Monday, April 16, 2007

A Std-Ex Editorial Cheap Shot at the 2007-08 Emerald City Pay Plan

Did the Emerald City Administration "Give Away the Store?"

By Curmudgeon

The Standard-Examiner today has a lead editorial attacking the recently announced pay raises for Ogden city workers [$3000 per worker plus the city will pay the anticipated 7.5% increase in medical insurance costs for each as well.]

The Std-Ex editorial says:
The thing we'd like to know is: How many average workers in the private sector are getting $3,000 raises this year? And, the editorial concludes: The thing that seems to be getting lost in this discussion between elected leaders and city employees is that this is taxpayer money. As we've urged before, raises ought to be reasonable and mirror, more or less, averages in the private sector. This money comes from Ogden businesses and residents. The city should be exercising much more discipline than this in an effort to be fiscally responsible.
The Std-Ex editorial page has been doing remarkably good stuff of late, but this time they've gone off the rails. They've decided that pay raise constitutes squandering the public's money because the raise is greater than raises being offered to private sector employees this year, they think. And so they conclude it's excessive.

There is so much [potentially] wrong with that conclusion it's hard to know where to begin. For openers, it ignores [by not even asking about] the size of pay increase for city employees over, say, the last five years. IF those raises were lower than the cost of living, then city workers have been falling behind and this year's raise constitutes a "catch up" provision to make up for under-payments previous years.

Is that true? I don't know. But, apparently, neither does the Std-Ex. All the editorial board looked at apparently is the size of this year's raises. Finding the information to assess the wisdom [or it could be lack of wisdom] in this year's raise package would of course require some research... which evidently the SE editorial board chose not to do. Much easier to just criticize in the absence of the research needed to support their conclusions.

The city raises will result in a much higher rate of raise for lower paid city employees [say firemen and police men and others] and a much higher rate of raise for those in the upper levels of city administration. Another three K for somebody earning 30K a year is a 10% raise. But a 3K raise for someone earning [or, if you prefer, receiving] 90K a year is a little over 3%. Hey, I'm all for that --- people on the lower end of the pay scale getting higher percentage raises than those on the upper end. It's the one good thing about flat across the board raises: it sends the bulk of the money to those who need it most. The Std-Ex though seems to be unhappy with that.

OK, there are other ways to do it. One option is to distribute most of the pay raise money by merit... the Std-Ex doesn't like either, apparently, since the editorial criticizes the city for having done that a couple of years ago too. Or you can distribute raises by rate [rather than flat amount]. Say, everyone gets a 4% raise... but that puts more money into the hands of the very highly paid than it puts into the hands of the lower paid. SE doesn't seem to like that either. [The editorial is unhappy with the 2005 raise package with combined merit pay with an across the board percentage raise.]

Finally, the Std-Ex scoffs at Mr. Patterson's explanation that the city will benefit from the raises, and maybe it will end up not costing much at all, because fewer trained and experienced city employees with jump to other municipalities which pay more. [Firemen and policemen for example.] Well, if the Std-Ex wants to scoff, perhaps it ought first to do a little research [always advisable before reaching a conclusion in print]. What is the turnover rate for public employees in Ogden now? What's it been for the last five years? What is it in municipalities with which we compete for employees? What has it been for the past five years? What is the pay rate for various categories of civil servants in the top of Utah? What are the comparable pay rates in Ogden?

I don't know the answer to those questions, but before I published an editorial denouncing a recent raise package as unjustified and a squandering of the public's money [and trust], I would damn well want to know. The Std-Ex editorial provided none of that information, and so none of the evidence that might have made its editorial's conclusions convincing and compelling.

Instead, the Board chose the easy cheap shot: denouncing raises for city workers without bothering to examine the evidence to see if they were justified or not.

Hmmmmm... reaching conclusions without doing the research necessary to ground those conclusions on fact and evidence. Is the Std-Ex Editorial Board taking reasoning lessons from the Godfrey Gondola team now?

35 comments:

RudiZink said...

We also find it particularly ironic that the newspaper which doesn't raise even an eyebrow about a taxpayer-backed and entirely unproven #50 million+ urban gondola system -- or an $18 million plus bowling alley/gym downtown "anchor" -- sees fit to nit-pick about a pay plan which was cobbled together over a period of months, in head-to-head negotiations, between all stakeholders involved with Emerald City pay issues.

Anonymous said...

Well!

The editorial board of the Standard finally did one right!

Their comments about a $3,000.00 raise for all Ogden City employees is right on.

Do you realize that wages in government have surpassed most jobs in private industry?

Nothing like being able to pass yourself another pay raise just like Congress has been doing for years

Anonymous said...

Rudi you were right on in so many areas. Many city employees have been extremely underpaid under this current administration. The police, for example, would have only received a 3% pay increase last year had they not stood up against the mayor.

And yes there are MANY officers who are leaving the police department at 1-3 years service going to other agencies who pay more. I would estimate about 10 officers have left for other agencies in the last 3 years. That may not sound like a lot at first, but when you consider the department is down about 15 officers already, that is significant. Not to mention that the department took the time to train those individuals and now they have to train 10 more just to replace those who left. I would think it be much better to pay the current officers better to keep them than to spend extra money to train new ones just to replace those who left.

My understanding is that there was $XXX dollars set aside for employee raises this year. The 3 groups representing the employees felt the most fair way to distribute the money was this way. As for Fire and Police it helps to keep them in the top 10% of wages in the state for similar size cities. Something the city council has promised to maintain.

Don't get me wrong, however. The Mayor is ecstatic that pay negotiations are over. Now he will not have a "VanGate" looming over his head this election season. He can put on this phony "I am at peace with all my city employees" face leading into the elections. Should he win re-election, which I deeply hope he does not, I believe he will come back on the employees and stick it to us in the years to come. He will pull out something like "look what I did for you in FY2008"

--Waterboy

Anonymous said...

of course that where is the paper to talk about the 45,000.00 the lobbist gets of the contract the stu reid got or about their own sweet deal at the bdo. let just creat so contriversy of the raises, but I wonder if make johnson can now get the HUM VEe that he wanted.

Anonymous said...

Newspapers rarely compensate their reporters adequately, so I suppose the editorial board must extend its parsimony to municipal workers.

Anonymous said...

Communications Specialist Phares for Ogden City has just sent out an e-mail that states the public hearing for the proposed budget will be May 29, 2007 with a second public hearing in June.

So is that the only opportunity to discuss given to the public for our input?

Anonymous said...

water boy.
you are right and I know that is the games that the admin. will play with you workers unless you and the other co-workers get out and help hansen win this election, form what I understands he would be the best thing to help the employees since slice bread.

Anonymous said...

This is yet another example of an uninformed and bias opinion by the Standard Examiner. Well isn’t that just typical. Ogden’s Public Servants were well behind the job market in this state. This accounts for the masses of Police Officers and Firefighters that have been fleeing Ogden’s low wage for more lucrative grounds like Riverdale, Sunset and West Jordan! This has left Ogden understaffed and that translates to less critical services to the public. But I guess this must have been looked over by the Editorial Staff.

The Editorial Staff speaks of wage comparisons to the public sector but fails to identify the part of the public sector that is willing to put their life on the line for some of the lowest pay in the state! Ogden’s Police Officers have been in 5 shootings in the last 11 months where four individuals lost their lives. One Officer was blasted at by a shotgun as soon as he responded to the scene of a call! Officer Hammond proved what the officers of Ogden are made of when he responded, off duty, at the Trolley Square shooting.

The leaders of Ogden and the Employee groups teamed up to create an environment that would better serve the citizens of Ogden. The Editorial Staff should try to look past their noses and try to give the same effort to their readers.

Anonymous said...

So true, $15....

so what are the cops making after this raise? Eighteen bucks an hour? this isn't Sleepy Hollow. The crime in Ogden is ugly!

So many apparent illegals shooting up the streets and each other!

Look what has happened in VA today....sleepy little town and 'safe' little college. 33 people dead already!

If it isn't Hansen...then we better get behind someone who will chase this punk and his thugs out of this town.

Anonymous said...

The Standard is just trying to justify its own lousy wages paid to its employees. I hear Schwebke only makes 12 bucks an hour--much less than many of the city employees he reports on.

Anonymous said...

shaking my head said...

"Do you realize that wages in government have surpassed most jobs in private industry?"

Well I didn't. Where's your data? Or are you on the SE editorial board!

Anonymous said...

Not only are the Standard-Examiner reporters undoubtedly underpaid, but there are obviously too few of them to do much reporting. Did anyone else notice how short today's paper was? Only five pages (three in front section and two in Top o' Utah section) displayed news articles. There was no business page, and just a single editorial page (no op-ed). The Monday paper is always the shortest of the week, but this must be a new record.

Anonymous said...

I can’t tell you if government wages are high than private industry. But I can tell you a story about supply and demand.
Ogden employee wages are any where between 22% to 48% behind average of other municipal employers across the Wasatch front.

Basically what this means is that the Police department can not find enough people to hire to fill the 15 to 17 vacancies at any one time.

The Fire department has had a turn over of approximately 45 firefighters in the past 2 years. Over half of the firefighters have less than 5 years experience.

The reason that so many Police, Firefighters, and other Municipal employees leave Ogden, to go elsewhere, is because of below market wages. A firefighter can leave Ogden after 5 years of employment and get hired by any number of departments 30 miles away and still make more money than Ogden, the work is the same, the retirement is the same, and the benefits are the same.

It's a matter of economics, if I want to provide a better life for my family; I will go where the money is.

Ogden has finally (or should I say the employee unions finally are getting the attention they needed to fix the severe bleeding to the south).

You tell me, do you want a seasoned experienced Firefighter to help you in time of need? Or will you settle for a rookie that is only here for the training and looking for upwards of 15,000 reasons to work down south?

The same goes for the Police, and other employees that work for the City.

The wage increase is not exorbitant, it's reasonable; it helps to attract the newer experienced employees and to keep them.

The employee unions had only limited dollar amounts to work with, we chose to help the people at the entry level of the pay ranges. It still does not bring the wmployees to market levels, however it is a step in the right direction.

Anonymous said...

A telemarketer makes more per hour then an entry level Firefighter.
Is there a problem with that scenario?

Rick Safsten said...

Curm,

Your commentary is exactly right. Thank you for your comments.

-Rick

Anonymous said...

Curm,
Why don't you see if the S E will print your excellent commentary as Guest Commentary there?

Anonymous said...

Mercy:

Thanks for the compliment. But I've had a guest commentary in the SE w/in the last month or so, and I think their policy [which is generally a good one] is not to have the same people doing guest commentarries relatively close together. The idea is, I think, to use the space to give voice to a wide variety of different voices. [Which, overall, is I think a good idea. The only exception I'd make if I were running the paper would be for people specifically criticized in an editorial or by one of the paper's regular op-ed contributors. They'd be offered a right of reply as a courtesy no matter whether they'd had a letter or op ed piece appear recently or not.]

Thanks again for the compliment, Mercy. Very glad you found the piece worthwhile.

Anonymous said...

I continue to feel disturbed about the Standard-Examiner's puzzling anti-labor hostility. In my experience, municipal or state or federal workers are often experts in their field and very glad to share that expertise. Each of us can share horror stories of glaring exceptions, but by and large government workers are worth their salt.

More often that not it's candidates for public office in legislative branches of government who lead the attacks against "entrenched," "do-nothing" bureaucracies. But I invite anyone to conduct a small experiment. Call the office of any elected official with a semi-difficult question. Then do the same to an "entrenched" employee of some "pinko" government agency -- say, the Forest Service or the Ogden River Water Users Association. See which is most helpful. I am generally appalled at the ignorance and arrogance of elected officials' staffs, but "entrenched" workers often amaze me with their expertise and service. These are the people the Standard-Examiner thinks do not deserve a raise.

Anonymous said...

Some good work in the SE this morning. First, on the top of Utah page, a lead story by Mr. Schwebke discussing the matters that will come up at tonight's RDA meeting following the city council meeting. The article can be found here.

Some key points from the article:

OGDEN — The Ogden Redevelopment Agency will decide tonight whether to allow Property Reserve Inc. to sell about 1 acre within The Junction development for the construction of a retail and residential building....

The RDA is expected to waive its first-right-of-purchase option for the acre of property at the corner of 22nd Street and Grant Avenue and owned by Property Reserve Inc....

Property Reserve wants to sell the parcel to Reid & Reid Properties LLC for development of residential and retail building, said Richard McConkie, the city’s deputy director of community and economic development....

Also tonight, the RDA board will consider a request to funnel about $1.1 million in tax increment to MTK Holding, the owner of the Kemp Ogden Gateway Center, through 2021.

The tax increment would come from a portion of property tax MTK Holding will pay on a 91,000-squarefoot building nearing completion at the center. That building will house Adams Aircraft, McConkie said....

The RDA board also will consider a resolution indicating its intent to authorize up to $3.5 million in tax increment revenue bonds to allow U.S. Foodservice to purchase about 37 acres from Autoliv Inc. off 31st Street.

The bonds would be repaid through tax increment generated from U.S. Foodservice’s investment at the site over the next 10 years, McConkie said.

U.S. Foodservice is relocating from Clearfield and plans to build a warehouse and distribution facility estimated to cost at least $30 million.


The second item of interest appears in the "News Beat" column [left hand side of the Top of Utah front page]. Link here. It lists some of the items to be presented to the council in the proposed capital improvements budget for the coming year. These include money for the installation of a canopy on the FrontRunner station platforms, some street improvement projects, fire station improvements, and so on.

I don't know if Mr. Schwebke's article represents a change in SE policy or not... printing an article listing and discussing upcoming matters at an RDA or City Council meeting. I can't recall if the SE has done this a lot in the past. But I think it's a very good idea to let readers know what is coming up at important meetings [beyond the printing of agendas] when the matters are of significant general public interest, as manifestly land sales in RDA areas absolutely are just now. Good policy to keep doing that when circumstances warrant.

Anonymous said...

How much tax payer money is Kemp entitled to? He's building a much larger facility than is required for what he plans regarding Adams, and Godfrey is proposing to give him more than another million bucks for marketing, to fill his excess space. How many millions (state and city) do they feel he is entitled to? Is this the new version of free enterprise? Private investment 7.0 ? Then, just as an exclamation point we find out cronyism is alive and well at the mall project. None other than the devil himself, resurected, Sturart Reid, the RDA has no problem with his participation in the project.( unlike other wouldbe participants)

OgdenLover said...

If the SE is going to complain about raises for city employees, maybe they should do some research and publish comparisons between Ogden municipal salaries and those for equivalent-sized towns in this area.

The only city departments I've had direct dealings with have been the Water and Solid Waste Depts. I was impressed at the efficiency and pleasant interactions I've had with both.

Anonymous said...

Ogden Lover:

Good points, both of them. One of the things that impressed me when I moved here was the courtesy and willingness to be helpful on the part of city [and state] employees I met while doing what you have to do when you move to a new state and city. [Licenses, registrations, and so on.] Believe me, it's not this way everywhere.

Of course, there are a few clunkers in every group, and no doubt some of them work for the city. But generally, dealing with city employees here has been a pleasant surprise from my POV.

Anonymous said...

I also have had very good experiences interacting witht rank-and-file Ogden City employees. It's downright embarassing that the local newspaper should question the proposed raises without offering any factual information on the subject.

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't It be Interesting to check out what the pay is of the SE employees. anyone here want to take that on? and how many what type of raises they give and get, and to whom.

Anonymous said...

Just ask 'em!
Hope y'all talking heads are attending both meetings tonight?

Anonymous said...

make things happen:

Well, the SE is a private business, under no obligation, so far as I know, to make its pay scales, salaries, etc. generally public. Not sure what the point would be of finding out anyway. SE editors down to copy boys [Do newspapers still have copy boys? Or I guess it would be copy persons now?] are not being paid with public money. The issue is how wisely Ogden city is [or is not] using public resources.

Anonymous said...

What would be the problem with the deal with Property Reserves?

Isn't that the real estate branch of the Mormon Church?

Seems like a no brainer to me, after all the Church is the only sensible business brains in the whole mix. You don't see them doing a lot of real stupid stuff like others in power around these parts.

The Kemp deal however is another story. The first 2 million dollar give away to him was highly suspicious. Seems like it was a retroactive giving that was against the rules, but happened anyway. Now he is back for another million of future property tax money. With the TIF bonding game he gets the money in front incidently. He doesn't even have to prove out the viability of the project to cash in big time.

And what about the Adams airplane deal? We don't hear much about it anymore. Seems like if they were making it happen here in Ogden like they and mayor said last year that we would be hearing all about it.

Does any one know if they are coming close to all the big talk?

By the way, I for one actually hope that they do succeed, I am a big fan of airplanes and builders of them, and this Adam guy seems like a real winner in an extremely dicey game.

Anonymous said...

Curm,

I think that 'make things happen' is just pointing out that the SE is quick to point out that city employees are getting more raises than the private sector is. If they (SE) can throw stones then they (SE) should not live in glass houses (I think that is how the saying goes).

--Waterboy

Anonymous said...

waterboy...
My point exactly and to this point also is that the newspaper does not pay taxes, then I think that I have every right to ask to see their payroll. because they are then getting free services that you and I have got to pay for.
so what about this curm....

Anonymous said...

Waterboy:

Ah, OK. I see your point, and it fits. Thanks.

Make things happen:

The paper does not pay taxes? What taxes does it not pay [that other businesses have to pay] and why does it not pay them?

Anonymous said...

A curious question about newspaper pricing in vending machines in Ogden....

The price of papers seems to vary depending on where you buy them. At the vending machine by the bus stop on the lower campus at WSU, the SE goes for a quarter a copy. In the machine outside Grounds for Coffee on Harrison, it goes for half a buck. At the GFC machine, the SL Trib costs 75 cents, but Smiths sells the same for 50 cents a copy.

Just curious, anyone know why the price of papers varies around town, even from machine to machine, and from machine to other vendors, like supermarkets?

Anonymous said...

Big O in North Ogden has the Standard-Examiner for free.

At certain times the paper has a promotion and the papers are free all around town.

I can't believe that the corporation owning the paper is a non-profit and pays no taxes. Where did that information originate?

Anonymous said...

Don't Think:

Free promotions don't explain different prices for the same paper at different vending machines. Just curious. For example, can business owners who permit newspaper vending machines on the premises add twenty five cents to the price as their cut? Or are there private venting machine operators [for newspapers] who add a quarter fee as their take? [As opposed to machines owned and operated by the papers?]

I don't know. I just find the difference in pricing on the same day for the same paper in two different machines [not just the SE, but for both SL papers too] odd, and was curious if anyone knew the reason.

And Free, I too doubt the paper operates tax free. Now that would be a story, given its recently expressed concern for the "taxpayers'" money in its editorial denouncing the recent raise to city workers as excessive! But I don't see how it could be true.

Anonymous said...

If they are not making any money they are not paying any taxes. In addition, they may have a property tax rebate as part of their deal with the city on their new facility which was paid for by the tax payers of Ogden. This would have to involve the State, schools and County as well however. If they enjoyed a TIF bond, like Kemp and other FOM's, their facility could have been paid for with the bond and then their property taxes would be going to pay the bond off. This then amounts to free money for them, as they benifit from the bond and the money they pay in property tax does not go to the normal taxing entitities but for bond repayment. A real nifty scheme if you are on the recieving end of it.

Anonymous said...

Oz,

I remember when I saw the release about Adam Aircraft, I thought, finally, Godfrey did something good. It looked like Adam was a class act. BTW it’s “Adam Aircraft” not “Adams Aircraft” as Godfrey says it. When I heard him call it “Adams Aircraft” over and over I thought, uh oh, he’s throwing tax money at them and doesn’t even know the name of the company.

Anyway I looked into it and it appears that Adam, for many reasons, is a company that I personally do not feel is viable over the long run. There are other companies doing what they do, for a lot less money. Adam himself as I recall, is a guy who made money in software and decided he’d start making airplanes. Yeah, sure. Were I to invest in Adam, I would only do so by shorting the stock. That would be hard, of course, because if it were traded, Adam would be a penny stock.

Which brings up the issues of tax increment and lease revenue financing – often such deals are cut with marginal businesses to make bureaucrats in the city business office look like they’re doing some good, or to give the mayor something to crow about, when 99% of the businesses do not rely on such deals. Most of Ogden’s problems are caused by the city, and getting rid of the business office altogether would go a long way to improving things. If somebody wants to buy property in Ogden and invest here, fine. If they don’t, fine. The city should pick up garbage and do other things it does marginally well and leave business to people who know how to do it and who have their own money to spend, not city bureaucrats, their cronies and other half-baked Donald Trump wannabes.

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