City has over 500 Employees

Not to mention, we have found out Police Lt Cunningham is making over $95 thou a year plus the cost of his benefits package. Factor in all the other Lt's. Captains, Majors, Assist Chiefs, Chiefs and Directors , Managers, Supervisors and assistants to the assistants in the city building, the city is buried in high salaries and benny packages plus the cost of retirements.......huge chunk of change to cover all of this and appears to be a prime culprit for a cash strapped city to handle. It appears we could easily be monetarily overloaded in top-heavy papershuffling positions that may, or may not be needed. Does the city have an evaluation system that periodically audits whether current positions are really needed or not or are assessments made "just at the whim of the city manager if they think about it"?

Realizing Cunningham has over 26 years of service and has built up to a higher level of pay, it still is hard to imagine a middle range police position making almost a hundred grand. For whatever reason, just seems a tad bit high. Just have a position like his pegged for around 70-80 grand at most and that may be a high assessment.

Do these positions earn a once a year pay raise based on merit, or are these positions given numerous step increases within a year's time? Wonder what Cunningham's raises have been percentage-wise over the years? If comparable to the private sector lately, it would have been 0 to around 3% per year.


Bottom line....Apparently, the city isn't tapped out as yet. Occasionally, I read in the city work book where the city hires through the back door while telling the public they are too poor to afford the correct number in the fire department. Perhaps they should stop paying Lt's 95 thou a year and start freeing up money to put more officers and firemen out in the field.

Please remember that a lot of these 500 employees are seasonal workers only working a few months a year.