What were they thinking? Honestly, just when it seems like this
Gilroy City Council could not possibly take another long step off a
short leadership pier, they leap into the abyss of the absurd.
What were they thinking? Honestly, just when it seems like this Gilroy City Council could not possibly take another long step off a short leadership pier, they leap into the abyss of the absurd. Voting to authorize hefty 5 percent raises for the city administrator and the city clerk after laying off 48 employees and unilaterally rescinding merit raises for all other city employees is truly theater of the absurd?
It demonstrates a true lack of appreciation for the public perspective. This action borders on unfathomable arrogance and, worse yet, demonstrates an abject failure in leadership.
The public is fit to be tied with the in-fighting, the backbiting, the petty squabbles with which this body has occupied itself. “Nero fiddles while Rome burns,” is unfortunately becoming the norm for the dysfunctional local government in Gilroy.
There can, of course, be all matters of justification for such action … the city administrator has had to work through such a difficult time, it would cost much more to replace him, the clerk has completed courses and her workload has increased with the layoffs … It all may be true. But to award raises in the face of the economic reality our city is struggling with and to do so after having made so many painful cuts and so many postulations to other city workers, is not only demoralizing to the workers at City Hall but befuddling to the community which is watching this city’s leadership zig then zag without an ounce of purpose.
City Administrator Tom Haglund may be the best city boss in Santa Clara County, but at just under $200,000 a year in salary, he’s going to be fine without a raise. Perhaps he will, like Human Resources Director Leann McPhillips, decline the raise. Perhaps the city clerk will do likewise.
But that’s not the point. The point is that the raises should not be on the table. The Council should be able to recognize the folly in granting such generous raises under these circumstances and stem the tide against the cost of government. A pat on the back, a good performance review and a “we’ll revisit this next year,” is what was called for.
Instead, the message is, as it was in the Council’s decision not to limit in any way the cost to the taxpayers of their own medical benefits, “do as we say, not as we do.”
Don’t they realize the unemployment rate in Gilroy is the highest in Santa Clara County at 17.4 percent? Don’t they understand the message they sent with this vote?
Apparently not. There’s grave concern from Mayor Al Pinheiro over “how this news got out from a closed session” but virtually no concern about the impact this misguided action has on this community. That’s emblematic of the small-minded thinking that continues to be pervasive and disappointing.
The vision is lacking. The leadership is vaporous. The incessant bitter back-biting is schoolgirlesque.
