Entrepreneurism defines the city. Its principals are
self-sacrifice, hard work and
”
personal ownership
”
for the challenges facing your business.
The key principal in successful entrepreneurial organizations is
pay for performance.
Entrepreneurism defines the city. Its principals are self-sacrifice, hard work and “personal ownership” for the challenges facing your business.
The key principal in successful entrepreneurial organizations is pay for performance.
Mr. Shaddox, finance director and Council should embrace that spirit in dealing with the budget deficit.
As the management team for the city, they have failed miserably in forecasting revenues and significantly increased expenses.
As owners of the city, we must send the management team the message that compensation is based on performance.
What a performance! Failing to collect from San Benito Foods $1.3 million, A&R Management two loans totalling $200,000 in 1991 and Las Palmas $85,000. Let’s not forget the $1.2 million fine imposed by the state and Bruscia’s statement to the Board “double the fine,” which they did. Bruscia’s smart mouth cost us, the city, $1.2 million!
Compensation for performance should be as follows: Immediate termination of the city manager, finance director and recreation services manager, saving $308,000 per year in salary alone. Add benefits and perks and you can probably add another $40,000.
As mentioned above, personal ownership would mean renegotiate the salaries of the fire chief and community development director to maybe $36,000 per year, a reasonable amount. Also, mid-management, supervisors and rank and file must have their salaries retooled. This action will keep service employees where they should be – on the job.
That’s not to say some departments don’t need retooling or shifting of personal because they do. From time to time, rules and regulations and your own local economy dictate this.
Council members say it was difficult to make informed decisions when city financial officials mislead them about how serious the fiscal situation had become. Councilman LoBue said former City Manager Lewis and Finance Director Mulholland told him the city was operating in the black. Question to LoBue and the rest of the Council (with the exception of Scattini) is why haven’t you been doing your homework? As an elected official, Mr. LoBue, it is your responsibility to ask pointed, direct questions and insist on truthful answers (with backup documents in writing) not evasions. Truth is, Mr. LoBue, neither you or your three other counterparts on the council have been doing your job.
Why all of a sudden this urgency to fix the situation? It has taken years to be to this point, so it can’t reasonably be fixed instantly.
If I, as a private citizen, overrun my personal budget by spending money I don’t have or haven’t earned yet, I cannot simply go back to the source of my income, my employer, and DEMAND that he increase the amount of money he pays me to make up for my shortfall. The solution to my problem would be to stop spending.
Mr. Shaddox wants the solution to the city’s problem to be to increase sales tax and add a parcel tax on our property tax bill, which he says he has no problem asking you for. The answer to more taxes, Mr. Shaddox, is unequivocally NO!
Noreen Martin,
Hollister
