lonergan. The Tacoma body also has three college students who serve fellowships in the council office.
Monday’s vote reduced the pay and benefits of the internal auditor position by about $40,000 to $100,000 a year.
Councilwoman Amber Waldref stressed that the council remains committed to maintaining an auditor who will assist the council on budget issues.
“We just thought we could reasonably fill that position with a smaller salary,” she said.
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sixandseven on February 09 at 7:17 a.m.
Previously known as the “shell game” where as items are rearranged to appear to be different with no changes.
Why do council persons make $30,000 and their advisor $68.000?
Truthhurts on February 09 at 7:50 a.m.
What is going one with the pretense that the City Auditor was ever paid even $100,000 a year, let alone over that.
Spokesman: Please fact check.
NO City Auditor was ever paid over $96,000 a year, and so to “cut” the postitio “by $40,000” TO a mere $100,000 is worse than a “shell game.”
Let’s find out what is going on.
Ron_the_Cop on February 09 at 8:13 a.m.
Truthhurts has it right. I posted this over in the other thread:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/feb/08/council-oks-more-pay-their-assistants/?c=115813&comments=1#c115813
Mr. Brunt,
They’re pulling an Obama. They jacked the pay for the Auditor they knew was going to leave in this budget cycle. Now they’re going to cut back the salary. This is smoke and mirrors. What they really do need to do is hire a quality independent auditor.
I posted this in the other thread:
Buried in this article is the fact our City fathers/mothers have elected to leave the City Auditor’s position open and now are reducing the salary of this position to pay for their additional Council staff. Yeah they’re really overworked attending all their glad handing meetings/events.
This is economic crimes 101 and a discussion I had with many victim/business owners when they discovered their accountant or other “trusted” employee was caught in the till. I wasn’t very sympathetic in recovering their “pound of flesh” once the horses were let out of the barn by their own doing. You divide this responsibility so you have procedural cross checks. Granted two or three employees could get together and siphon money off but this wasn’t a likely event.
My gosh without the City auditor, Gavin Cooley’s left guarding the hen house. BTW the Auditor by City code is required to be a CPA. The CFO has no such requirement. Being the cynical person I tend to be, I would be willing to bet our eggs are being sucked as we speak.
And didn’t one of our former City auditors who just moved into town and bought a house suddenly leave over night? Gee I wonder what he stuck his nose into?
*****
Readers may also be interested in reading this other related thread over at the Inlander re Mr. Cooley’s smiling face re the City’s bond rating be raised to AA from AA -. There is more to this story than is being reported. This wasn’t any financially wizardry of Mr. Cooley. We the citizens of Spokane were robbed of $45M dollars. You wonder why the parking meter rates are so high in Downtown? This is the reason:
http://www.inlander.com/content/newscommentary_city_spokanes_bond_rating_hits_aa
AA Bond-age
The city’s beaming about its latest bond rating, but what does it really mean? Daniel Walters
Gavin Cooley, the city of Spokane’s chief financial officer, is smiling. Standard and Poor’s just announced Spokane’s bond rating: AA, S&P’s third-highest rating. That’s the rating Spokane had in 2000, before the River Park Square financial disaster sent the city plunging down to a BBB — a notch above worthless junk bond status.
liarsinnews on February 09 at 8:53 a.m.
I guess the cat is not out of the bag yet. Gavin Cooley has been officially charged, by a former LE person, filing a complaint through the State Accountancy, about (his) a hoodwinking practice. As Cooley is the finance guru for Spokane, IMHO, this is a very serious offense. I`m not at all surprised. It reminds me of the puff piece showing a photo of his smiley face recently published in the Inlander. Heck, the Inlander did not bother to ask him some questions they should have re his bragging how the city credit rating was upgraded by S&P.
deacon46 on February 09 at 11:01 a.m.
“make us more efficient”. Close you down would do it. The object is to spend less not the same or more, there is a recession going on in the real world. Duh !!!!
Scoutster on February 09 at 1:38 p.m.
Wow! So many experts! Aren’t we fortunate to have so much brain power at work on this issue?
FrankP on February 09 at 3:42 p.m.
Good for the assistants. I see no problem with this. Budgets aren’t being increased and it allows my elected officials to be out and about working on my behalf. I would rather have them doing that than sitting in their office doing nothing. We can’t have it both ways.
Ron_the_Cop on February 10 at 3:09 p.m.
READ QUICKLY AS THIS IS LIKELY TO DISAPPEAR
Dear Mr. Adams,
You are quite correct re a complaint was filed by me with the WA State Board of Accountancy. This complaint alleges a violation of violation of RCW 18.04.345 by re Gavin Cooley, CFO of the City of Spokane - misuse of the letters “CPA” after his name on the City’s website. The cat’s now out of the bag as this web page has since been “scrubbed.”
I understand this blog thread is generating considerable interest with City Hall insiders watching from the bleachers. While Mr. Brunt may write a follow-up story, in the interest of full disclosure you can read my complaint below with supporting documents and screen prints and decide whether this was a mere oversight or something more:
Cover letter
http://friendsofmarkfuhrman.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/cooley-complaint-cover.doc
Complaint
http://friendsofmarkfuhrman.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/wa-accountancy-complaint.pdf
Affiant’s Declaration
http://friendsofmarkfuhrman.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/cooley-cpa-complaint-1.doc
Table of Exhibits
http://friendsofmarkfuhrman.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/cooley-complaint-exhibits.doc
Det. Ron Wright (Retired)
AKA Ron the Cop
Ron_the_Cop on February 10 at 3:25 p.m.
Here’s another comment re my complaint over at the Inlander of interest:
http://www.inlander.com/content/newscommentary_city_spokanes_bond_rating_hits_aa#comment-1122
Ron_the_Cop on February 10 at 3:51 p.m.
Yes, Scoutster, you are watching the crows sourcing affect of the new/alternative/social media to break a story that the MSM can’t or won’t.
Instapundit has called this the “Army of Davids” effect. See his blog and book:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/93604/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+instapundit%2Fmain+%28Instapundit%29
See also Shirky’s book “Here Comes Everybody.”
http://www.amazon.com/Here-Comes-Everybody-Organizing-Organizations/dp/1594201536
Ron_the_Cop on February 13 at 12:32 p.m.
Folks also might want to read the comment thread on the Mayor’s State of the City address:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/feb/12/verner-says-plans-place-deal-2011-deficit/