Letters to the editor
To the Editor:
This letter is in response to the individual who wrote in anonymously and criticized Randy Dallke for asking the commissioners to consider pay increases for elected officials. If Randy had not broached the subject I would have. Also the vote was 3-0 approving these pay raises so this critique should have been against commission as a whole.
I would like to point out last June or July, in addition to a percentage across the board pay raise for county employees, there were additional pay raises for several individuals to bring them up to 75 percent of the "mean" wage for their jobs. At this point in time all county employees are now at 75 percent of this wage.
This mean wage is determined by the wages being paid for like jobs in nine other counties, the cities of Marion and Hillsboro, as well as the private sector according to the county pay plan. We have been making a major effort to level the playing field for all employees dependent on the mean wage that was established.
Elected officials are not under the county pay plan due to them being elected officials, thus they were not included in this effort to get a level playing field for all employees.
The commission discussed at that time doing the same type thing for elected officials. However, it had to be done using the "average" pay level for like jobs using the same entities used to establish the "mean" described earlier. The average was determined and it was found almost all elected officials were well below the group average.
At that time however, due to budget considerations it was decided to postpone the raises for elected officials until after the first of the year.
This action this past Monday, approving elected officials' pay raises, was a carryover from the discussions this past summer (which by the way were duly reported in local newspapers).
Two elected officials were at or above the average wage determined for their jobs and thus will not receive any additional pay raise.
One additional note is your letter seemed to imply elected officials were not "hard-working" or "county employees" — shame on you! If this does not satisfy your concerns, feel free to contact the county clerk's office and you will be put on the agenda for the next meeting to publicly voice your concerns.
Daniel Holub
Marion
To the Editor:
Consider the impact and importance of city government. Consider also what once was to what now exists.
Statistics not only indicate but also support the observation that many small towns and cities within the boundaries of this state are dying. As indicated by Randy Mills, city council member of the Florence elite city council, when he quoted in the May 2005 issue of the Florence Crossroads, "the city would probably go from a marginal town to a dust town." The quote concerned compliance to ADA accommodation and the city's ability to pay.
When one lives in a small community, each decision made by the governing body of that city becomes all-important. Each decision impacts every living member of the community. Without the community's support, wherein the community's individual and collective voices and desires are accurately represented by their elected representatives, pork-barrel spending, partisanship, and political corruption occur.
With four city council members and a mayor, one voice will not make a difference, nor allow the city to return to what the city offered its citizens in 1920.
The city has steadily declined since 1969, with the proclamation of Home Rule. Over time, city government became a corporate body seeking its own desires rather than representing the desires of the general public which elected it, with indebtedness and a disregard to the community's ability to repay, as evidenced in Charter Ordinance No. 7, exempting the City of Florence of the aggregate tax levy limitation, Kansas Statutes, Sections 79-5001 to 79-5017 inclusive, dated March 2, 1981.
Also understand the population of the city of Florence in 1969 was not 2,000 people, to qualify the city as a second class city. Even though the state of Kansas does acknowledge the city's original date of incorporation, the papers of incorporation no longer exist to the best of my knowledge, allowing one to question the true status of the city.
If one also considers not only the sheer number of city employees including those of the police department, one may understand the city's inability to comply with the Clean Water Act, recommendations from KDHE, compliance with ADA, even the condition of city streets.
With an abundance of city employees, the city has not the budget to maintain the necessary services entitled to the residents. Therefore, I have no objection as to the legal validity of the city being a second class city.
What my objection becomes is one of accommodation. What does the city of Florence offer its residents above and beyond the accommodations provided by third class cities such as Peabody.
My wife, Dorothy, and I have made our bid for election to the city council, representing Ward 1. Our desire is to encourage community support, competition, and fair representation and we believe choice allows opportunity.
We would appreciate your comments and support. Contact us at 620-878-4201, 329 Circle Drive, Florence, or e-mail your remarks to cleverleyg5@aol.com.
Gerald Cleverley
Florence
To The Editor:
An open letter to all elected and appointed officials of the U.S. Government:
In reply to the White House request: If anyone has an idea about Iraq, we would like to hear it.
1.) Bring Haliburton home.
2.) Have the military help the Iraqi government implement every work and building program that was established by our government during the 1930s.
I am anyone.
Les Kitchenmaster
Lost Springs
