- November 21, 2024
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What's your take? Send letters, with full name and city of residence, to [email protected].
Dear Editor:
Mayor Alfin has wasted no time crying for more money. He knew the salary when he ran for council.
I believe in giving good people the money. Our city manager deserves the money; after all, she does the job. She doesn't complain, she just does a good job.
The mayor and City Council raised our taxes again! Now our garbage costs more, and the citizens get less in return. More money, less service.
Traffic in Palm Coast is a disaster, yet the mayor and council keep approving construction for more houses. Our roads are crumbling, and our green space is disappearing by leaps and bounds. How many more people have to complain about this urban sprawl? When will you folks listen to the people that elected you?
We know what we want, but it falls on deaf ears. When the council does a better job, then we can talk about compensation. At the present time, they have done nothing to deserve a raise. If they don't want the job, quit.
For every one of you, there are three ready to take your place.
Dennis C. Rathsam
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
It has been reported that Palm Coast City Council members are asking for a salary increase, from $9,600 to, get this, $44,670.
Our newly elected mayor said council members in cities with populations similar to Palm Coast earned a median annual salary of $30,000. That may be true, but one can only wonder what our elected officials are thinking by asking for a $35,000 increase.
Mayor David Alfin was aware of his salary. Now, a few months after being elected, he wants a salary increase. Come on, Mr. Mayor, you are a neophyte, still learning the job, and you want an increase in salary?
Councilmen Nick Klufas and Ed Danko stated that they didn’t take the job for the money. Why, then, are they in favor of a nearly 400% increase? I am certain that many of our citizens would be happy to step into your position should you decide to resign. With the exception of Vice Mayor Eddie Branquinho, all others voted for the increase. Congratulations to our vice mayor.
The citizens of our great city are enduring extremely difficult times. All necessities are expensive, and low- to medium-wage earners are hard pressed to meet their obligations. Add the price of gasoline, and these folks are suffering. Certainly, given the opportunity, each of them would be overjoyed with the opportunity to vote to give themselves a raise.
Outlandish salary increases voted on by council members for their own benefit is nothing more than greed and indifference to those they are supposed to represent and serve.
Eugene Holland
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
Perhaps it's not appropriate for me to comment upon Mayor David Alfin's proposal to increase mayoral and council compensation so extravagantly, as I live in Flagler Beach. Nevertheless, I served as a township supervisor with a Pennsylvania community for 14 years.
On average, I committed a minimum of 15 hours per week between meetings, workshops, committees and department liaisons, as did my fellow board members. We were compensated with only $1,200 per year; therefore, we were not in it for the money! We were all professionals with a vision, each of us with special skill sets.
Why did we commit to these positions? It's called "public service," and giving back to the community. Those were the rewards we received. We took pride in our community in order to make it a better place to live.
Should the current compensation be addressed? Absolutely, but not the massive increases the mayor has suggested. Finally, if these are indeed now full-time employments, then they should be required 40-hour-per week positions and compensated as such.
Marty Reed
Flagler Beach
Dear Editor:
I couldn't run this town on $9,600 a year.
While running for mayor, I drove down to Slow Way, an issue at the time. Driving, talking to people, then coming back up to Cimarron Drive and talking to them about their road issues.
Then driving out to Crystal River, Florida, a town that has a similar road to our Cimarron Drive, but has a high number of deaths due to curves in the road and walkers, bicycles and cars sharing the road. They took action to dramatically reduce the number of accidents.
Before I was ready to have to have a stance on the multimillion dollar pickleball courts, I went out to a few towns and all saw them doing the same thing. They wanted a regional court, also. We would be in direct competition with them for business. We might spend millions and find it very under used.
But more importantly, I wanted to focus on getting our downtown going. It’s been over 15 years since infrastructure and roads were built, with nothing on them. It takes more than $25 a day to go out and get builders to take a risk on streets that have no other business yet.
This town is big now, with about 80,000 people. It’s not a part-time job anymore.
There's storms and issues that now go on 24/7. This isn't the town that International Telephone and Telegraph built anymore, but this is what they were intending: that this area would one day become a small city.
That's why its voted the No. 1 place in America to retire. But you have to pay the mayor more than 25 bucks a day!
Twenty-five bucks a day will only ever give you a rich mayor. I had to drop out as a candidate because I didn’t have $30,000 in my savings per year to get done what needs to get done here. Pay the mayor what’s needed: $150 per day.
But make sure they stretch the budget so they don't raise the taxes, so we can keep this a middle-class town.
Kevin Cichowski
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
Like any job, one must prove why they deserve a pay raise by doing their job well and showing improvements within their responsibility. Raises are not automatic.
So I ask each member of the council what have you done well within our responsibility that would merit a 365% increase.
Many of you are fairly new and not yet proven anything to the residents.
Please make believe your employee just asked you for a 365% raise. What would you say/think? Unfortunately, one council after another just gets worse.
If it takes a little higher wage (not 365% higher) to get more professional adults to be part of City Council, then I am for it but not with these elected officials.
Lisa Smith
Palm Coast
