BM
BeccaM
Jr. Member
Posts: 1,261
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« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2009, 05:29:32 PM » |
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Failure to lead
By The Baltimore Examiner Newspaper 12/14/08
At a time Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon described as "worse than the Depression," she will be enjoying $3,700 more each year thanks to a "salary adjustment" she supported for herself, City Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and other members of the City Council.
She said Thursday she would donate her pay raise, which brings her salary to $151,700, to charity. That is the decent thing to do -- and something we believe, but we still want see her tax returns. Trust and verify.
But even when she does follow through on her promise, what kind of leader would support a pay raise for herself at the same time she asks city agencies to cut their budgets up to 13 percent and consider layoffs?
Earlier last week she defended the pay raise by saying, "People don't expect us to get paid. They want us to do this for free. That's fine and good, and no one would mind doing that, but then we would have to find other jobs." Wrong, mayor.
We expect her to get paid, but we also expect her to live within our means, not her budget for designer clothes and shoes -- as a famous shopping trip to Chicago made clear -- or whatever else she wants to spend her salary on.
Those of us who support the mayor and every city employee through our tax dollars do not get to vote ourselves a raise. If our companies do not make budget, it does not matter how hard we work, the money will not materialize.
The fact that she cannot recognize the disconnect between her logic and reality speaks poorly for her ability to shepherd the city through these tough times. And it's not the only gaffe she made recently. Going to Egypt on a taxpayer-financed trip in October -- weeks before giving her "Depression" speech -- shows she thinks she stands outside of everyone else's rules.
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