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Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Report from Westwood

Enquirer reporter Gregory Korte filed this report from Tuesday night's Westwood Concern meeting:

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory defended his proposal to increase the top pay for political appointments at City Hall on the eve of tonight’s vote on the ordinance.

At a meeting of Westwood Concern Tuesday night, Mallory argued that he needed to pay his chief of staff, Carla Walker, $76,000 a year to stay competitive. His ordinance would raise the maximum pay for his top legislative aide from $64,900 to $95,500 a year.

“Here’s what’s important. We talk a lot in this city about trying to attract and retain young, bright people,” he said.

“I have a philosophy of only hiring people who are smarter than me, and I feel real strange about hiring people smarter than me, and then paying them less than I make,” said the mayor, who draws an annual salary of $111,402 a year. “If anything, I set that salary too low.”

Mallory said his survey of comparably sized cities found that other mayors have staffs of 12 to 28 people, making between $97,000 to $160,000 a year.

Cincinnati, with a council-manager form of government, has historically had small mayoral staffs that were paid at the same rate as council legislative aides. Other than the city manager and the clerk of council, those aides are the only employees at City Hall hired directly by elected officials.

Many of those aides are paid in the $30,000 to $40,000 range. Westwood resident Sharon Lewis told Mallory Tuesday that “most taxpayers are lucky if they earn $30,000 a year.”

But Westwood Concern co-founder Mary Kuhl didn’t see what the flap was about. “We really need the best people in there serving (the mayor), and we need to pay them,” she said.


17 Comments:

at 3:13 PM, January 25, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sharon Lewis is a long-term employee of the Hamilton County Department of Job & Family Services. Odds are, she makes substanially more than $30,000 per year. I wonder how she would feel if the County Commissioners sought an ordinance to increase JFS salaries.

 
at 3:17 PM, January 25, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why are there two identical posts?

 
at 3:34 PM, January 25, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I frequently find myself driving passed the city employee lot on the corner of 9th and Plum Street. I often go by there between the hours of 8 and 9 PM. Normally there are only 2 or 3 cars still in the lot at that hour and they just happen to always be parked in the spots labeled "Mayor's Aide." This tells me that the Mayor's staff works hard and therefore deserve a pay raise.

 
at 7:48 PM, January 25, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Was wondering when & where Korte would re-surface; and still trying to bash Mallory I see.

 
at 9:47 PM, January 25, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon 3:34, after City Hall hours, taxpayers are known to park in that lot to walk to the stadium, go to the bar for a drink, etc. The dope dealers use it as a pick up-drop off spot as well.

With the basic city services suffering & the retirees' pension on the verge of tanking, for this kind of money for support staff, if & when I ring the Mayor's office, someone had better pick up the phone on the first ring & I'm expecting immediate service to my satisfaction. After all, they're on my dime, er, dollar, too.

In my job, I am paid just as handsomely as the Mayor's girls (sounds like Bob Barker's Price Is Right little plastic dolls, doesn't it?, but I deliver snappy results to my clients' satisfaction. If they ain't happy, then I ain't happy.

At any rate, this is just pathetic. We're what? 6 weeks into this new administration, I haven't seen anything measurable, let alone any of the campaign blather being rolled out in substance & now we're paying a high freight for staff. Good grief! What's next?

 
at 8:12 AM, January 26, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Look, the bottom line is this ... a majority of voters elected Mark Mallory because he had the best solutions to offer our city - and boy do we need solutions! If he needs to increase salaries to keep and attract a staff that can help him reach his goals, then so be it. Now is not the time to be nitpicking about his aide's salaries. If we tie his hands on this issue we'll never see the solutions he has promised. In the grand scheme of things, isn't it worth giving him the "tools" he needs to see our mayor succeed in reaching out to curb gun violence (for example)?

 
at 3:07 PM, January 26, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have no problem with the raises...I just wish Mallory had an original thought every now and then.
His stuff is all cosmetic and shallow.

 
at 8:57 PM, January 26, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mallory only hires people smarter than himself. The only person eliminated by that criteria is his brother Dale. But that's the problem. Dale's about to get impeached for being a slimeball President of West End Community Council.

 
at 10:54 PM, January 26, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ms. Lewis does not work for Job and Family Services. I would strongly suggest you check your facts before posting. I believe her point was more about fiscal responsibility. Why attack her for being a gov. employee? If she sees waste, does she forfeit her ability to comment based on her vocation?

 
at 9:55 AM, January 27, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Dale's about to get impeached for being a slimeball President of West End Community Council."

Yes, but Mallory is also arranging for Dale to get his former House seat (now held by the term limited Barrett), and made sure that Harris--who many regarded as the leading candidate last winter--wouldn't get considered because he criticized Mallory's activites as party chair.

 
at 5:49 PM, January 27, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

When the facts come out, Dale will be lucky if he avoids jail much less get the Mallory house seat. Dale brought in his goon squad of Junebug and Blackfist to try to menace the WECC into submission. The stench of his corruption will kill any political ambitions. The Mayor's best bet is to distance himself. Clinton had Roger, Carter had Billie....Mark has slimeball Dale.

 
at 5:49 PM, January 27, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

When the facts come out, Dale will be lucky if he avoids jail much less get the Mallory house seat. Dale brought in his goon squad of Junebug and Blackfist to try to menace the WECC into submission. The stench of his corruption will kill any political ambitions. The Mayor's best bet is to distance himself. Clinton had Roger, Carter had Billie....Mark has slimeball Dale.

 
at 7:04 PM, January 27, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dale has threatened people that if they move to impeach them he will pay them back when he is State Representative.

I wonder if the next meeting is going to be another thug fest. You would think his brother would ask him to tone it down a notch. At this point Dale Mallory is a political liability. What he is done at West End Community Council meetings is criminal.

 
at 4:51 PM, January 28, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

What's frustrating is that you all view Dale's activities in isolation. The entire Mallory family has used politics for their own benefit; another Mallory brother works at board of elections; Mallory, sr. gets city money for his housing non-profit despite its poor track record.

Mayor Mallory's use of funds from the Kerry campaign and the county party during the 2004 election was nothing short of scandalous. As was his corrobration with the SEIU.

These pigs really know how to feed from the gov't troth. They're the poster child for why I'm a small gov't liberatarian.

 
at 1:45 PM, January 30, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now the Mayor says he didn't know about the meeting law and the Supreme court law. Mallory claimed ignorance in December too.
Brother Dale has secret deals with CityLink and gets himself impeached.
Will Mark need to be impeached too?
He breaks his promise on secret meetings and he breaks the law. Even Judge William, uses his "whim" to send a white man to a black church as a sentence....another abuse of Mallory power. This family is getting way out of hand and needs to obey the rules.

 
at 3:28 PM, February 01, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Brother Dale has secret deals with CityLink and gets himself impeached."

The ignorance in this city is astounding. I wish people would stop lieing.

 
at 9:35 AM, February 25, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

CityLink Score: Lost city council vote 8-1, lost zoning voye, Dale kick out with 31-10 vote. The City and the West End has spoken. CityLink.....get lost!

 
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