11/06/2002 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes 11/6/2002 inconsistencies between the state of the city address and all the things that were said there and all the happy things that we talked about and what's actually happening. It seems to her, under the serious financial difficulty the city is facing and even more serious problems looming in 2003, that it is inconsistent to give selective raises and top of the range pay to those employees who have the least direct effect on the services of the city-people in the Mayor's office, people closest to him. She will not be derailed from talking about -this and asking for a committee meeting or doing whatever it takes to bring this to the table. She will not be derailed because someone chooses to call it politics because politics is a game and this is not a game. We are talking about people's lives. The Mayor is accountable to all of us. She wants the Mayor to explain what is happening because the answers she has received to her questions are inconsistent with the picture that is being put out publicly. We need to know where we stand, where we are headed and why people are getting top of the range pay and raises are being given while other people are being laid off. Mayor Musial said he agreed that he had a responsibility to the city to provide the maximum efficiency and maximum services at the lowest possible cost. He disagrees that the raises did not have anything to do with the services. Because, in his opinion, when you have top qualified personnel to work in these areas, then you're going to have good performance and good services being enabled to be presented to and by the city. This is a very serious problem. This type of problem in being felt in many municipalities, so we're not going to be making any quick decisions. We want to look at the entire package, and present an entire package and options to Council for consideratiop. Mrs. Kasler said there have been some rather quick decisions made before major decisions were made. It appears that some people have been taken care of while others are going to be hit with some very serious adverse affects on their families and on the livelihood, as well as the residents of the city. It is an inconsistency when a director is being paid at the top of the range when employees who directly affect the services of the residents (Service, Police, Fire) are being laid off. When the Mayor speaks about top qualified personnel, she is curious as to whether he considered the fact that one director with no experience in the field is being paid the same amount of money as -the person who recently left the city's employ with 12 years experience. Mayor Musial said the term of qualified individuals is a very subjective term. In his mind, he feels these individuals are very qualified and they will prove their metal in terms of what they can do. He has no difficulties with those two appointments whatsoever. Mrs. Kasler said she is interested in the Mayor's fiscal plan and would like to see it as soon as possible. Mayor said he would provide it as soon as possible, but it is not totally ready as yet. Law Director Dubelko: 1) On October 17, he gave legal advice to the Police Department regarding a public records request for releasing Police Department records involving a police investigations relating to city officials. His advice was that only the routine incident repprt should be released because the remaining records were confidential law enforcement investigatory records and secondly were subject to confidentiality under the Ohio Ethics Commission investigation. As far as he is concerned, the police investigation materials are in the hands of the appropriate state agency. Until we hear from the Ethics Commission, we should get on with the city's business. As Council member Kasler has indicated, we do have difficult issues in the 2003 budget to address.