She knows they are being condescending to her. You can tell because she just keeps smiling. I think Jane and Brenda may want to tone it down a little though, the woman was just elected overwhelmingly, when you behave the way you do you aren't just insulting her you are insulting the voters of Wareham.

Silly me, I forgot, they don't like voters! That must be plan B of the CRC, eliminate voting, after all those voters just don't know what they are doing half the time!

I have heard it was the Town Manager and Part Time Police Chief I'm not sure how it can be confirmed.

Stay tuned - I don't think this is going to end quietly with what happened last night.

I believe that when you advertise a position you pay the adverised rate. This was clearly an inside job, advertise low and hire high. I am not sure that Cara knows about Burke's connection to Andrew's.

She needs to keep on this. We are now going to have a PART TIME licensed inspector so we could pad the pocket of a political crony.

Here is how the TFHC feels (and note the rags story has quotes around controversial, only a scandal when it suits his purpose, all the papers should be all over this story)
By: MsLilly on 5/12/10
"Wow, a hiring committee, combined duties to save tax dollars, a "part-time" Jr. inspector saving us even more more money...one of Ms. Winslow's campaign mantras was "stretching our tax dollars"...I'd say Mr. Andrews did an exceptional job doing just that with this one hire...

A word of advice...puppet strings can easily turn into a noose if they are pulled with such force that they end up around one's neck... "

I do believe that padding political lackey pockets is a waste of tax payer dollars, and yes, your strings are very obvious. I am a firm believer that if you give someone enough rope they will hang themselves (this is a figure of speech in case any of the hate bloggers want to get up their paranoia) and that is exactly what is happening. How are we saving money or delivering services when we hire an unqualified person for 50% more then what we advertised for?

This hiring was slipped it in the eleventh hour the night of the election.

iliveinazoo wrote:

She needs to keep on this. We are now going to have a PART TIME licensed inspector so we could pad the pocket of a political crony.

To be fair, the Inspectional Services Dept. for quite some time has had both a full-time department head certified as a Building Commissioner/Inspector of Buildings, and also a part-time Local Building Inspector (the lesser of the two state certifications).  I was recently informed that Mr. Collins intends to step down in a couple of months, and so the second hiring is to replace him, not necessarily to compensate for Mr. Burke not being certified.

But again, my concern with Mr. Burke's hiring is two-fold: a) why was he hired at $25K more than the position was advertised to pay - especially when he isn't certified, and b) how did he manage to serve in the same position in Lawrence for three years without being certified?  The regs do provide for uncertified inspectors to apply for extensions to the rule that anyone provisionally hired must be certified within 18 months of hire, but such extensions are granted by the state only for "good cause," I believe.  And at the very least, he should only have been paid the advertised amount until he earned the required state certification - his compensation should have been as conditional as his hiring was.  Then I'd bet he'd have gotten certified a helluva lot faster than within 18 months!

Last edited by Petethemeat (2010-05-12 13:15:16)

Jaime Rebhan wrote:

Selectman Cara Winslow expressed concern Tuesday that new Director of Inspectional Services Myles Burke was hired at a salary 50% higher than the advertised pay rate and, at $75,000, well above the salary level specified in the town's personnel plan...

WW: Inspectional Services director's salary questioned

..and read the comments.

TBW
P-SPAN

Last edited by P-SPAN (2010-05-12 13:48:59)

Thank you, P-Span.  I headr a lot of vague remarks from Mr. Andrews about how he's expanding the job responsibilities, but nothing he says substantively creates more duties for the position than already exist under statute, and really it just comes off as a slap at the prior Director.

And as noted above, Mr. Andrews in a roundabout fashion - and through Ms. Eckstrom and Ms. Donahue's comments also - seems intent on protecting his turf by reciting how he can do things.  The issue here isn't just whether he CAN hire people in this manner, it's whether he SHOULD.  And part of HIS job description is to exercise good judgment, which I am not convinced he did here.

Beach Plum wrote:

I am not entirely comfortable with the P.T. Chief being on the hiring committee.  I would rather see a Fire Chief on the committee to hire.  The fire dept. goes into these homes sometimes before and after a fire.  They are more in tune to structures than a police chief.  M/O

Good point.  Civil service promotional examination for fire dept. officers require knowledge of building codes, and even though I don't think either department in town uses civil service to promote, by the nature of their jobs they need to know more about buildings than a police chief would, as you note.

P-SPAN wrote:

Jaime Rebhan wrote:

Selectman Cara Winslow expressed concern Tuesday that new Director of Inspectional Services Myles Burke was hired at a salary 50% higher than the advertised pay rate and, at $75,000, well above the salary level specified in the town's personnel plan...

WW: Inspectional Services director's salary questioned

..and read the comments.

TBW
P-SPAN

Sound of crickets chirping over there following my response to Mr. Slager...

I thought Bobo was all for asking questions, free speech, the public's right to know and so on.  Oh wait, not when it's his side.  Then he becomes a good little lackey.

An individual was hired for $20,000 more than the advertised rate.  Winslow asked for an explanation as to why.  That's a legitimate question to ask, but of course, Bobo throws a hissy fit. 

Bobo, once in awhile you should pretend to be a reporter, you know, to keep up appearances.  Remember, reporters are supposed to be FOR people asking questions.