Personnel Management – the wrong way.

As you probably determined from an earlier post, budget discussions in the borough were contentious. The biggest issue however, are some of the comments against our employees  that were made during  discussions at all the meetings we had on the subject.

The most recent comment arose from a proposal for council and the mayor to forego their monthly compensation ($75/month for council, $100/month each for the Mayor and the Council President). One councilperson was so incensed by this proposal that she demanded that the employees contribute to the “cause”. That was fine as far as it went, but she didn’t stop there. She made an unfortunate reference to an employee (or employees) as “freeloaders” in front of at least two employees. I commend the member for quickly apologizing to one of those employees, but the damage was done. Before the week was out, all the employees were aware of the comment.

She usually engages her mouth before the brain. She speaks her mind, but sometimes self-editing is needed. Earlier this year, she questioned certain repairs to a police car. At the time, the Borough was discussing the purchase of a new police car, and she all but accused our police officers of deliberately sabotaging the in-service vehicle to facilitate the purchase of the new car. Thankfully, she did not attach any names to this irresponsible statement otherwise I would be writing about our experience with the grievance process. I discussed the matter with a couple of the officers. They noticed. They remember. The Police Union Contact expires in 2008 and I suspect that negotiations were be harder than usual.

All in all, when I think about it, the Borough doesn’t need at least seven people. I formed an opinion that the Council exists to screw things up. Sad, but true. Hopefully, 2008 and the addition of two new faces will see improvements.