Frequent commenter misunderstands role city employees play in maintaining infrastructure

...feels TSN commenters are ignorant and lack knowledge.




"SC" is a registered user and is a frequent commenter to TSN. His/her comments are in bold. My comments are are not in bold.

Comparing Sac City to other communities in the county is like comparing apples to oranges.

Correct but taking Sac City's averages compared to the averages of the 60 cities that are listed in the Heartland Directory, (like I do,) can give you a surprisingly accurate picture of how things are supposed to be and is an excellent d way of comparing towns.

What I've found is that on a per capita basis, Sac City is short one single maintenance employee. Sac City has one maintenance employee for every five hundredish people. Adding one person would bring that number in line with the average of the surrounding 50+ cities. (The average is about one employee for every 420 citizens. Adding one person to Sac City's maintenance department would make it about that.)


What people are saying is because of ignorance and lack of knowledge of how a city is run.

Actually, most people are surprisingly knowledgeable about how the city is run due to Adam Ledford's delightfully open governing style. For three years, anyone has been able to merely call the city and get an honest answer about just about any topic regarding city government you can think of.

I say to all you know it all's run for council the next election!

The ability to get elected to city council in Sac City, Iowa is about 95% social. It almost doesn't matter if you know the ins and outs of city government because the Sac City Council does not often get directly involved with actually governing the way that other city councils do. They are very hands off. Their only function, whether we like it or not, is to come in and rubber stamp whatever the City Administrator needs. This will be true until we get a strong, smart, involved mayor... something we've been lacking for a couple of decades now.



There is a current rookie council member that after 9 months thinks he has all the answers!!! and wants to cut more employees.

Rookies are the only ones who get things done and actually bother to research topics and get active. Remember Jim Frederick when he first took office? On those days that either of them have even bothered to show up, have you seen any leadership coming from the two most senior members of the council?

This constant hammering on new city councilmen by people who are sympathetic to having a large overpaid city workforce is by people who naturally feel threatened by new city council people who know how screwed up it is that we have such a huge budget for paying city employees, but nothing to spend on infrastructure needs… and want to do something about it.


The city has cut 6 positions over the last 25 years and they wonder why nothing gets done.

Actually, as far as things "getting done" the less money we spend on employee compensation, the more money we will have to spend on the professional contractors that actually know how to fix our infrastructure. The only way having more employees could be a benefit would be the city actually hired people that knew how engineer, tear up and replace streets, sewers, and gas lines. When Bob Scheffler says that he needs more employees so they can "fix the streets" what he really means is an extra hand to sit on the back of a pick-up and shovel cold fill into holes that the city could have had fixed if it weren't financially paralyzed by the mountain of money we spend keeping friends of friends of friends in generous salaries with full benefits.

That extra guy running a shovel for thirty thousandish per year plus full benefits is money out of the coffers that the city will need when it becomes time to call in the professionals who can actually replace our F'ed up streets.


Granted the town has gotten smaller by population but the size has not, still the same amount of streets, sewers, gas and water lines to maintain but with 6 less employees.

The Streets, sewers, gas and water lines are not being maintained. If the maintenance crew knew how to maintain those items we wouldn't have to call in the grown-ups every 20 to 60 years to fix them. I don't think you fully understand the unskilled nature of the laborers that the city hires.

It is a misconception the city is wanting to add a new employee, they want back fill a position from a year ago when an employee retired.

Actually, you are incorrect. The city council permanently cut this position, just like they permanently cut the other five supposed positions you claim they've cut in the last twenty five years. It was never intended that this position be replaced.

..That is unless they were lying, which I guess could be entirely possible.

On Monday night the Sac City Council is very likely to take the first steps in creating a new position and hiring an unskilled laborer. They will pay him the equivalent of the entry level pay of an engineering graduate, (counting benefits as they kick in,) and that is the no bullshit reality of what we will wake up to on Tuesday morning.

People need to get the whole story before casting stones! 
SC

Now they have it.
Curtis Bloes

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