I remember not too many months ago, I was given an explanation for why City council felt that everyone with a pulse who worked for the City deserved a raise of “between 4% and 5%.” The reason given was that social security COLAs were going to be going up by about that amount. So it seemed fair.
[Ignore for a moment that for the already-overpaid Nerf job holders at the very top making six figures, a 4.5% increase is a much bigger chunk of change than it is for the poor schlub who actually goes out there and turns a wrench or fixes downed power lines. ALSO ignore all the huge raises that were given in years past when inflation was close to zero]
As it turns out, social security will only be giving a 3.2% increase next year:
Social Security Benefits Increase in 2024
So if they decided on 4% raises, we are looking at being 25% more generous to City Big Wigs. But it turns out, the raises were even more generous than that.
SALARIES: FAT and ALWAYS going UP:
Stacey Ybarra: has been with the City less than a year. Has failed to find a tenant for the Business Park. She saw a pay increase of 4.2%– her salary goes from $85,000 up to $89,280, according to paystubs I obtained. This is 31% more generous than social security.
Ryan Ward: has been with the City less than two years. Started out at $110,000, which was ALREADY $25,000 higher than the average for an ASSISTANT City Manager nationwide. Has already been given a COLA last year. His salary is now $126,243 – an increase of 4.3% over last fiscal yearand a total increase of 14.5% in just 21 months This is 34% more generous than social security.
Jody Cummings: Ryan Ward told us last year (May 2022) that our police chief was overpaid by 7.9% – but that didn’t stop him from getting an even bigger raise than Ybarra or Ward for this fiscal year…
According to paystubs obtained from the City, Cummings will see his salary increase from $103,220up to $107,874 – an increase of 4.5%. This is FORTY PERCENT more generous than social security. Oh, and the police chief of Burnet “only” pulls down $73,544…
BENEFITS: FAT and always GOING UP:
This does not even consider benefits. The City’s gold-plated health insurance premiums jumped 13% this year. City employees only pay a small fraction of that cost. As I have shown previously,someone with a health plan that costs $1,548 PER MONTH is only required to pay $438 out of their own pocket.
That is a HUGE benefit, as those of us out here in the real world know. I know my health insurance just jumped 15% yet again this year…and I get to pay the whole thing myself.
JOB SECURITY: you are GUARANTEED your job for as long as you want:
Did I mention that it is basically impossible to get fired from a City job? DeGraffenreid, Ward, Ybarra, Cummings, Wright, Acevedo, Moreno – they can stay as long as they like. There will NEVER be the shock of losing your job in a bad economy. They will be there until they decide they want to retire – and they will get a 4% to 5% increase in their salaries AND benefits for the rest of their careers – regardless of performance.
Must be nice! We’ll revisit all of this next year when the U.S. economy is deep in the shitter and people in the real world are being laid off left and right.