I have been following the County budget discussion and listening to Commissioner Duff’s audio recording of the meetings at http://www.alanduff.net/ – the other County Board members are against any recording of meetings. The City of Isanti of course records our meetings and posts them on our city website http://www.cityofisanti.us/. I have found this latest attempt to intimidate Commissioner Duff to be a bit silly. Commissioner Duff raised three simple issues - Commissioner pay, per diems and getting paid mileage to drive to County Board meetings.
The Board of Commissioners already received a pay increase this year – it seems pretty obvious that holding the line on any more pay increases would be appropriate. An Isanti County Board member makes $27,013 a year compared to an Isanti City Council member making $2,900 per year. It has been nearly a decade since the City of Isanti increased Council pay. Now take the $27,013 base pay and add an average $6,000 in per diems a year and we get to $33,000 for a part-time job that still pays you if you do not show up for meetings. The County has paid for laptop computers as well for several Board members and now we find out some members are paid to drive to the Board meetings. I am hard pressed to think of how many people are paid to drive to their job. As Mayor I am not paid to drive to City Hall and I would image most people would agree this practice should end in the best of times let alone in the difficult economic times we find ourselves.
I feel compelled to discuss the topic since my Citizens in the City of Isanti pay a significant amount in county taxes – the last numbers I saw showed the top three county tax paying jurisdictions as 1. City of Cambridge 2. City of Isanti and 3 Bradford Township. Coincidently 2 of the top 3 jurisdictions make up Commissioner Duffs 3rd District. Commissioner Duff’s 3rd District is the most populous by far and has 2 of the top three areas paying county taxes and he is constantly told to sit down and shut-up. Hopefully people will continue to stand up for what is right and shine the light of day on what is happening. If there is nothing to be ashamed about then why not have the conversation. If there is something to be ashamed about then fix it.
About Me
- George
- I have served the City of Isanti as Mayor since 2007. We have accomplished great things together and I look forward to building on our success. United, we move forward to a better future. You may contact me at 763-442-8749 or e-mail me at george@georgewimmer.com.
5 comments:
Agreed!
Your exactly right George. Once again it's this good 'ole boy mentality at work here. We all know what kind of damage has been done in the past to not only our city, but our county as well. Times are changing ladies and gentlemen. It's time to stand up to this kind of behavior. I for one applaud Alan for standing up to this garbage. I respect the other board members but they are way off base and totally wrong in this case.
Good for you George for getting behind Alan on this issue and bringing it to light here in the city.
There is a part of me that understands the civility being expressed here...and while I am all for a reasonable discussion on all sides, the level of DISRESPECT being shown to Commissioner Duff is at this point getting to be an insult not just to Alan himself, but in my point of view, it is becoming an insult to those that voted for him. The other members of that board should probably take a moment to listen the recordings of these meetings themselves, so that they can hear what we are hearing...which is a group of individuals who clearly have become so accustomed to their ELECTED positions that they think they can waste their constituents tax dollars by being indecisive in these times which so blatantly call for tough decisions to be made. When I look at the ridiculous intimidation tactics being used here, I am in some ways glad that they are being targeted against Alan, who in my opinion is not susceptible to this manner of political strong-arming. My fear is that there are more people out there, in other small governments across the country that don't have the strength of character to stick to their principles. We should be mad.
Why would the board not want their stuff recorded? what at they hiding? listening to the ugly way Alan was put down makes me even more set on trying to change the way the county is run. george went through getting beat up and changed the city. I pray Alan will be able to do the same at the county. my prayers are with you.
I have listened to this audio twice and I do not understand why dissent is not allowed.
If the theory is to not have anyone dissent then we should just elected one person to make all the decisions. I fear this idea that everyone should vote the same.
If dissent would not be allowed then we would never have had any change in the city. If you disagree with a person's position then debate the idea. If you are afraid of discussing the issues at hand then you should really look at what you believe and perhaps let someone else be commissioner.
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