Review of September 7, 2010

There were two public hearings and one board meeting scheduled for last night. Needless to say, I came away from the events with plenty to blog about. As soon as I entered the board room, I was confronted about some things I stated on this blog. I had put on my rose colored glasses and I was ready to see what cuts had been made, but then I had to shift into defensive mode. At that moment, I knew what I had planned to blog about on today, but I think I’m going to let the matter simmer for a moment b/c if I start blogging about what happened, the post will become very personal and I’m trying to stay focused on the actions of our elected officials. But I may revisit the matter at a later date. I promised my readers that I would look for something positive to say about last night’s board meeting. Well here we go. The meeting started on time and it all went down hill from there. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the reasoning for certain budget cuts. I thought we had until August of next year to start preparing for the exodus of our police officers, but it seems that our board may have sped up that process. From what I understood, our certified officers pay was cut by nearly two dollars per hour, our deputy clerks were also cut by two dollars per hour, (they will be making minimum wages and working 32 hour work weeks), the deputy court clerk pay was set at the minimum wage as well ($7.35/hr.) but she has been relegated to 20 hours a week and the members of our public works department pay was cut by fifty cents (.50) per hour. One alderman stated that they made the cuts in pay in order for the workers to keep their jobs. Well, if some of the workers would have been laid off, they could expect to receive $225-$256 per week from unemployment compensation with no deductions. Now, the deputy court clerk will make about $147 per week before deductions and the two deputy clerks will make about $234 before deductions. The police officers pay was cut and now they are expected to risk their lives and support their families on this budget cut that will become effective October 1, 2010. In my opinion, the cuts were arbitrary, but our elected officials don’t think they are. No cuts in pay should have been made in the police office and there should have been some lay offs in the public works department as well as the clerk’s office. We have a deputy clerk that has been on the payroll for four years and she has yet to complete her certification. Our deputy court clerk has sixteen years of experience and only requires twelve hours of training per year to keep her certification. So, the logical step would be to lay off deputy clerk 1 and bring Melissa Pack into that position and cross train her for deputy clerk and deputy court clerk. One alderman stated that they made the cuts so that the chief can have a full staff. Making those cuts to his department is like telling him to make bricks without straw. His officers are not going to stay here and risk their lives at a reduced salary. Maybe the aldermen are making the cuts to the police department b/c they are hoping the officers would leave. I don’t know about you, but I am more concerned about having police officers on duty than I am about having the grass cut. But as usual, our aldermen are talking out of both sides of their mouth. For instance they stated that the City of Lumberton do not have the money to spend, but during the same board meeting, they decided to pay the registration, hotel fee and travel expenses for a training course that is not mandatory.