Spokane7
59°
January 20, 2012 in City
Verner’s defense of pay request cruelest cut
Any idea what an “average middle-class family’s income in the city of Spokane” is?
If you guessed $100,000, you’re way, way off.
And if you were the mayor for four years and guessed $100,000, you’re way more than way off.
I was ready to be done with the whole Mary Verner back-pay thing. It was politically thumb-fingered in the extreme, but the vilification she endured seemed more than sufficient. The matter had been hashed out. Verner asked for back pay and a bigger pension after making hay out of her decision to take a lower salary, and she was turned down.
Then Verner started talking. Explaining. Defending. Deflecting. She went on TV to “set the record straight.” She posted a long “thank you” note on her Facebook page, in which she defended, denied and blamed. She was, she said, the victim of a “crafty political trap.” A lot of people were responsible for this screw-up. None of them was she.
Her explanations – including the very slippery notion that when she asked for back pay, she didn’t really ask for back pay, she was just asking whether she could ask for back pay, which she didn’t necessarily want, and which she only did because someone else, a trusted adviser, told her to do it – had all the strategic impact of a person who won’t stop flailing, even though the quicksand has reached her neck.
Most astonishing was this assertion, which she made to an interviewer at KHQ: “My take-home pay after deductions put me right about an average middle-class family’s income in the city of Spokane.”
The median family income – the middle of the middle – in the city of Spokane during Verner’s term was about $40,000. The mayor’s annual salary was $170,000 but Verner voluntarily capped her pay at $100,000 a year, which will cost her in retirement benefits.
She tries to suggest that her take-home pay of $68,000 is the number to pay attention to. But of course, that $40,000 family has deductions and pays taxes, too.
Verner’s defense deserves a fuller airing. Here are some passages from her TV interview:
“I was not after the money. Working for this community has always been about the community,” she said. “When I came onto City Council I wasn’t even aware that we got paid. Until I received my first paycheck. And then as the mayor, I felt that my salary that I actually took was more than adequate, and that I needed to lead by example and I needed to make sure we could balance the budget. … I’m used to that. In fact, I’m used to making a lot less. I don’t come from a wealthy family. I come from a hardworking family. I’m a single mom.”
Once she lost re-election, she realized that her retirement benefits would be affected by her salary decision. Maintaining health care coverage for her family was going to eat almost all of that up. She inquired whether she might do something about it.
“So I was told to put these letters in,” she said. “In fact, I was advised on the specific language for the letters to submit to do the evaluation to see if it was possible. I didn’t necessarily want the money. I wanted the evaluation to see if it was possible to ask for the money. Again, it was not about the money. … I was told the specific language I needed to submit in order for the city to evaluate whether or not I could increase my retirement benefit. That’s what I submitted. I really don’t want any more money from the city’s coffers. I was well paid for the job that I did.”
Here’s the language she was advised to use and which she did, in fact, use while she was seeking an evaluation that was not about the money that she didn’t necessarily want: “By this letter, I request that the City pay me the full salary mandated by the charter not previously received by me for the last two years during my term as Mayor.”
Bad advice. The plague of every hero in history: Cassius whispers to Brutus, Gollum tempts Frodo. Verner was not always so susceptible to bad advice. Back when she was deciding to take that lower salary, she said, “The attorneys had told me I could not decline my salary. My response to that was I’m going to anyway, because the city needs the money for the budget. The amount that I declined could keep a couple of other people working. So that’s what I chose to do.”
Finally, Verner would like us to understand that it’s not a legitimate question for the public or the media to ask, whether she asks for back pay or an increased retirement benefit. It was only our business when she took less.
“I really feel the taxpayers deserve for me to focus on getting my work done. I did not feel it was appropriate for me to take a lot of perks of the job. So I did not have an automobile allowance. I paid for my own cellphone bills. I paid for my own meals when I attended numerous and many charitable dinners. … I stayed with friends when I traveled. …
“So it left me in kind of a lurch as my job came to an end because I used a lot of my after-tax personal income to pay for these otherwise what would be considered business expenses. I don’t hold a grudge about that. I’m just wondering why certain people are holding a grudge against me and making such a to-do about an inquiry that I made that really was a human resources, personnel and legal matter for the city.”
You did this thing, Mayor. It wasn’t done to you. And the next time you want to compare yourself to an average middle-class Spokane family, ask for a bigger pay cut first.
Shawn Vestal can be reached at (509) 459-5431 or shawnv@spokesman.com. Follow him on Twitter at @vestal13.
The draw of the unknowable 
Bill_Jackman on January 20 at 5:04 a.m.
John Q. Citizen will be paying for Mary Verner’s misdeeds in office for the years to come. Look at the special interest groups that she enriched at the public expense.
The new Local 270 contract that was negotiated at the 11th hour, so the local wouldn’t have to deal with the fiscally tight new administration.
Her misguided support of Karl Thompson will surely cost millions in the civil case for Otto Zehms homicide. Prior to Karl’s conviction, nobody was held accountable except the taxpayer.
The Spokane Fire Chief was making around $218k/year in salary and benefits in 2008. Usually the new police chief will demand more and Mayor Condon will be laughing all the way to the bank. Because the City Charter allows him to be the highest paid city employee.
And there lies the real rub, I suspect Verner could have requested close to $250k/year in salary and benefits in 2010
but she didn’t because it was an election year.
I’ll be forwarding a document to Mr. Vestal in the hope that he will do a follow-up story on this story of personal gain.
Ed Byrnes on January 20 at 8:38 a.m.
Verner: “I’m just wondering why certain people are holding a grudge against me and making such a to-do about an inquiry that I made that really was a human resources, personnel and legal matter for the city.”
Byrnes: Some of us are offended by duplicity, and find it especially offensive in those who seek or hold the public trust.
Ed Byrnes
HammerSix on January 20 at 8:46 a.m.
Clearly the Mayor had fools for advisors…
…Or did she?
She should have continued to officially “receive” her earned $170K salary and return the amount over $100K. In this way, her retirement would have been calculated for having received the higher amount.
She’s either naive or stupid and her advisors were either villains or fools.
Oh, what a tangled web…
DickAdams on January 20 at 9:06 a.m.
I`m amazed Verner can look in the mirror after trying to cover-up the Otto Zehm murder. I`d guess Roco Treppiedi consoled Verner because she claimed publicly, Rocky was an asset on her staff, and obviously condoned his disgusting behavior. I see where District 81, where Treppiedi sits on the board, the group changed the yard signs for 2011 and stopped using the vote yes for the kids signs and came up with another sign. Its noteworthy, the new signs only lasted one year and this year 2012 they resurrected the old signs to show, “VOTE YES FOR THE KIDS” on the 2012 ballot. The vote yes yard signs are used regardless of what the money used for in the past (more money for the administrators). Its so transparent the board felt the vote yes signs where very effective.
Sorry for straying off topic, but I thought because of the relationship between Treppiedi and Verner I must include Mr Cover-Up city attorney Treppiedi who loved to retaliate against any citizen who dared to sue the city and would file a counter law-suit .
DickAdams on January 20 at 9:12 a.m.
Many times the SR sends a error message advising the user they are unable to send the story and comments via email. I can`t send the foregoing!
schleufer on January 20 at 9:39 a.m.
for the most part i havnt followed much of this and i didnt read this whole article. keeping it simple i have liked the idea of her taking time with kids and really dont know much about her involvment in the whole zehm deal. when she lost the election i didnt know she had taken a cut in pay and im sure she did some good. i just figured that she did what hardly no one else does is take a pay cut. then what ever she did while in office then she gets voted out of office. well if that happend to me is id be asking for the money too. who wouldnt? what if any of you people offered to give up that much money then got kicked in the teeth by the very people you were trying to help? is condon offering to take the same pay cuts? i havnt heard nuthin about that. and before any body takes a dig at me try asking your self what if this was me? would you ask that question while you were being shown the door? if anything this event just gave no incentive to any one else in that office or any other for that matter to give up that much personal pay to help during such a bad time.
kathrynmary on January 20 at 11:59 a.m.
Could it just be that some of the “advisors” were setting her up for all this? All the others that get a pension are all wrong then too? I think Mary Verner is an honest person and that all the “haters in life” need something else to do. Who were the “advisors”? and was it not an annoymous tip to the SR that led to all this? I think there is more to this than meets the eye.
DickAdams on January 20 at 3:01 p.m.
schleufer, atta boy/girl keep it simple. Sounds to like your “sayin”, I`m right, don`t bother me with the FACTS admitting you did not even read the full story. WOW
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kathrynmary: You ask who were the advisers in your post. You have got to be kidding? And then you say Mary Verner is an honest person? Really?
I suppose you may be one of the “FEW” that went along with Verner`s comment supporting, Klubber Thompson and think the jury was wrong in their decision to find Thompson guilty on both counts? I really don`t “hate” anybody but dishonest, deceiving, corrupt liars, I`m in fact, appalled at their behavior. Verner`s excuse, saying her (anonymous) advisers gave bad advice, doesn`t cut it. For gosh sake, Verner is an attorney and if she had a problem understanding her own letter, she takes the cake. Though most of Verner`s time as Mayor, IMO, her underlings made the tough decisions for her. One example would be the increase in water rates, which Verner could have vetoed but choose not to!! In my case my city utility bill was over $300.00 for “ONE MONTH”. I wasn`t alone. The outrage by water users getting hit in the pocket book like I did, caused Ms. Honest Verner to reduce the (newly enacted at the time) obscene water rate shortly after the next billing cycle.
MrNatural on January 20 at 3:37 p.m.
One word…….Oops!
One more word……Damn!
schleufer on January 20 at 3:52 p.m.
no i didnt go along with karl the klubber. very few people did, mostly his buddies in blue. and as far as her involvment in that event i cant comment on because i didnt read all of that either. sometimes i get tired of all the crap and just go do something else. i have followed alot of that case but not that part. no matter what there is always sombody lookin to take anything ya say and turn it into something else.
so is condon offering a cut in pay? just curious.
WillyPeter on January 21 at 7:41 a.m.
Schleufer, and I know, of course, that you’re “just curious” as to whether or not Treppiedi, and the other crooks at city hall who were complicit in the Zehm cover-up, are still working at city hall…..
….or indicted (yet) by the feds?
Indie on January 21 at 9:41 a.m.
No good deed goes unpunished.
mary1958 on January 21 at 9:00 p.m.
I think you picked apart her statements quite well Mr. Vestal. I love the one about she didn’t even know she would get paid for being Mayor until she got her paycheck. Come ON, Mary!! Any where I have ever worked they have you fill out a tax form BEFORE you get paid. I guess that might have given her a clue–-had she read it. I guess she didn’t even KNOW it was against the law to beat an innocent person to death either. Well now we REALLY understand how incompetent she was. Good riddance.