Public Periscope

Retro is a no-no

Despite what City Manager Bill Pupo told the City Council recently, Spokane’s top 14 managers and two secretaries will not be getting “retroactive” pay raises. And that’s good because it keeps the city from running afoul of the state constitution, which forbids retroactive pay for government employees. … That’s not to say those 16 people won’t be getting more money they will. But city attorneys knew better than to call the pay “retroactive” when crafting the ordinance the council approved. … Instead, what the employees are getting is a year-end budget adjustment. Or, as City Attorney Jim Sloane explains, the council was merely “setting the salaries for these positions in 1997.”

Of course, there were only 23 days left in 1997 when the council approved the pay change, so the salary hikes might seem to the untrained eye like Christmas bonuses. But they’re not, city officials say.

Some of us will be celebrating twice

We know that Jewish traditions sometimes get slighted this time of year, what with all the emphasis on a holiday that is at least nominally Christian. Maybe Spokane Community College President Jim Williams was trying to make up for that in his “Seasons greetings” letter to employees. … “Some of us will be celebrating Christmas and some Chanukah, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa,” the letter to SCC employees begins. “Whatever celebration we choose to commemorate the holiday season …”

‘We Three Kings’ may be more apropos

Last week’s meeting of the county commissioners, being the last before the holidays, was more festive than planned. Commissioner Kate McCaslin was reading a motion when the room filled with a tinny version of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” … The impromptu concert came from Commissioner Phil Harris’ novelty necktie, which is pressure-activated and plays the song whenever Harris folds his hands across his own bowl full of jelly. … Harris and McCaslin ignored the music, and the audience probably wouldn’t have noticed if Harris had remembered to turn off his microphone after speaking about a previous topic.

Opening up government

After exposing Harris’ musical neckwear, it seems only fair to compliment him for the blow he struck for open government Tuesday by refusing to attend a meeting he felt had been advertised inadequately. The meeting on personnel issues originally had been billed as a closed-door session. But County Attorney Jim Emacio decided an hour before it was to start that the subject didn’t meet the legal threshold for locking out the public. … Emacio notified three reporters the meeting was being opened to the public. Since no one else has requested notification of meetings, that was enough advertising to meet legal requirements, he said. But Harris said more notification was needed because county employees might have wanted to attend. He walked out, and the meeting was rescheduled so all three commissioners could attend.

As Harris predicted, some employees did show up at the rescheduled meeting. Unfortunately, Harris couldn’t because he had a prior commitment.

Polling the wrong group

Here’s a good reason to have trial by jury, not vox populi: A national survey firm sent out notice last week that it had polled 1,000 adults, and 68 percent of them thought Terry Nichols is guilty of the charges he faces in the Oklahoma City bombing case. Slam dunk, right? … Apparently not for jurors who sat through the trial. They spent 25 hours last week without reaching a verdict and will return to deliberations this morning. … Rasmussen Research, a North Carolina firm that polls on everything from the federal budget to the Iowa septuplets, noted that the same poll found that 72 percent thought O.J. Simpson was guilty of killing his former wife. Of course, a jury already had decided Simpson was not guilty.

, DataTimes MEMO: “Public Periscope” is published on Mondays and is compiled by Jim Camden from staff reports. You can contact us at The Spokesman-Review, Box 2160, Spokane 99210, or by fax at (509) 459-5482 or by e-mail at jimc@spokesman.com

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by Jim Camden from staff reports