Review editorial
September 1, 2009
By Staff
City employees do the right thing
Sammamish city employees have regularly proven their dedication, but last week they made a real sacrifice when they agreed to a pay cut. Their actions prove their dedication once again.City staff is typically unappreciated and sometimes maligned by the members of the community they serve.
We’ve seen dozens of instances where citizens question their integrity, yet they always reply with the utmost professionalism.
Typically, they receive an annual pay increase, which matches the annual rate of inflation.
Now that the time has come for that annual cost of living raise, the city staff looked at the inflation rate, which has gone down for the first time in memory, and did the honorable thing — they took a pay cut.
The size of the cut, four tenths of a percent, doesn’t sound like much, but the symbolism is what’s important here. The employees could have insisted that their pay, at least, remain flat.
They could have lobbied for some sort of raise. Instead, they acknowledged that times are tough, and they were willing to do their part. We salute them.
We would be remiss if we did not also mention the administrative staff at Eastside Fire & Rescue, which accepted a salary freeze.
While not as extreme as the actions taken by city employees, the administrators show they understand the fiscal realities that all government agencies are facing again this year.
Last year, we blasted firefighters for taking a large raise because of a quirk in the cost of living calculations at the time.
We can only hope that now, when that same quirk is likely to point to a pay decrease, they follow the lead of city of Sammamish employees and watch their paychecks get smaller.
They should be willing to face the other edge of the sword.
Once again, the dollar amount saved is not much, but the personal sacrifice does them credit. It’s a new reality employees in private business are facing, and there is no reason public employees should get a free ride.
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A couple of things… It was heartwarming to hear the admin staff at City Hall were accepting a pay cut, however it was unclear from the article if Ben Yazici who was very proud of his staff, was also included in that cut. Also I didn’t see anything about the heavy hitters like the Mayor or city council members chucking money back in the pot.
As a taxpayer in Sammamish, I’m fine with the staffers making their regular pay. They do great work and have been helpful whenever I came in. Its their bosses I’d like to see cut back, both on salary and city spending. Single moms working as admin assistants aren’t our big problem in city government.
By the way, the staffers should know that the CPI formula was re-jiggered in the 80′s by a Senate comittee in the middle of the night. The reason being the Federal Government has to pay out Social Security and other expensive program increases based on COLA’s from the CPI. Its now almost impossible to show any inflation with it, however we all know that buying food, gas, a car, or a Teen Center
is getting more expensive all the time. So I wouldn’t base my salary on it if I were you.