I read the information as presented in the title linked Toledo Blade article:
Toledo's police chief gets $92,000, compared with an average of $116,437 for the cities of Dayton, Akron, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus.
The lowest pay, after Toledo's, is Akron, at $104,229, according to the administration's information.
City finance directors average $121,829 in other cities, compared to $83,999 for Toledo's finance director, John Sherburne, according to the information.
Then I started searching...
According to Salary.com the median salary for a Sheriff/Chief of Police is: $88,574
That of course is much lower than what was quoted in the Toledo Blade article so, I after I spent about an hour searching for additional information. I was able to discover that many smaller cities pay less but not much information as to cities of comparable size. I then contacted Brian Schwartz and asked him if it would be possible for me to get the salary information from the other larger Ohio cities. Brian was kind enough to fax the information to me, which I appreciate because I wanted to be accurate and fair in looking at this issue. There are two groups of data - one is based on the highest salary possible the other is based on what is currently being paid. Focusing on what is currently being paid first in Toledo, then the lowest then the highest then the median.
Finance Director - $83,999 $115,440 (Dayton) $132,000 (Cinci) $121,829 (median)
Human Resource Director - $86,000 $105,851 (Akron) $125,843 (Dayton) $113,266.50 (median)
Law Director - $86,000 $115,773 (Akron) $137,987 (Columbus) $121,035 (median)
Public Service Director - $92,000 108,992 (Cleveland) $140,000 (Columbus) 120,808 (median)
Fire Chief - $91,499 $104,229 (Akron) $136,644 (Columbus) $112,270 (median)
Police Chief - $92,000 $104,229 (Akron) $142,313 (Columbus) $110,344 (median)
Some additional information that was included also states that the proposed ordinance would make changes to the benefit packages that would result in a savings of $340,000. It also states there is an additional savings of $246,750 in the City budget by not filling the Public Safety Director and the Economic Director.
For those who would rather see an Economic Director, that position is listed at a cost of $110,000 to $123,375 depending on a benefit details. It's also pointed out that the Mayor's salary was increased 81%, President of City Council 39% and City Council 48.6%.
Of course there are 75 positions that are involved, so there are still some questions as to where the additional money would come from since it's assumed it would cost more than $586,750 to implement these changes. There's also the additional concern of allowing the Mayor to be able to go beyond any salary cap without having to go before City Council. I'm not aware of any situation other than the one reported in 2004 when it was reported Toledo City Council stalled on the issue of increasing the pay cap for the Economic Director. My personal opinion on that is there should be some form of checks and balances within the system and there is a mechanism in place if there is an issue of offering a salary that is over the cap. Not just for the current Mayor but for any Mayor.
To sum this up, there is valid documentation that the pay scales for the positions listed are below what other large Ohio cities are paying. How much the City can afford and where that money would come from and is it supported for the Mayor to be able to exceed a salary cap at his or her discretion, will I'm sure be discussed more as this comes before the Council's Human Resources Committee and of course here as this progresses.
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And then one day later the Mayor states:
"Mayor Carty Finkbeiner yesterday disagreed with the size of the pay range increases proposed by his own administration, prompting a review of the entire plan by his chief of staff, Bob Reinbolt."
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060914/NEWS16/609140369
Which begs the question...who is in charge?
I read that anonymous, I'd have to agree that is a valid question. I also am not sure merely eliminating the manager category does anything since that would mean in reality those who were listed as managers would be earning one of the higher salaries that the Mayor doesn't seem to support.
I also wondered about the comment made by Bob Reinbolt, if these new salaries are adopted to be able to attract other candidates then I don't see how the City would be "hard pressed" to replace some of them. The way the article is worded it's not very complimentary to those 8 - to me it came across as the only reason the City could get them at that much of a lower pay range was because they were receiving additional income.
While I also understand the whole double dipping concern, I'm not sure of the legalities involved in creating what would be almost a second tier of salary ranges, those who were collecting a pension and those who were not...
It's hard to imagine that a politician would be playing loose with tax payers' money, wouldn't it?
The idea to me, paying more wages equals better people, is a not always so.
What Toledo needs in my opinion is to motivate the people we have now on staff to do a better job for us, the citizens.
Paying them more or evening out the pay scales is one solution but not always the best or most prudent.
There will be other communities that will offer more either in wages or incentive.
If the department heads are earning less than those that they manage because of over time and the like then someone should look into why the overtime is being paid. Is there a way to trim the costs and man hours and get the job done?
Management of the city lies with the administrators who are in place now and not those that may or may not wish to be part of the team later.
The people in place, now, need to do a better job and making the playing field even does not always translate into better managers just managers that are paid more to do the same job and in my opinion they need to do better before they get the pay scale issue resolved.
The pay disparity would be even more startling if the salary averages were used instead of the medians, which can come off as unusually low, because of one low salary in the mix.
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