Over paid city administrators

The AJC has pointed the finger at McDonough City Administrator James Lee and his large salary. He earns $145,157 and the city’s population is 15,500. However, what a lot of people don’t know is that Fayetteville City Manager Joe Morton earns (total compensation) more proportionally than James Lee. Fayetteville’s population is less than 15,000 and they have far less staff to supervise.

We are getting ripped off by the good ole boys.

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Submitted by swmbo on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 5:48pm.

Doug,

Administrators have the ability to assign the crap work to the people (usually good, experienced workers) that they don't like and -- worse yet -- to employ all of their friends and family. Such croneyism not only gets incompetent people hired but they get hired at grossly inflated wages with unusually-liberal, paid leave.

If you are going to get mad about something, get mad about THAT because it means that you're overpaying a bunch of people to provide you with lower quality service. Yep. Your tax dollars at work.

-------------------------------
If you and I are always in agreement, one of us is likely armed and dangerous.

Submitted by MWF on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 6:06pm.

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/clayton/stories/2006/09/21/0922metmcdon.html

I suppose firing numerous employees is one way to save money. Some of those fired had no control over finances. All the new construction in the area has brought in various permit fees, etc. We still don't have an answer as to how much the upper level staff is being paid, which is public information and can be obtained by means of an open records request, so why not just post it here?

Nancy Faulkner's picture
Submitted by Nancy Faulkner on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 4:10pm.

Thank you for posting the link. I'm at home so I don’t have access to the records right now, but I can tell you that my salary is $68K and the City Manager's is about $105K. If you want to know exactly how much everyone is making, I can email it to you or you can stop by City Hall and pick up a report.

You keep talking about all the long-term employees who were fired. It’s not the first time I’ve heard rumors like that and it simply is not true. When I was hired, Fairburn had a tremendous employee retention problem. Most employees hadn’t even made it through their 5-year vesting period. I was the 8th City Clerk in 5 years. Sure, some employees didn’t like having new management and some didn’t like having performance standards or policies to follow, but most employees wanted to do a good job and they are still there. There are still improvements to be made, but I’m proud of the things we’ve been able to accomplish in Fairburn and I’m proud of the people I work with every day because I know how much they care about the job and about making Fairburn a better place.

Here I am feeling great about all the things we’ve accomplished and proud of all the people I work with and you seem to be pretty ticked off about something. So, what is it? Do you really want to go back to the way things were? Or is there something else that is bothering you?


Submitted by MWF on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 5:09pm.

How incredibly rude! Did you learn your manners in PTC? No, I do not live in Fairburn, but I do own property there. No, I am NOT one of the fired employees. In the event you have not noticed, the top of this website lists a section for South Fulton/Tyrone news, and there is a printed version known as the South Fulton Citizen. Who said the blog was restricted to PTC or Fayette residents only? There are a few people who seem to think this forum is only for them and no one else is entitled to comment. Last time I checked, this was still a free country and there was still a little thing called Freedom of Speech. "If you live in Fairburn and somehow found this forum..." Do you think that no one in Fairburn has or knows how to use the internet? I repeat, how rude and self-centered!

Submitted by OldSchoolFootball on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 6:10pm.

That's just NUK - he doesn't mean to be hateful or disrepectful - he's just curt on his blog responses. We love him anyway...even though he is nearly always wrong Eye-wink

Submitted by MWF on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 6:46pm.

Thank you, OldSchoolFootball. You have somewhat restored my faith in the human race. Perhaps a little anger management would help this person. He may be banned when the "blog police" realize what he said at the end of his comment. There was no need to be so immature.

nuk's picture
Submitted by nuk on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 6:18pm.

Thanks! I am glad I can rent all kind of room in you head for free.

You have a problem with "long-term Fairburn" whatever? Why don't you go attend a City Council meeting and talk about it? I doubt that anyone else shows up for a Fairburn City Council meeting, so you would have the whole floor to yourself! You could go there and whine about all those poor "long-time Fairburn employees" who got shown the door in front of an audience who might actually care. Uhhhh, maybe they won't.
I'm going out on a limb and guessing they are unemployed because they sucked. Just a guess.

You talk about "rudeness" while attacking a couple of people on a personal level. Get a clue or STFU.

NUK


Submitted by MWF on Fri, 09/22/2006 - 10:33pm.

The AJC article regarding overpaid city administrators included a listing of several cities, but did not include Fairburn. The population of Fairburn is probably less than 10,000 and rumor has it the city manager's salary is way out of line. He was previously the P & Z director of PTC (Jim Williams) and the Fairburn city clerk (Nancy Faulkner) was the city clerk of PTC. Apparently there are others with PTC connections who have been hired by Fairburn since the PTC clique took over, whether they are qualified for the positions they are given or not. Many older and long-time employees have left or been fired. By the way, when Ms. Faulkner left PTC after a dispute over her job description/title, she went to lunch with the city attorney and worked out a sweet deal for herself. This is not hearsay or rumor, you can look it up in the PTC council meeting minutes or the Citizen Newspaper's archives. It is all public information and caused quite a stir at the time.

Nancy Faulkner's picture
Submitted by Nancy Faulkner on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 9:38am.

I didn't see the AJC article you are talking about. Would you mind posting the link?

Since the "PTC clique took over", as you put it, Fairburn has gone from loosing money at the end the year to building a cash reserve of over $13 million. We also consistently lowered property taxes to 5 mills AND started a new Fire Department. If "older long-time employees" had been able to accomplish that, then perhaps Fairburn wouldn't have hired someone else to do the job.


nuk's picture
Submitted by nuk on Sat, 09/23/2006 - 6:25am.

You're worried about Fairburn? FAIRBURN? Do you live in Fairburn? Are you one of those "long-time employees who got fired?" Otherwise, what's the point? Oh, it's salaries for Fairburn employees that you don't pay for unless you live in Fairburn.

So, if you live in Fairburn and somehow found this forum, go for it.
If not, your opinion is of the "who cares?" variety. If you aren't paying their salaries that you hate so much, you have zero standing. If you are one of the "long-time employees" that got fired, suck it up and move on already.

I know, I know, it's HATE all things PTC and since there are people in Fairburn who were in PTC, you have a problem. WAAAAAAAHHHH!

Everyone is entitled to an INFORMED OPINION. Your opinion makes me glad I'm a Darwinist.

NUK


Submitted by Hardtack on Fri, 09/22/2006 - 2:37pm.

Doesn't PTC have two? One called an assistant at 90% of the salary? And a Tourism director, or is that a tennis center director?

Submitted by Doug on Fri, 09/22/2006 - 2:58pm.

I don't know any of the details on Peachtree City's people. I do know the mayor is a bad guy.

I know someone who works for Fayetteville, and that is how I know about Joe Morton. PTC has twice the population and MAYBE twice the employees. It would be interesting to find out.

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