New Haven Independent

posted by: Steve Koch on July 3, 2009  9:51am

This is OUTRAGEOUS!  The unions were coerced to provide several rounds of concessions only to be stabbed in the back by the mayor and his cronies?  Even State employees are taking furlough days!  Living in this city has become disheartening to say the least.  My heart bleeds for the hard working municipal laborers that recently joined the ranks of the unemployed…and now they must read a story like this?  John Destefano should be ashamed of himself to be a member of the Democratic Party.  Please take me off his “support” list!  Finally, as a well educated young man, my wife and I have plans to move post haste. City Hall tactics such as this discourage young people to remain in New Haven and keep the community vibrant to be sure. I am emphatically disgusted!

posted by: jawbone on July 3, 2009  10:42am

C’mon, people.  Lets vote DeStefano out.

posted by: Bill Saunders on July 3, 2009  12:15pm

This is the same old story that has been happening in corporate america for years.

Squeeze out the small man who does the actual work, if favor of the connected middle management.

You want me to start my list of layoffs….....

JOHN DESTEFANO—YOU ... [HAVE] NO RESPECT FOR TRUE HUMAN ABILITY, OR PERSONAL PERFORMANCE.  THAT YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A PUBLIC SERVANT IS LAUGHABLE.

New Haven, WE CAN GET RID OF THIS MAN.
THE OUTRAGE ON THESE MESSAGE BOARDS NEEDS TO TRANSLATE INTO ACTION!!!!

posted by: Seriously! on July 3, 2009  12:35pm

True, the Parks Department lost half their staff - but that doesn’t mean that Bob Levine is doing the work those staff members did! How about raises for the 3144 employees who are stepping up and keeping the department running?

posted by: jawbone on July 3, 2009  1:40pm

Wow, look at what these people make!  I got into the wrong line of work, man. 
Mr. Smuts makes almost $112K!  I’d drive around town and take crap from the citizens with a smile on my face too if I made that much.

posted by: LevelHeadedAndObjective on July 3, 2009  1:49pm

So what is your point.  Did it ever occur to anyone at the Independent these folks might actually be ‘entitiled’ to a raise. That they me be some of the best and brightest New Haven has to offer. Or should we all work for the same wage. That would be a great idea. We all work for the same wage no matter what we do. Our talents and expertise does not count. Our educational background does not count. Our execptional abilities in our specific fields does not count. Well then that would be so good wouldn’t it.  We would all be the same. How lovely.  How nice. How boring. How sad. While I realize the Independent virtually provides all this news for free. Why does the rest of the world have to follow your model.  Why don’t we just all hold hands and be happy. Why can’t we just be happy.  La di da la di da.  Thankfully there are still achievers and creators left in the City and the world. Achievement is a beautiful thing. And so is the reward. In the capitalist world. This reward would be called a ‘‘raise’‘. Hope this blog gets a rise out of all of you naysayers.

posted by: Bill Saunders on July 3, 2009  2:22pm

Levelheaded, Objective and Disingenuous,

If you are going to come out in support of this, from an insider’s perspective, have the balls to be a human, not a anonymous message board ‘handle’.

Citizens, follow suit!
Don’t be afraid to be outspoken as yourself.

This is a time of shared sacrifice, and if our civic leaders are unwilling to participate as fair and equal partners in righting this mess, they must be challenged at the polls.

The Deadline for filing a nominating petition for candidacy is August 5th.  The required signatures is about 120.

Someone credible please.

posted by: ohreally? on July 3, 2009  2:30pm

Jawbone,

Maybe if you spent a sh*&load; of money to learn from the best and brightest at Yale, loved the city long enough to stick around and take crap from the Mayor, the department heads you supervise, and the citizens of New Haven, you could actually earn Rob’s salary.  Mckinsey & Co. would be glad to pick up a smart guy with tons of energy and passion about his work. He could have probably earned 200k/yr in his 1st year out of Yale, working similar hours, if not less.

Pick on the Mayor for the poor timing of this decision, stop picking on these individuals.

posted by: Seriously! on July 3, 2009  2:39pm

“Thankfully there are still achievers and creators left in the City and the world.”

Unfortunately, none of them are employed in executive management at the City of New Haven. With very few exceptions, the privileged few who received raises are Johnny D’s “yes” men (and women). What a shame.

posted by: ParkStTaxPayer on July 3, 2009  2:44pm

wow that’s be great to earn 111,723/365= $360.09 PER DAY!

I work 10-hour shifts here in New Haven, lifting (by hand) 5,300 lbs of paper per shift (I work for a printing press) and I earn $520 per WEEK.

Granted, I’m not holding press conferences, but c’mon! Get real people! My 9 year old car costs me $140 per year in taxes; it’d be a lot less if there wasn’t so much waste in New Haven.

No more elm trees here in the Elm City… we should rename it “Money Pit Haven”

$5,000 wardrobe from NYC anyone?

posted by: Streever on July 3, 2009  3:33pm

and city hall wonders why no one votes

posted by: more data on July 3, 2009  3:50pm

Anyone with a copy of the 2009-2010 Mayor’s Proposed Budget can compare the above list to the budgeted salaries.  The total diff seems to be about $110K for the 41 positions.  There looks to be only one increase above 10% (12%). Most are around 3% with a few btwn 4-8%. Should anyone that works for the city get a raise at this time?  Maybe, maybe not…

posted by: Brian V on July 3, 2009  3:53pm

Mr. Matteson:  “the right time to do something”
When would be the wrong time to give yourself a raise?
During a recession- I guess not.
In between rounds of lay-offs? I guess so.
(Board of ED isn’t done laying off lower level employees yet).
From the administrations point of view I guess the time is right.

No one should be surprised about this.
For 16 years, King John has been stepping on the heads of the people of New Haven; he cares NOTHING for his constituents nor the City, just about shoring up his own power base.

To all the timid “I’ll run next time- he can’t be beat this time” wanna-be mayors out there- I hope you are all kicking yourselves now. If any of you had the b*lls a couple of months ago, you would be in a very different position today, wouldn’t you. Hind sight is 20/20 - Cowards. -You know who you are. Keep pandering to him, maybe you’ll get a raise, or a better appointment, or his support to run for a different office.

Levelheaded: Why not your real name? That’s ok, I’ll just pick one off the list above. In the capitalist world times are tough and no one is getting a raise these days, and those same capitalists would like to pay less in taxes and see their PUBLIC SERVANTS tighten their belts too.
You wouldn’t know anything about that because you are a BUREAUCRAT, not a capitalist. So ...enjoy spending our money with your new raise.

posted by: Confused on July 3, 2009  4:26pm

BRIAN V-

RUN YOURSELF DON’T PREACH.

posted by: anon on July 3, 2009  4:28pm

I doubt that many voters would have a problem with pay raises for high-performing city employees if they could see a detailed annual accountability / performance review for each person, with information about how efficient they were and how they helped promote efficiency among their staff.  This would have been difficult a few years ago, but technology these days would make it easy.

In Minneapolis, voters vote to approve the parks department budget. If the parks department does a horrible job, no raise (or they get fired). If the parks are nice, voters send more and more resources. The result: hands-down the best park system in the country.

In New Haven, there is no way to hold government accountable.  Aldermen can either vote yes or no on the entire school budget, for example, they can’t go through it with a “scalpel” like Obama. 

Make local government open and transparent, and the public will be happy to vote for raises for the right people, and weed out the rest.

In the meantime, I would suspect that some of the city employees listed above deserved a large raise (perhaps even larger than what they are getting), while others did not.  Still others may have salaries that are far too high—after all, this is a city with a 2006 median household income of $36,000, a 28% youth poverty rate, 10.5% unemployment rate, and lots more people barely able to pay the taxes on their homes. 

Let the public, not the city unions, review annual progress and decide how much our public servants should be paid.  Give special merit pay for teachers or others who are particularly outstanding.  We need to retain the best people but we also need to improve government efficiency.

posted by: anon on July 3, 2009  4:34pm

How many of these people actually live in the city of New Haven?  I’ve heard the percentage is quite low.

In order to boost our city’s economy and fill up some of the hundreds of boarded up, vacant & foreclosed homes that plague some of our neighborhoods, how about an immediate 20-40% across the board pay cut in order to create a generous homebuyer program for all city teachers, police, firefighters and staff persons?

If Yale, New York City, and other cities can do it, why can’t we?

posted by: Streever on July 3, 2009  4:56pm

What’s ridiculous is the mayor’s well-timed public paycut of 3% during his “I’m running for mayor” spiel, coupled with a request that lower level employees take pay cuts.

It was just PR. I fell for it.

I’m personally disappointed. This leaves a really bad taste in my mouth considering all the people the city has laid off.

Times are tough—but I guess when everyone has to make a little sacrifice, that doesn’t include the mayor’s top staff.

(As an aside, I can’t fathom how they justify keeping Piscitelli’s salary so low. The majority of our municipal space is streets…. traffic parking & transportation is one our of most important departments & it is a shame how poorly the City funds the department.)

posted by: Edward_H on July 3, 2009  4:58pm

This story will be forgotten about before election day.

posted by: anon on July 3, 2009  5:17pm

I agree with Streever. Traffic & Parking needs not just more staff and higher salaries to retain the best people, like Mike Piscitelli who probably works 100 hours per week trying to make the most of grants and such, but also larger budgets for painting and construction. Look at the faded and nonexistent crosswalks everywhere in the city. Look at what’s happening on Whalley and Whitney Aves right in front of schools. That’s all completely unacceptable for a city trying to keep its quality of life high enough to retain residents and families. If there’s not enough money to hire city union labor at $50-100 per hour for this stuff, let local residents start doing the painting and traffic modifications themselves.

posted by: strangerthanfiction on July 3, 2009  6:29pm

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, as they say.

posted by: Consti2amend on July 3, 2009  6:29pm

I cannot/will not EVER be PC!!  Oh, and I’m NOT sorry for this, either!

King JOHN,
I hear the police dept. gets retirment based on their gross pay for their last few years.  Is this correct?  If it is, I believe we should change this RIGHT AWAY!  Why?  Because they will ALL be working the night clubs {grabbing “members” of the opposite sex?}, sitting in their cars on construction/utility jobs, etc.  Well those jobs pay only for THAT time!  BUT, we as taxpayers will keep on paying it when they retire!!  This must be stopped, and Right NOW!
You, King John, are NOT a magician!  You can only tax us more and more!  Where are you going to get the money?  Like I have posted elsewhere, are you planning on “pulling” another “MIL” out of OUR ass-sets? Stand up to the unions that are doing this, as this IS a rape of we, the taxpayer!
If you can’t find it in you to do this NOW, then please ask for a bicycle pump!  This will help you inflate the shriveled contents of your unused sack!
What kind of “pork” do WE have here in New Haven?  How much did it cost “US”, for the ID cards for illegal aliens?  Did anyone in OUR City Offices do a cross reference on names, addresses, etc?  You see, there are several people where I worked, that used the copy machine to “doctor-up” their info!  But, there did not appear to be any “oversight” on YOU, or the “managment” team’s decisions!
What resources do we spend outside of NH?  I am “new” again to NH.  I know we have sister cities on other continents.  Is any money/time “spent” on these projects?  If there is, then it’s time for a divorce!  Show me the “LAW” that says we HAVE to spend this money!  Or are they just Liberal Whims?  We must stop the needLESS spending.
By the way, where do you get the authority to give out raises? I was under the impression that the Alder(wo)men had to vote on this.  When did this change?  Otherwise, you could be handing out money to NON-deserving people!

NOW, this part is REALLY not PC, but I don’t care!  It is about time the TAXPAYERS think about taking back what IS ours!  Our money! 
We must STOP spending our tax dollars on people who already DON’T pay taxes!  You are taking more FROM us, and we receive NOTHING in return!  No, not better police/fire/ems services.  They will always be “the same”.  How about NO MORE new schools.  I mean, most of the population that will use the schools, their families pay little OR nothing in taxes {as has been pointed out by others}!  A new school will NOT get the students better grades!  Nor will getting rid of some teachers.  Get rid of the “middle management” at the schools!  Who are they managing anyway?
Also, NO more new Firehouses!  Where is the Maintenance crew that is suppossed to maintain them?  In NH, we have houses/office buildings that have been standing for over 100 years, why can’t we get 50 years on a school/firehouse?
And with ALL of the “new buildings” going up, why haven’t OUR city planners/designers/engineers, etc. THOUGHT about using alternative building products?  Why not ICF’s {Insulated Concrete Forms}?  Instead of the “standard” 50 year building?  Look at some of the original Winchester buildings.  They are bomb proof!
King John,
These are some of my rants, just so I can save some for a rainy day.  See you at the next session!

posted by: jack on July 3, 2009  8:47pm

This is a surprise to anyone?

posted by: Gary Doyens on July 3, 2009  10:56pm

I’m not surprised by this development. It is born out of hubris, arrogance and disdain for taxpayers who live in a city with an effective unemployment rate of 15% or more. It starts with DeStefano and extends to his senior staff listed above. If they collectively or individually produced good, verifiable results, it would be one thing. But New Haven is going backwards. It has a growing underclass, shrinking level of homeownership and declining enrollment in its schools despite having invested $1.5 billion in new buildings; not to mention a debt level exceeding a billion dollars. Property taxes in critical parts of the city have nearly doubled in just 5 years; youth violence is as bad as it has ever been and we have senior managers who can’t control overtime, operate department effectively or efficiently which then leads to selling these as assets to raise capital to balance the books. What exactly is there to reward these people for? Enabling DeStefano and his family destroying budgets? Where is the shared sacrifice? Taxpayers were told this year not expect the parks to be mowed as often; not to expect many street repairs; and told to close senior centers and layoff other employees to cut expenses. T

Special comments:

Sean Mattison: Your explaination of these raises and their timing is irrational, incoherent and idiotic, in fact, stunningly so for somebody who oversees such a large swath of poorly performing city departments. And by the way, none of these people went without a raise for years - they did without for two lousy years after getting huge raises at that time.

Levelheadeded: Change your nick. It doesn’t fit. For the record, nobody is “entitled” to a raise.

posted by: blue dog dem on July 3, 2009  10:58pm

Whether or not these people deserve raises is moot if the City is operating in the red.  In the private sector, you are paid on performance.  Not one department in the City is operating well, except for maybe tax collection (I wonder why).  Therefore in a bad economy, even if these people did not receive raises for the last decade, much less the past few years, they should not receive a dime.  They should be thankful to have jobs based on the poor performance shown so far.  And if people on the mayor’s staff could make more in the private sector, then let them.  As if losing them might cause the City to go into the toilet, but somehow I doubt that they are much in demand.

NYC uses a measure of productivity in computing union contracts.  If the union is productive, it receives raises.  If not, layoffs.  What most voters need to consider is that a new administration is needed to clean up this mess.  They will only by in office for one term because they will piss off every large voting block that has had its hands in the till for the past 100 years, so there is no chance of them getting re-elected.  But that one term could make substantial changes and improve the City.  If no one votes for the challenger, then they only have themselves to blame when it all hits the fan.

posted by: jeffreykerekes on July 4, 2009  8:34am

Did we all forget this story?

posted by: BurnedoutNHTaxpayer on July 4, 2009  8:47am

As a property and car taxpayer this is just one of multiple reasons that I am leaving New Haven as soon as I possibly can!  If there was just a viable candidate that ran against DeStefano, not only me but my entire family would work to make sure that person has a chance to win.  But King John has this city on lockdown and I don’t think he’s leaving anytime soon.

posted by: Darnell on July 4, 2009  9:49am

Disheartening. Diappointiong but not surprising. How in the world can they justify raises when they requested givebacks from everyone, and laid off others.

posted by: juli on July 4, 2009  10:36am

this is just as laughable as the “mayor’s night out” postcard i got in the mail the other day.

destefano lists the following four categories of topics that he imagines city residents want to come discuss with him:

1. “sidewalks and paving” (i’d prefer to discuss how it seems the complete streets legislation is just a useless piece of paper incapable of swaying the DOT)

2. “school construction” (how about a student’s PERFORMANCE??)

3. “policing concerns” (i guess this is not as important as sidewalk complaints)

4. “other important issues”

wait, new haven has other important issues?

posted by: crazyman on July 4, 2009  11:39am

Hey, look at me, everyone - I’m using a fake name, so I can say whatever and call people names and never say anything at all.  Hey, I’m leaving New Haven.  The taxes are too high, so I’m going to Alaska, where they don’t have taxes.  I live in East Haven, anyway, but you don’t know that, so I’ll just leave New Haven.  I’m not PC, but I really don’t know what that means, but I know I’m not it.  I say it is like it is, so take that bleedy hearts.  Let’s cut every city employee’s salary by 20-40%, so they’ll all quit, then we won’t have to pay taxes and when no one picks up the garbage, we can all move to Alaska.  Because that’s not PC.  You can say that I don’t know anything, but I do, and I have lots of canned goods, so I’ll be ok.

posted by: Streever on July 4, 2009  6:57pm

Right on Juli—
and don’t forget, in our neighborhood, “policing concerns” means OUR concerns, not if the police are or aren’t doing a good job. The official story from City Hall is “East Rock has nothing to complain about”.

While it’s true our crime is low, seeing 2-3 cops sitting at the 24 hour gas station on Willow because it “gets robbed a lot” is something that should rightfully concern us. Those same officers could be in Newhallville (part of our district) stopping actual crime, or they could be free security guards for a private business.

posted by: Streever on July 4, 2009  6:59pm

and—let’s not forget, those are what he WANTS us to be concerned about.

Sidewalks & paving he knows are huge issues (SCF)—school construction he is insanely proud of (during the boom years he managed to blow through hundreds of millions building palaces with shoddy administration & 0 oversight)—policing concerns (I got you a new DM! and Chief Lewis is great.)—

it’s a great opportunity for him to control the conversation & micro-manage it & own it before it starts.

posted by: Brian V on July 4, 2009  9:49pm

Streever for Mayor!

posted by: Sarah Forman on July 5, 2009  9:43am

The timing is unfortunate, but it doesn’t make sense to report the raises as being “up to” 12% when in actuality the real average was far lower.  It looks like only the assistant corporation counsel got the top %, and earning $72K is hardly a “good” salary for a lawyer!  Those earning over $100K, tho’, should not have gotten a raise in these times!  Those at the bottom of the list are earning far too little. Give them the money from the top of the list.

posted by: statesman on July 5, 2009  11:33am

Whats a hundred thousand dollars of the taxpayers money when its spread among support staff?They wont even notice the hundred grand. A sad day in New Haven

posted by: anon on July 5, 2009  2:45pm

“Those at the bottom of the list are earning far too little.”

Not necessarily. Great executive management is far more important to the city (in terms of the city’s overall efficiency, not making mistakes that cost the city in legal fees, and getting the greatest productivity out of the rest of the staff) than paying a lower-level clerical and technical employees more money.  I don’t see why any of the city’s administrative or research assistants should be making more than $25-40K, given the market rates for that type of position and what the average New Haven family makes in a position like that.  Furthermore, given the state of the economy and 10% unemployment, there are plenty of qualified people who could take these positions (including some, but not all, of the upper level ones, all the way up to the Mayor and Superintendent’s massive salary), for a more reasonable price. 

Bottom line is that the city is funded by taxpayers, and really does not need to be paying exhorbitant salaries or giving raises at this time—especially when the median household income is what someone reported above, and when many of these high-paid executive and admin staff don’t even live in New Haven.  Cities should only give raises to individuals when the market requires it.

posted by: Hood Rebel on July 5, 2009  3:54pm

This article accomplished what it intended to do… p/0ff readers. Did the editors take the time to get some hard facts as to whether these salaries are in line with similar size communities?

Yes, the timing of these increases might be wrong but where is the balance in this story?

These are some standard tests questions used by the IRS and other government agencies. Perhaps the NHI would consider utilizing these standards in future reports!

Did the city rely upon appropriate data as to comparability prior to approving raises.

Appropriate data may include the following:

1.compensation levels paid by similarly situated organizations, both taxable and tax-exempt, for functionally comparable positions. “Similarly situated” organizations are those of a similar size, purpose, and with similar resources;

2.current compensation surveys compiled by independent firms;

It easy to jump on the band-wagon of emotional indignation, but this article should have included just a little bit more homework and just a few more facts!

posted by: Been Called Worse on July 5, 2009  4:03pm

Whats a hundred thousand dollars of the taxpayers money when its spread among support staff?

Taken in context, it is the disparity between the givebacks which were required of unions.  The givebacks of which enough was not given back, leading to layoffs.

So, the argument can certainly be made that the unions were required to giveback to balance the budget so the city could afford to give these 12 raises.  It doesn’t look decent, to say the least.  Easy way for management to build up resentment (as if enough didn’t exist already).  And thats all this move shows - MANAGEMENT, *not* LEADERSHIP.

This shows priorities - 35k for an unfunded summer music program vs. 100+k for managerial raises.  The music program should be funded FIRST, then managerial raises given, if at all.

This would seem much less underhanded if the city gave supervisors raises on par with the union raises (roughly 3% per year).  I think that is more than fair, this move just looks absolutely horrible to Joe New Havener considering the hand wringing by the mayor on how broke the city is.

But, he can get away with it, as you all let him….

posted by: anon on July 5, 2009  8:17pm

Hood Rebel, your argument might have made sense in 2006, but only if you assumed that the public had access to performance reviews and such (which they do not, since they do not exist).

But this is 2009, we are at the beginning of the worst downturn of the past 100 years, the rate of foreclosures has quadrupled, abandoned homes once again pockmark our neighborhoods, the city is a billion dollars in debt and even Yale is laying off employees.  If anything, there should be an across-the-board 30% cut in base salaries and benefits (except for police and teachers making less than $60K) and other drastic measures.

posted by: New Haven Dependent on July 5, 2009  9:27pm

Hoodie you hit the nail on the head. 

The NHI is nothing more than a bomb throwing tabloid, dependent on negative “artilces” like this.  It begins with the end (Paul’s version of reality) and then seeks out facts, or not, and goes with the story.  Reporting is an inconvenience for this crew.

When in doubt pour gasoline on the fire and insight the usual suspects to form the negative spewing firing squad. 

Anyone who dares to make a difference or stand up for something is attacked from one side or the other as the status quo beat rolls on.

Does anyone at the Independent get a paycheck?  Do any of these posters work for someone?  Are they all content to work for no raise in three years?  One raise in three years is not that bad for the taxpayer.  If the Unions took two zeros, closed the Pension and made Health care concessions like these folks did then there would be significant savings.  But why report on that when we can attack and throw stones from our glass houses?

12% and more deserve legitimate review and should be answered, but 3% in 3 years, come on.

The problem is that Paul and his “reporters” know all this.  They divide New Haven into good and bad based on Paul’s ever changing and evolving compass and “report” accordingly.

You lemmings follow along and comment accordingly.

posted by: Gary Doyens on July 5, 2009  10:21pm

Hood Rebel:
That additional information you thought would be helpful to this story is immaterial - this city is broke; it just laid off lower tier employees because it is broke and it only balanced last year’s budget, after spending an entire year out of balance in violation of the city charter, through selling assets….again. After cutting services, laying off employees, making others take cuts or provide givebacks, to give ANY pay raise to mostly senior managers, the highest paid people in city government, is not only unwise, it’s stupid and quite possibly illegal. To my knowledge, this account is a contract reserve account. It is being tapped to increase salaries in violation of the budget that was just approved. Changes to accounts are supposed to be approved by the BOA. If DeStefano wanted to give these people raises, he should have budgeted for them and disclosed it during months of budget deliberations. If this is a private slush fund for DeStefano’s own purposes, shame on BOA for approving it. In any case, what others are paid and overpaid n similar jobs in other small cities in CT is a pointless comparison. If you want to go down that road, compare New Haven city government to other cities NOT in CT to find out how inefficient it really is. It’s time for a reality check.

posted by: Concerned on July 6, 2009  2:03am

If New Haveners really want DeStephano out the pick someone - anyone whom so ever - get them to agree to run.  Then vote for this person despite any bad performance during the campaign.  Run the guy picking empty bear cans out of the garbage and vote him in.  Anyone will do.  That’s how you get rid of DeStephano and send a message at the same time.

posted by: Exiled Italian Shill on July 6, 2009  7:40am

Not the best time to give up raises, but when is there ever a good time to do so in the public’s mind?

Is this a signal that there are going to be no more lay-offs in the city?

posted by: Gene Debs on July 6, 2009  9:42am

CONSTI2AMEND:

I trudged through your long winded manifesto attacking labor unions—and everything that popped into your head—with vile distaste.  Organized labor has been on the decline for some time and workers across this country are suffering for it.  The Mayor is using this present economic crisis to attempt to cripple the city’s unions, pressuring for cuts and laying off workers, while rewarding his inner circle.  You two are strange bedfellows indeed. 

You’re suggesting that the brave men and women who put their lives on the line as police officers shouldn’t receive pensions?  Their pension contributions are enormous and their work grueling.  Perhaps you are envious that your labor of love, kvetching, isn’t more handsomely rewarded.

posted by: cba on July 6, 2009  10:45am

Keep it up King John DeStefano, the voters’ day of reckoning is coming and your pompous ass with all your clowns soon will be looking for employment, hopefully in some banana republic where you can continue the masquerade as an intelligent leader

posted by: Sandra Diaz on July 6, 2009  10:59am

What Mayor Destefano has done is a slap in the face to every tax payer of New Haven.  He lay off so many people and the excuse that he used was that we are in a recession and there is no money.  Now the salary of the people that he lay off has been distributed for the raise of these people in high ranking jobs.  Not only is this type of action that was taken by Mayor Destefano a slap in the face to all of his constituents but an insult.  He has abuse the powers that were given to him by his voters now is time for a new Mayor.

posted by: Exiled Italian Shill on July 6, 2009  4:51pm

The bloggers on this site always amaze me.  while I agree this may not be the best time to do these raises, but where were all these bloggers at the past couple of years to say, “smart move Mayor not to give out raises.” 

Its not always about bashing government you need to let them know when they are doing something right as well.

posted by: City Hall Watch on July 6, 2009  5:39pm

Exiled Italian Schill:

When city government starts doing something right, quits playing racial politics, lowers the tax rate, becomes responsive to taxpayers and quits blaming others for the woes the “leaders” here have created, I’ll be first in line to kiss the mayor’s ring and all the rest of the muckity mucks who pretend to have our best intersts at heart. Until then, it’s informative to remember the double digit payraises, the doubling of our tax rate, the lowering of our bond rating, the continuing failure of our public schools and the inability of city government to modernize and use technology for something other than beating up taxpayers for more money.

posted by: William Kurtz on July 7, 2009  1:16pm

We don’t often agree, but fair is fair and I think Consti2Amend has a point about police pensions.  Not to take anything away from the difficult job they do, but it is my understanding (please, someone correct me if I’m mistaken) that most municipal police officers earn pensions based on their three or so best salary years.  Overtime is figured into the calculation, including overtime earned working for third-parties (utility companies, nightclubs, schools, etc.) who pay the officer indirectly when billed by the PD.

It’s worth asking if this is a fair or necessary system.  To the best of my knowledge, few or no other municipal employees have access to this kind of benefit.  Most municipal teachers, for example, earn ‘stipends’ for extra duty (coaching, advising, etc.) that are calculated as a percentage of first-year BA salary—not as a percentage of their current salary.  These stipends are also not figured into the pension.

posted by: kamb on July 7, 2009  9:14pm

WHAT A JOKE!

This person’s only job is to talk to the press:

Public Information Officer Jessica Mayorga-Rivera $77,102

Are you serious?!?! How do I get a job like that?

Most of the jobs listed are jokes!

SHAME SHAME KING JOHN!!!!

posted by: Dan on July 8, 2009  4:45pm

The city should be more inline with the real world. Despite my hard work, which I still perform, my employer froze wage increases before the economic crisis. After the economic crisis and after not receiving wages we were asked to take time and that money would be deducted from our salaries as well. Maybe the people 60,000 or below should see some increase because times are difficult especially if you are raising a family. But certainly people making 80,000 to well over 100,000 should be able to survive the storm unless there is an extreme hardship. To lay off people in the name of economic necessity and then give others raise increases of 12% is immoral.

posted by: Consti2amend on July 8, 2009  5:55pm

To Gene Debs;
I’m sorry.  I did not post my whole idea on unions!  I do believe in unions!  It may not appear this way from my “rant”.
I defy anyone to ask an employee of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc, if they CAN afford to buy a house, in the neighborhood they want.  NOT one could!  Some people tried to get union representation, and their employer closed the doors.  I think Wal-Mart did that, and one of the “box” stores “like” Costco{I do forget the name of the store}, closed their doors in some areas.
As for the {wo}men in uniform, I never said they were NOT worthy of their pension!  I simply stated that the pensions are being “artificially inflated” by working for utility companies, nightclubs, schools, etc.  They ARE raping US over these “extra duty” jobs!

To William Kurtz,
We have agreed on more than you are aluding to!  See you and Streever at Crit Mass?