Last week's decision by the town council of Southern Shores to RIF (reduction in force) out three town employees stinks to High Heaven. The board, by a 3-2 vote decided to lay off Merrie Smith, a 13 year administrative assistant in the town office. Smith is the wife of former mayor, Don Smith who was defeated by the current mayor Hal Denny in a heavily heated contest. EOD's experiences with Ms. Smith have always been very good and our impression is that she has always been a very dedicated employee.
In addition to Smith, the council also voted to lay off Alvin Roundtree, the town's building inspector and code enforcement officer. And, finally, Dave Bakken, the town's fire inspector was laid off.EOD smells a rat here, and we don't particularly like it, even though we didn't support former mayor Don Smith for re-election. We are a firm believer that noble men and women don't take their grudges out on an opponent's family or pets. It stinks!
Furthermore, Southern Shores just voted the largest tax increase in the history of any town in Dare County to fund a budget for this year that included the salaries for each of these people. If that money has been mismanaged or needed elsewhere, who is to blame?
Come on Mayor Denny and Council members George Kowalski and Jodi Hess, you can do better. Phooey!
22 comments:
That's because the Southern Shores Fire Dept is busy spending all that money...
Something sticks alright! I’m no fan of the Smiths, but how can the Board justify laying off three employees when a budget was passed that included the addition of a NEW police officer, a number of new police vehicles, and merit/COLA raises for all SS employees. I would rather see three people keep their jobs instead of seeing the Police Chief and Lieutenant driving around in plush new SUVs…
Probably need to use a lot of money to buy a bunch more 'No Parking' signs to keep all us illegal aliens from access to the beach up there.
Let's see ... Largest tax increase .... Salaries accounted for in newest budget ... New vehicles and merit/COLAs for all ... But, hey, let's tell a valued, long term employee "Done here. Get out"
Wow. Such creative thinking!
Maybe there just wasn't enough work for them to do.
Should they have considered that back when they were working on the budget last Spring ? Certainly.
Could they have just cut back their hours instead ? Maybe.
Should you call an underworked desk jockey when your house is on fire? That's up to you.
So it's OK to fire Mike Hejduk and cut back the Ocean Rescue budget but laying off employees for budget and workload reasons get a "No" vote. How come, Commissioners Pfizenmayer and Stroud?
They raise taxes, and then say they have to make cuts because of a financial crisis. They REALLY don't regard Southern Shore people as having any intelligene !!
I hope that those who voted these clowns into office are positively delighted with the result.
During these times of economic uncertainty it is absolutely outrages for a town to lay off career employees. If the money is tight then make the police officers keep their take home cars one extra year instead of ordering new ones each year. How about a hiring freeze? You just don’t do that to loyal employees.
Talk about incompetence, Southern Shores has 3 clowns (Denny, Kowalski and Hess) that are the most incompetent people I have ever seen. Can't wait for the 2011fall election to kick Jodi Hess to the curb. I wish that Denny and Kowalski were up for election in 2011, however, I am aware that we have to put up with their stupidity until 2014, then we will be laughing at them. Hope Phizenmayer and Stroud run again, they make sense.
Quite a few Southern Shores property owners are really upset with the direction things are going at town hall.
Well, Lets see.....Kowalski got all the money he wants to spend on the Fire department, Denny got his street paved, and now they have railroaded Merry Smith because they hate her husband. This is our town government, folks. Hope you are all happy with it.
Well, since the guys in the fire department are busy spending town money to fuel their vehicles as they run personal errands all over the place cuts had to be made elsewhere.
Cutting the ocean rescue budget also makes sense since NOBODY comes here to go to the beach.
Talk about wrong priorities, the town of Southern Shores has the wrong idea on every front.
What's next? A pay raise for existing employees due to the sudden cash surplus??
the 3 of them should be impeached!!!
Don't impeach the 3 bozos. Let's have Richard Johnson take them on an extended trip that lasts 3 years. All expenses will be paid by Dare County and they can charge the cost to the public welfare and humane treatment account. Instead of flying they can travel on one of the new SSVFD fire trucks. The support vehicles could be the new SSPD cars. The vehicles could be driven by the 3 laid-off employees so they can have employment.
Southern Shores is FINALLY getting some direction. Why keep a person on staff who spends most of the time playing games or using the time to do personal work not related to the town. If you SS citizens want your tax increase used to pay salaries where there is no return then you deserve the prior government. Smith and his cronies got you into the mess you're in. Finally - someone might be getting you out. Your town has been falling apart and now you complain when the problems are being addressed. You paid dearly with the incompetent town manager hired by Smith. Pay to send a town manager to school to learn how to be a town manager? You people are idiots.
The direction we are now getting is down, down, down. I'd take Mr Smith back in a heartbeat and gladly give up the 3 misguided council members we now have. The only place our town is falling apart is in the continued funding of the clandestine and angry SSVFD and continued overspending on the PD. He asked the SSVFD questions that were long overdue about what they were doing with our money. They took great offense to the questions. Must have a lot hide. I guess the money they save on the 3 salaries and benefit cost will have to be sent to the SSVFD as a tribute for their hostility to Mr & Mrs Smith.
This idiot kinda liked the way things were done before.
They laid people off after blowing a million dollars on TWO brand-new over-spec'd Pierce fire engines that they didn't need? Wow...what a load of crap.
I might could have understood one new engine. But they got a "discount" for buying two, right? Well, how about a half-million-dollar discount to the taxpayer for only buying one?
Keeping apparatus up-to-date is one thing, but they can do so by spending far less, and not having three old men with the title "chief" running around in town-owned vehicles, going to lunch out-of-town, and burning town gas all the time. It wasn't that long ago that volunteer chiefs were driving their own vehicles. Let the department buy them a red light and a siren so they can feel special. But three chief's cars for the Town of Southern Shores? Give me a break.
These paid and combination fire departments are a money drain. If it weren't for EMS calls, there wouldn't be any paid firemen in this county.
Don himself used to say this town needed to be run like a business well now it is and people are still pissed.. get your facts right and get over it!
There are well run customer oriented businesses that function well and have great customer service and a commitment to the community.
And there is the "new" Town of Southern Shores which I am not sure what it is trying to do. Except raise our taxes, give away hundreds of thousands of dollars to the SSVFD, exact politcal revenge, overspend on the PD.
BTW, when is the SSVFD audit info to be made available?
Two of the "anons" are missing the point. The excuse was finances, but they RAISED taxes to avoid any problems in the finances. The decision-makers are talking out of both sides of the mouthes hoping no one catches it.
RIP Thad Pledger and begone oh foul Smith era.
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