WALLINGFORD Paying the piper

As published in the Record Journal Sunday May 5, 2013

EDITORIAL

Kevin Markowski’s above-placed editorial cartoon hits the nail on the head (or, if you prefer, delivers “shattering” news).

Echoing Wednesday’s news story (R-J, 5-1), Wallingford Town Council voted unanimously to increase its annual mayoral salary by $12,000 at a budget workshop, April 30. In Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr.’s $147.94 million budget proposal for the next fiscal year, he perpetuated his salary at a figure that has been static since at least 2002: namely, $73,140.

If this increase comes to full fruition (pending final approval hurdles while surviving potential flaming budgetary veto hoops), Wallingford’s mayor would eventually be paid $85,140 annually. Whether Dickinson wants it or not doesn’t change the fact that he deserves salary improvement. Moreover, the chief administrative post itself is worthy of a salary realignment.

In our editorial of April 8, Dickinson received a nod for reserve through self-denial. His is a disciplined, unselfish response to budgeting during adverse economic fiscal seasons.

Still, compensation of $85,140 (though a distinct betterment) keeps Wallingford in a stubbornly noncompetitive zone among municipal peers. Whether in the fullness of time or more immediately, salary adjustments should be made to keep remuneration commensurate with posts held. Whether city manager, town manager or, say,superintendent of schools, municipal salaries would do well to have reasonable basis of comparison.

Thus, it’s gratifying that councilors would also like to see the mayor’s pay incrementally increased to about $130,000 over time.

Why?

We’ve noted that the overarching consideration extends to a time when this mayor is no longer officeholder, whether by his choice or future election results. To attract top quality candidates, Wallingford may need to up its ante by around $60,000 annually, give or take. An eventual new chief executive must not be “compared” in a pejorative light of requisite salary differential (i.e. what “used to be acceptable” vs. what no longer cuts fiscal mustard).

It’s said that comparisons are odious but inevitable. Here, then, are a sobering few: As of 2011, the following annual salaries were paid — Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback, $149,000; Meriden City Manager Lawrence J. Kendzior, $139,000; Michael Milone, Cheshire Town Manager, $131,350.

At this budget-planning juncture, Wallingford seems poised to advance in the right direction, even if by relative baby steps vis-à-vis municipal apples-for-apples salaried counterparts. Paying the piper for a quality tune represents prudent investment in the town’s future.

Wallingford Town councilors plan to raise mayor’s salary gradually

As published in the Record Journal Friday May 3, 2013

By Andrew Ragali
Record-Journal staff
aragali@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224
Twitter:@AndyRagz

WALLINGFORD — While town councilors successfully voted to increase the mayor’s salary Tuesday night, some believe the position’s salary still needs to be increased more in coming years.

A unanimous vote cast by the Town Council Tuesday night brought the mayor’s annual pay to $85,140. Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr., a Republican, kept his salary at$73,140 in his proposed budget for the next fiscal year — a figure that has not changed in about 12 years.

Councilors voted to increase the mayor’s salary by $12,000. The increase will go into effect after Dickinson’s current term ends because, under the Town Charter, an incumbent mayor’s compensation cannot be changed during his or her term.

Councilors would like to see the mayor’s pay incrementally increased to about $130,000,which they see as more in line with similar positions in similar municipalities. Democrats argue that they need to be able to attract qualified candidates to run against Dickinson, while Republicans want to attract qualified candidates once Dickinson decides to step down.

“I’m content with what occurred if the plan is to continue to do so until it’s brought up to a reasonable number,” Town Councilor Jason Zandri, a Democrat, said Thursday. Zandri is a candidate in the upcoming mayoral race. Dickinson has yet to announce his candidacy.

Zandri said the “smart way to do it” would be to gradually raise the mayor’s salary over the next four or five terms. A term lasts two years. A smart salary range for the position is between $135,000 and $140,000, Zandri said.

As of 2011, Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback was paid $149,000 per year; Meriden City Manager Lawrence J. Kendzior was paid $139,000 annually and Cheshire Town Manager Michael Milone earned $131,350 per year.

Zandri said the Town Council is hampered by the fact that past councils haven’t voted to change the mayor’s salary over the previous 12 years.

Town Council Vice Chairman Vincent Cervoni, a Republican, said he had a brief conversation with Dickinson urging him to accept the raise.

“We’d like to gradually bring it to more-competitive pay,” Cervoni said.

Dickinson has argued that accepting raises sets a bad example. Cervoni said Dickinson acknowledged that the raise wasn’t for him personally, but for the position. Reached by phone on Thursday, Dickinson declined to comment.

With leaders in similar-size towns being paid almost twice as much as Dickinson, Town Councilor Tom Laffin, a Republican, said, “We’ve got to do something to incrementally raise the mayor’s salary.”

Town Councilor Craig Fishbein, a Republican, said that the mayor’s salary needs to be increased incrementally instead of all at once because “we don’t want a shock to the system.”

“The position deserves a raise,” Fishbein said, adding that in 2004 the Town Council attempted to raise the mayor’s pay but Dickinson vetoed the budget, voiding the increase.

Wallingford’s Non-competitive edge

Editorial as published in the Record Journal Monday April 8, 2013

“I won’t stop saying ‘no’ until I’m the lowest-paid employee in the town.”

Thus quips editorial cartoonist Kevin Markowski in his caption atop this page vis-à-vis Wallingford Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr.’s decision to (yet again) forgo a salary increase. It’s a practice perpetuated since at least 2002, whereby he’s kept a steady salary of $73,140.

Markowski’s tongue-in cheek humor reflects a concern among some Wallingford residents and town officials that perpetuating a manifestly low chief executive’s salary year after year produces something of a double-edged sword: On the one hand, it gleams when sparkling in the sunlight of Dickinson’s disciplined determination to set, by way of personal example, restraints on municipal spending during what he refers to as “bad times.”

On the other metaphorical hand, it presents a blunted, non-cutting competitive edge among mayoral/manager peers in other Connecticut towns and cities. In our April 4 news story, for examples, we reported that, as of 2011, the following annual salaries were paid: Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback, $149,000; Meriden City Manager Lawrence J. Kendzior, $139,000; Michael Milone, Cheshire Town Manager, $131,350.

Though some question Dickinson’s non-progressive salary in relation to other Wallingford top municipal staff (including, say, that of the Superintendent of Schools), the overarching consideration extends to a time when this mayor is no longer office-holder, whether by his choice or future election results. To attract top quality candidates, Wallingford will necessarily have to up the ante by around $60,000 annually, give or take.

When that fullness of time naturally occurs, one hopes that the new chief executive will not be “compared” in a pejorative light of requisite salary differentials but on the merits of his or her leadership abilities.

For his part, Mayor Dickinson deserves a nod for reserve through self-denial. Taxpayers should bear in mind, however, that the above-mentioned two-edged sword will inevitably be held to the standard of competitive daylight.

Ruling on snow day irks workers - Wallingford town staff had to take vacation day

As published in the Record Journal on Sunday February 24, 2013

By Andrew Ragali
Record-Journal staff
aragali@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224
Twitter:@AndyRagz

WALLINGFORD - Town employees told to take vacation time for the day Town Hall was closed during the blizzard are wondering why school system employees weren’t treated the same.

Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. issued a memo Feb. 14 telling employees that if they did not go to work on Feb. 11, when Town Hall was shut because of the storm, they must take a vacation day to get paid. Interviews with several town employees showed that while they’re upset with the mayor and his decision, they’re also angry that employees of the school system will get paid for the three days they were told not to show up to work.

The issue is “something that came up in conversations,” said Chuck Ballard, president of Local 1183 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union representing public works, clerical and sewer workers. “If the mayor is going to come up with a memo, it should be issued across the board.”

School Superintendent Sal Menzo acknowledged earlier this week that the discrepancies between town and school district employees are “difficult for people to understand.”

“We work under separate labor contracts,” Menzo said.

Much of Menzo’s decision making in regard to school cancellation and employee compensation are based on past practice, which “often times dictates how myself and the administration are required to handle a circumstance,” he said. Dickinson said state law gives control to the Board of Education.

“We do not have any authority over the Board of Education,” Dickinson said.

Last week, Dickinson said, “I have a hard time feeling the town should be paying people when they didn’t work.”

Had Town Hall been open on Feb. 11, employees still would not have been able to work, because the parking lot and roads still hadn’t been plowed completely.

“I don’t want to feel like we are giving money away when it isn’t warranted,” he said.

Dickinson said the school district often closes several times a year because of inclement weather, so Menzo already has a procedure in place. Usually, Town Hall does not close, Dickinson said, so there isn’t any regular procedure.

Dickinson said he does understand why town employees are upset that school employees aren’t being treated the same. The money that funds the general government and the school district come from the same local taxes, creating a situation in which there are two separate entities being held accountable for taxpayers’ money.

“It creates jealousies,” Dickinson said. “There would have to be a change in state law to put everyone on the same footing.”

Personnel Director Terence Sullivan said “it would be nice to follow all the same rules” in order to avoid jealousies between town and school employees.

The solution, said Dickinson, would be to make school districts responsible for raising their own money through taxes. In the past, local legislators have proposed creating a separate Board of Education tax in the state, Dickinson said. He said the practice is employed successfully in Pennsylvania and New York.

With two taxes, “if you’re not satisfied with something on either side, you know who to call,” Dickinson said.

While Dickinson believes creating a separate Board of Education tax would relieve what he calls an “awkward” situation, he does not see a change of state policy on the horizon.

From the editor page of the Record Journal - Mayor and manager

As published on Monday May 21, 2012

True to personal governing principles, Wallingford Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. extends his well known brand of fiscal conservatism even to himself — for better or for worse. Over the last decade of his 28-year run in office, he has refused any salary raises. Annually, he earns $73,140, less than $1,000 more than his administrative aide, and half of what many fellow municipal administrators make. At a recent budget hearing, a debate centered on whether Dickinson’s wages represented a bargain, or a long-term detriment.

As mayor, Dickinson is no mere figurehead. His complex responsibilities include those of a town manager: overseeing all municipal departments, both in terms of functions and finances. Thus, an income discrepancy is even more manifest when compared with area civic leaders who perform analogous work. Next year, Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback will take in $149,000. Meriden City Manager Lawrence Kendzior is set at $139,027.

In consideration of his manifold duties, Dickinson is unquestionably underpaid. “The bang that we’re getting for our buck should be envied by everyone in the state of Connecticut,” correctly proffered Republican Councilor Robert Parisi (R-J, 5-2). Wallingford’s mayor is more than an under-compensated workforce supervisor, though. He has kept his town on solid budgetary ground, even as recession-era realities necessitate making complicated, taxing monetary decisions. All the more reason to pay him well.

Logic of operating within contemporary economic constraints is essential to Dickinson’s argument in favor of static salary. “In an elected office . . . you become more of a weathervane for what the times require,” he stated, a thought-provoking observation from a seasoned town CEO who leads by example.

One might wonder, however, whether other local municipal officials — many who earn over $100,000 — may feel that their appropriately high salaries radiate a sense of indulgence in comparison. Furthermore, as reasonably suggested by R-J columnist Mike Brodinsky in his May 6 piece, Dickinson’s “unrealistically low” pay could deter potential mayoral-office-seekers from running. Quality candidates might think twice about pursuit of a position where small wages are discordant with extensive responsibilities.

Dickinson certainly has the right to keep his income down should he choose — he sets a benchmark of shared sacrifice in a difficult economic era. But, as also proposed by Brodinsky, town officials must begin contemplating a suitable salary now, because a time will come when the next mayor likely will expect fair compensation. By estimating what a market-level wage would mean for municipal finances — not much in light of the entire budget — leaders can employ Dickinsonian fiscal foresight in preparing properly for Wallingford’s future.

Approval not easy on delaying raise for school administrators

By Dave Moran
Record-Journal staff
dmoran@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224

As published in the Record Journal Wednesday March 24, 2010

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WALLINGFORD— After a lengthy, at times spirited debate, the Town Council voted 5-4 Tuesday to accept an amendment to the educational administrators’ union contract that delays a pay increase in exchange for furlough days. The amendment is projected to save the school system almost $100,000 in 2010-11.

The council’s intense scrutiny of the issue, and the opposing ideologies it revealed among councilors, could foreshadow an even more intense debate in mid-April, when the council will review and vote on the school system’s budget request for the coming fiscal year. School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo and members of the Board of Education came to the council Tuesday seeking approval of an amendment and extension of the administrators’ contract. Menzo said the union, which represents 21 administrators in the school system, had a contract through the 2010-11 fiscal year. Earlier this year, the union offered to forgo a 3.75 percent pay increase in exchange for nine furlough days, a one-year extension of the contract and the guarantee of no layoffs.

Under the revised contract, the administrators would get the 3.75 percent increase in 2011-12, Menzo said, but the savings in 2010-11 would amount to about $100,000.

Members of the Board of Education praised the administrators union for voluntarily approaching the school system with the giveback and urged the council to accept the offer.

“This is a true, sincere effort to help our school community. We’re talking about $100,000 in givebacks,” said Roxane Mc Kay, a Republican who is vice chairwoman of the school board. “To not approve this is setting a precedent for other unions to not consider any concessions.” Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr., a Republican, urged the council not to approve the agreement because it still con­tained a wage increase. The increase would only be delayed a year, Dickinson said, and the budget is projected to be even worse then.

“It does set a bar, and it certainly is a high bar,” Dickinson said. “If you look beyond the one budget year, it creates a real problem for us in trying to control the cost of government and the cost of delivering services.”

After debating the issue for more than an hour, in closed executive session and in public, the council voted to approve the request. All three Democrats and Republicans Vincent Cervoni and John Le Tourneau voted to approve the agreement, while Republicans Jerry Farrell Jr., Craig Fishbein, Robert Parisi and Rosemary Rascati opposed it.

Those favoring the agreement said they voted for it because the administrators would get a pay increase anyway, and the concessions offered immediate savings.

After Dickinson unveils his budget on April 1, the council will hold workshops to review the plan department by department. Budget adoption is due by the second week of May.

The school system takes up about 60 percent of the town’s overall budget, and the school board has asked for a 4.56 percent increase over 2009-10 spending. Dickinson is expected to cut the request.

Menzo said the savings realized by the administrators’ concessions have already been factored into the budget proposal. “It’s already taken out,” Menzo said. “We would have had to put it back in” if the council didn’t approve it.

Technorati Tags: Wallingford,schools,salary,concession,budget

Teachers’ wages

An editorial written by By Richard P. Harkawik P­resident, Wal­lingford E­ducation Association – as published in the Record Journal on Saturday February 20, 2010

A common misconception concerns the salary increase Wallingford teachers received as a result of the last contract nego­tiations. The belief that all teach­ers received a 4.2 percent in­crease in salaries this year is not accurate.

The 4.2 percent represents a percentage of last year’s salary account.This “pool” of money is then used to first pay the cost of increments that are part of the contractual salary schedule; the remainder is then applied to all teachers as an increase. Thus, a 4.2 percent increase does not add 4.2 percent to all salaries. In fact, the majority of teachers re­ceived a 2 percent increase this year, as opposed to the national wage increase average of 2.8 per­cent. Much time was spent dur­ing negotiations in determining how we could “fix” the salary schedule so that it would be more evenly balanced between the different steps, and to make Wallingford more competitive in attracting and retaining quality teachers.

In fact, Wallingford lagged be­hind almost every other town in New Haven County when salary schedules were compared. In or­der to make Wallingford’s salary schedule more equal with the other towns, the 4.2 percent in­crease was necessary. Addition­ally, the teachers also made sev­eral concessions to help this happen: a step freeze this year, and the addition of one step in the schedule. Teachers now have 13 steps; other town unions have between 3 and 5 steps.

The contract itself was ap­proved by the Board of Educa­tion and the Town Council, dur­ing the worst of the economic crisis. Both had the opportunity to reject it; neither chose to do so. It was not long after this con­tract was passed last year that teachers were asked for give­backs. This year, again, we have been asked to make concessions. One has to wonder why agree­ments are made if the intent is not to honor them.

The process of negotiating a contract involves give and take. Wage increases are negotiated in the context of other components, such as insurance co-pays, premium shares, and other ben­efits. Aiming for this balance,the contract was negotiated in good faith, and we now look to the mayor and town council to honor their commitment to the education of our town’s children at the level of excellence they have always received from the teachers of Wallingford.

Technorati Tags: Wallingford,opinion,schools,wages,salary,contract,union