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On Sunday, the Times-Dispatch published an editorial suggesting that the city’s charter should be changed back to the previous Council-Manager form of government that existed until 2004 when Doug Wilder ran on a platform promising to clean up the “cesspool of corruption and inefficiency.” There is room for debate over which form of government should govern the city; however, it doesn’t really matter what form of government we have if we can’t complete basic tasks like billing, providing social services to those in need, being transparent, and following best practice policies like monitoring credit card use/abuse. It also doesn’t matter what form of government you have if you have inexperienced and incompetent people running it.
The Mayor is the elected leader of our “strong mayor” form of government and the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) is in charge of day-to-day operations and making sure each department is accomplishing their mission and tasks, that the money is being spent wisely and tracked, and employees are performing and being heard.
Clearly that has not been happening at City Hall lately given the total chaos reported in the media in recent years. From the meals tax fiasco, to 66,000 personal property tax bills sent in error, the recent credit card corruption, $1,000 utility bills being sent to people years after they moved from the city, social services problems getting families their benefits, giving developers insane 30-year tax breaks, and ignoring or not responding to Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests as outlined by law. And did we mention trying to ramrod the casino referendum (twice)?
The RTD Editorial also noted that no one at City Hall has said a word or returned an email or answered basic questions about any of the recent scandals. Another RTD article on Tuesday detailed their attempts to get answers, but they have only received radio silence for weeks on end.
Those foibles may be why so many people were flabbergasted when they saw the article in the Times-Dispatch this week revealing that the city’s CAO, Lincoln Saunders, is receiving a salary of $334,700 per year, after less than four years on the job despite having no experience running any municipality prior to his appointment by Mayor Stoney. When Saunders was appointed CAO in September 2021, his salary was $198,000. When Selena Cuffee-Glenn was hired by Mayor Jones as CAO in 2015, her salary was $203,000 and she had an extensive resume with municipal experience. By 2019, her salary had increased to about $235,000.
So why has Mayor Stoney seen fit to astronomically increase one salary that defies what any decent or ethical political official would consider fair or justified? The reason is simple: “chemistry and loyalty.”
An astute reader sent links to two stories that warned of this exact scenario several years ago that the appointment of a personal and political friend to a critical operational and administrative post (which is never a good idea) presaged this current meltdown.
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