By: Diane Benjamin
Monday night the Normal Town Council will vote to themselves raises. They won’t take effect until May 1st. Anybody not up for election will be voting for themselves if they win reelection in two years, which is silly to pay at different rates. Those elected in April get the raise. Even weirder, the mayor’s raise won’t take effect until May 1, 2021. Why they are voting on it now is a mystery.
This is like taking a job knowing the salary and then demanding more. The only difference is nobody is going to say you don’t deserve it or we can’t afford it. They can just steal more from you.
It isn’t a cost of living raise. For the mayor it proves he doesn’t consider his role as part-time. Under the City Manager form of government the Council employs the City Manager to run the town. Koos evidently thinks he runs it.
The documentation claims in 2005 the Council salaries went from $4200 a year to $4800. Monday they will increase to $6800 because of “growing demands on their time”. Saying yes to everything takes a lot of time.
The mayor is much worse. In 2009 his salary went from $10,000 to $18,000. Monday it goes to $32,000! Staff thinks that is in line with mayors of other communities. Bloomington must not consider their Council and mayor employees, because they have not been reflected on the total compensation report for years. I wonder if they get W-2’s?
From memory, Renner makes $12,000 a year the Council about $4500. Is Koos comparing his salary to other City Manager communities or just changing the form of government without a referendum? Are the “demands” on Koos’s time mandatory or self-inflicted?
If Chris Koos thinks he runs the Town, how much is Pam Reeces’s salary getting cut? Didn’t Koos just get some free trips? The latest to California with Rivian? Is his bike shop failing or is he setting up the next mayor for when he quits?
Maybe Koos is trying to find a tenant for 1 Uptown Circle himself since the developer has failed.
PDF page 60: http://www.normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3138
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All that is needed now is a retirement plan with health care for life. Oops, I hope they don’t read this maybe they have not thought of it yet.
As usual, we work for them.
Stay tuned, it gets worse.
Wonder if this will get reported in the Pantycrap? Or is it Pravdagraph, I forget?
Whatever the case, they were hoping nobody would notice.
Mayor of Normal is only a full-time-ish job if you want it to be. There is no real need to go to the socialist mayors’ convention, to attend politically-charged parades if you’re truly non-partisan, to research all your pet spending projects, to contact each council member individually so you can circumvent the open meetings act, and whatever else he’s doing, assuming Normal has a decent town manager.
On the plus side, if Normal Is salvageable and gets a worthwhile mayor next election cycle, they can win a lot of brownie points by cutting their own salary.
Koos “runs” UPTOWN about as well as I can sled on a cookie sheet down Mt Everest! That RAINBOW sash must be a HEAVY burden, which takes a LOT of his “personal” time to keep straight, along with his fake smile…
Last I counted there are 8 people running for three seats on the Normal Town Council in the March election. Only two are incumbents so at least 6 are willing to work under the current rate of pay. If it’s not enough how does one explain the new recruits? If RC and Kathleen aren’t willing to work at the current rate, then maybe we need to replace them with someone who is.
If RC and Kathleen are politically savvy, they’d say something like “While it’s always nice to get a raise and I’m grateful for the sentiment, I’m uncomfortable accepting more pay in a time of economic uncertainty here in the Twin Cities. When I hear about folks losing their jobs at State Farm, see vacant commercial buildings, and outmigration of talented young people, I don’t think it’s right to accept a raise.” Now, we all know that’s not going to happen. They’ll take the money. Worse still, they certainly won’t say anything bad about our local economy and its direction. To do so, would be to admit that they supported, aided or are/were willfully blind to the disastrous trajectory of the local economy.
Koos is stepping up his retirement fund. Apparently, bikes aren’t as cool as he and his elitist pals think. Who would have that thought? Maybe the 99.35% of adults that don’t ride bikes and thus would have no interest in his shop. Anyway, Koos is not running again (he didn’t want to run in this past election), so he’s trying to pad his wallet on the way out the door. Just like most everything else, he thought he’d sneak it through without the taxpayers noticing or caring. The Pantagraph and GLT certainly aren’t asking any questions. Maybe R.C. or Carlo “Robusblind” will launch a hard-hitting segment on overpaid politicians in Normal in a time where debt is spiraling out of control and people are leaving the town. Haha! Right.
Really shows that there ARE ways one can get “Money for Nothing” just get a “position” in Normal (and many other “Normals”)
Must be nice to give yourself a raise! Marching in gay parade in Boston(?) . Taking trips on tax payers backs all constitute a full time job? The streets are still a mess of potholes,the sewers are breaking down & murder and mayhem is getting to be commonplace, none of this have been fixed by Mr. Pat myself on the back and reward myself a raise!
Gee,no funding to pay for fire/police pensions but plenty to give yourself a raise??? This year alone 3 Police officers were cut from the budget yet Koos and Company can double THEIR salaries?
This really pisses me off. I sit through most of the council meetings and see these clowns do pretty much nothing. Some of these meetings are literally less than 2 mins long. How can they possibly justify this much a pay raise? Was it really such hard work sitting there for 2-3 hours when the Welcoming Cities ordnance was on the table? That’s about the hardest they’ve worked in years! I was there when they decided to cut staff/positions due to budget cuts, yet now they can easily say they themselves need more? I’ll be curious to see if there’s any opposition tonight. I’d hope that Fritzen has the balls to say F-off to the rest of them since he’s not seeking re-election, but for some reason I doubt it.
Maybe, Mike, most of the work, the effort, the thought happens BEFORE the meeting. I find Normal’s meetings refreshing. Unlike the spectacle that is Bloomington. You think that the meeting is the only work they do. Laughable. They have constituents who call them or email yr round, all hours. And Fritzen would know best the amount of work it takes to be a council member. I’m a Christian woman, but this level of ignorance should be a sin.
Normal’s meetings are 10 minutes or less because it’s all been discussed before getting there! Of course, you wouldn’t know that’s against the law – but then laws don’t matter anywhere anymore. (Unless to use them against the citizens.)