“The only thing I can say is you’ve got to be kidding me. I just don’t understand it. There some members on this council that absolutely have their heads in the sand — that absolutely don’t know what’s going on.”
Priceless (if only we were).
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Full-time attorney back on New Albany City Council docket, by Daniel Suddeath (Tribune)
The New Albany City Council will be again asked to approve a full-time city attorney position after defeating a similar request in February.
But the job description has been tweaked, and one of the council members that voted against the February measure is sponsoring the new proposal.
I was lukewarm on this issue the first time. Not so much the person or pay at this particular time(bona fide bargain actually)but the precedent it would set for future hires. Not sure how often that kind of bargain comes around.
ReplyDeleteThis proposal raises my "temperature" on the position.
I think it's difficult for people who don't have a business or professional background to grasp the necessity and/or value of professional services, such as a grant writer or attorney. They may look at the salary being paid and think it's an astronomical sum, or something that the city cannot afford. But if you frame it in terms of lost opportunities for grant funding, or legal challenges that require representation, the true loss is in not staffing these positions with qualified people and paying a salary that will attract the most competent.
ReplyDeleteI read a news article about Anderson, Ind.'s application for Google Fiber.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading the article, I imagined replacing "Anderson" with "New Albany." I also imagined replacing the names of their officials with names of their New Albany counterparts. The resulting imagined article sounded like satire as it would be so difficult to imagine the same words coming out of the local mouths.
It just shows yet again how low expectations are here.
I was surprised when Diana voted against the grant writer the first time around.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised when Kevin voted against the attorney the first time around.
I was surprised when Dan argued with his own attorney.
.
I was happily surprised to learn that the position of full time attorney and grant writer was on Thursday's agenda, that the position would be combined, and the cost will be less.
I look forward to see what surprises wait ahead when New Albany beings to receive grants that other cities for years have been receiving.
Mark, I don't follow what you're getting at.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying that you didn't like the idea the first time because it was too good a deal and you feared that council members would expect that bargain every time?
Jameson,
ReplyDeleteYeah, I couldn't follow "me" either. Should have paid more attention in English classes instead of dropping pencils.(grin)
I'm always a little cautious when a "deal" seems a little too good to be true. Part of that feeling came from the lack of information on "how" we could get a full time Council attorney for that little money. This was not just a "little" too good--it was a huge bargain. That led me to the next step, albeit one farther down the road.
How long could we keep a qualified attorney full time for that kind of money? With precedent set, does a future Council pay $200K for one? I admit that's a tad irrational but considering the past...
I would have voted for the position had I been on the Council. Hopefully the members were privy to some of the knowledge about the "good deal" that wasn't available to the public at the time. The combining of the positions also lessens my concerns on precedent.
Combine positions! Brilliant or Broken?
ReplyDeleteyou decide:
*Code Enforcement officer with Human Resources?
*Maybe combine the fire chief’s job with pick-up at the cemetaries...
*Mayor and the unelected Mayor into one position.
What exactly is the rationale for looking to hire an Attorney, then adding a completely different job to it?
They both require precise writing and analytical skills. And they both benefit the City and its citizens.
ReplyDeleteThank John, most thinking jobs "require precise writing and analytical skills." The experience we seek in filling the attorney position would seem to preclude it being part-time or partly legal, is my point. If we need a grant-writer, we hire the best grant writer - right? We need a city attorney, we hire the best we can... If we can't have both for cost reasons, I'd rather have one good person in one position with one job definition.
ReplyDeleteGina,
ReplyDeleteIt's not the city attorney. We already have one of those. This is a position just for the Council.
IAM - thanks for the correction, you are right, I meant council attorney.
ReplyDelete