What's Too Little.. Too Much?
Fact: County commissioners earn $81,845 a year in Sarasota and $78,789 in Manatee.
This is a conversation worth having.. once upon a time, we were a sleepy lil town and the Commissioner role was a part-time effort. When i was considering a run, I spent a few months tryng to do the pre-read and homework on the issues on upcoming agenda. What i determined was, there is no way that job can be done right in 20 hours a week. I think most running fully understand it is a full time job. In a recent meeting both Hanks and Carusone made comments about such so I will not be surprised to see the pay increase coming to the dais.
We have to decide as a City if we want the status quo or reach deeper into our pockets and elect qualified candidates who will do the hard work to ensure we plan and grow the City wisely. 1) Leave it as is and limit the candidate pool to retirees or those who can afford to work for 1/3 or 1/2 of their regular income or worse yet.. those who will just show up and wont do the hard work, simply show up and vote based on 'Staff Recommendations." While that is not meant as a slam on staff, it is what happened on the last commission, staff or lewis contrlled the information and the facts that were given to the Commissioners. How did that work out for us?? $30K a year is clearly light for the amount of hours they should be investing
2) The other side of the coin, if we make it a FT job and increase the pay we will have a larger pool of qualified candidates to choose from. More choices are ALWAYS better for the voters. It encourages more qualified candidates with serious professional experience.
I would not be opposed to increasing the salaries of our Commissioners. I dont think the job should warrant the salary level of the County as they serve a much larger population. I would think the job should be around $40K - 48K. First term $40K and Second term $48. Mayor would get an additional $2K.
How to make that happen is not gonna be fun.. but I want Leaders who will do the homework, ask the hard questions, take on the uncomfortable issues..
Jill--Im in no position to judge whats going on in the NPPD-- Lukes
well we finally heard Commission candidate Jill Lukes opinion in regards to the ongoing problems within the NPPD. ON the NPCC FB page she responded to questions asked by Anne Olsen. One said question was what would you do about the ongoing problems in the NPPD she replied She is in no position to judge what's going on, I could not fairly access the inner workings without hearing from both sides, even to give an opinion. Typical political no direct answer to a direct question.
Nothing about accountability, nothing about how to handle the on going misconduct, nothing about how to handle the chief and his admin. Guess who is going to do nothing!!!!!! Is she that oblivious to what is going on here. Political fence walking at it's worst. She obviously does not read the news, watch the news or pays attention to what is transpiring in our city.