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rapunzel
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This week at City Council, our City Clerk - Inez Brown - asked the council to hire a former Clerk's Office Secretary for up to $26,000 for 6 months, to train new people coming in and help out the City Council Office. Inez said that the whole Clerk's office is very understaffed. She lost the assistant City Clerk during the Take Over. The Council Office that use to have 3-4 secretaries to run that office now has none, because the one person they did have is on sick leave because she has worked herself to death. She is suppose to come back at the end of this month if her doctor lets her, but they still need more people. Personnel is suppose to be bringing in two more people sometime in the Spring, but they will have to be trained. Inez and Scott Kincaid both explained that these are highly specialized positions. Someone can not just walk in off the street and do this job, which is why they wanted to bring this woman back for 6 months. Inez was almost begging the council in Special Affairs, which was really sad. She said that she rarely asks for anything and she has never asked THIS council for anything ..., and she was asking for this to help the THEM out. It was for their office. Darrell was just smirking. Gonzales kept saying we can do it in house, what can it take to type a few letters and answer a few phone calls. Motion was defeated and never made it to the floor. Then out on the Council Floor, I was shocked. Inez spoke during the Public Comment period (has never happened before) and said how appalled she was over the way this council was acting and that the request she made was for them, their office. She also said that she is very aware that the mayor would love to get rid of her and she believes this is another attempt to try and get rid of her. They won't fire her, the City Council makes the decision to hire and fire the City Clerk, but they are trying to force her out, make her life so miserable she will just quit. It was very sad. Some of us gave her a standing ovation when she finished speaking, and once again Gonzales went into his little speech that it doesn't cost up to $26,000 to hire someone to write a few letters and answer the phone. He said he could do that himself. Amazing ... this man is going to be his own ombudsman, secretary. And Ananich, many ... people are becoming very disappointed with him. Even people who are his friends and have really supported him are very disappointed.
If Inez asks for something you can believe it is needed! I think 26,000 is kind of high but this office probably requires some legal background. Does this secretary type the council agendas? I'm sure it's more than answer the phone..LOL Council should have done their homework before they were totally without a secretary and what exactly the job entails and requirements. |
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Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:26 pm |
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Steve Myers
Site Admin
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26,000 for 6 months??
Over 4000 dollars a month?? Isn't that a bit high?? I think she could hire 3 people for amount of money .
I applaud this council for doing the right thing!! It ain't business as usually no more! |
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Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:25 pm |
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terrybankert
F L I N T O I D
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RE: Inez Brown, good government and a council Secretary.
Steve:Over 4000 dollars a month?? Isn't that a bit high??
Bankert: No.The Flint City Council secretary is one of the highest skilled positions in city hall. The multiplier as I remember it is .65. Translated A $15 per hour position when benefits are added in is about $25.00. In private sector i.e legal secretary that position is worth 15-23 per hour base pay then you add in the benefits.
Steve:I think she could hire 3 people for amount of money .
Bankert: No see above
Steve:I applaud this council for doing the right thing!!
Bankert: Wrong. This council is treating its own staff publicly like the old council and mayor used to treat each other.
Steve:It ain't business as usually no more
Bankert: It is business as usual.
It is not good government for the legislative branch to merge with the executive branch.
But, the Flint City Clerk serves at the pleasure of the Flint City Council. She can be fired at any time by majority vote. That is also good government.
One premise of the new council was that they were going
to conduct business with dignity and respect. Brown works for them clearly.
But, they will be measured by how they treat her.
Terry Bankert 3/6/06 |
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Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:35 am |
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Steve Myers
Site Admin
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Terry:
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.
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Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:55 am |
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Josh Freeman
F L I N T O I D
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It seemed to me that the main problem with them hiring this person was a conflict of personalities.... The Pres and this person never got along when she worked in the office before. So, for some odd reason, the Council decided to go with no staff rather than hire someone who could do the work. I'm not sure who they are going to bring from in house to operate the LegisStar system, because, to my knowledge, there is only 2 other people in that currently work for the City that have used it, 1 is currently working in the City Administrators office and the other is working in Transportation. Neither have a desire to go back to the Council office with this current crew. My understanding is that they have someone from the Law Department answering phones for them.
Another interesting thing at the beginning of that meeting was Buchanan going down to the Mayors office and bring up the Mayor's PR person, Ms. Rogers, to take the meeting.... Talk about a conflict....
This position, as Terry stated, is much more than writing a letter for a Council Person.... everything that is done by the Council has to be archived, everything that is passed by the Council has to be processed so that the action taken makes it to the various departments so that they can take action...It would take the experienced staffer three days to put the agenda together for the regular committee meetings.... another day or two to process everything and get it ready for Council meetings on Mondays... and then the process would start over. The $26,000.00 really isn't that much money for the position considering you are getting someone with experience who would need no training and would be able to immediately start working and training someone new for a permenant position.
It is amazing to me, and I am talking to Steve here, that you can say that $26,000.00 for a professional is an excessive amount of money, yet have nothing to say when the Mayor hires unqualified cronies in his office. For example, Sally Haywood, whose main function seems to be video taping Council meetings is making $35,000.00 a year. Christine Brown, whose maine function is only God knows what, and spends most of her day at her boyfriends house on the South side is making over $30,000.00. Little Chuckie Young, fresh from prison, doing who knows what at Oak Park Business Center, is making over $30,000.00 a year. Chris Martin, working in a new department everyday is making over $30,000.00 a year. If that is business as usual, we'll soon be out of business. |
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Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:04 pm |
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AdamFord
Guest
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Steve,
Do you have any idea what Inez does? She handles licensing, elections, city records as well as keeping records for the city council preparing agendas, keeping minutes etc. Without any help Inez is the personal secretary of 9 council emembers, must record council minutes, prepare council agendas, and run the city clerks office which includes licensing, records elections and other stuff. Feel free to tell me how you can expect to do all this at once? I'm good but I think I'd be hard pressed to do this effectively. With Inez tied up with the council it makes me worried what could go down at the clerks office. In Detroit they overwhelm the clerk's office and register dead people at the last minute and get them to vote. An understaffed clerk's office is a serious problem and could theoretically result in a need for an ombudsman. In other words I'm going to have to side with Inez on this one. She also went from haing 3 or 4 helpers to 0. Tough job if you ask me.
Adam Ford |
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Tue Mar 07, 2006 1:13 pm |
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