Scottville City Hall

[Edward Hahn]

Please take notice that Scottville's City Hall was closed Thursday Dec. 31, while the Post Office was open, the Banks were open, and the vast majority of Business's were open.  Am I to believe that a 3 day weekend is not enough, that 4 days are now required. 

[XLFD]

Edward, I feel your frustration.  At Ludington we compensate our city manager and his assistant with over a quarter of a million dollars each year.  Among this is about 70% of their salary in fringe benefits.  Among these benefits, I presume, is all those extra days they take off during the year.  Here's our Ludington city calendar for 2016, notice the extra days off, days which are not 'bank holidays':  March 25 (Good Friday), November 25 (Black Friday), December 23 and 26 (Friday before, Monday after Christmas Day), December 30 (Friday before NY Day). 

Now you can thank our full-time state legislators for making both New Year's Eve and Christmas Eve extra holidays for state workers (as noted here), but local governments are not bound by those restrictions, if their legislative body deems otherwise.  Look at the good side:  most local governments are not closed on MLK Day, Veteran's Day, or President's Day. 

I can't see anywhere in our local code that says Good Friday is a holiday. 

[XLFD]

Commissioner Hahn,

What is your position on reducing the hours of Scottville City Hall and its officials as a cost cutting measure?

[Real Talk]

Wow, 13 Holidays.....BIG DEAL! Seems pry fair to give them paid days to be with their families.  I don't see any threads about teachers getting weeks off for Christmas Break and months off for summer vacation.  Why is that?  Because teachers are the most sensitive profession.

I find it hilarious how people like X, get upset over how much certain positions in the city salaries are.  Its very easy to get frustrated or you could call it jealousy, when someone is making more money than you.  Some people better themselves, some are happy to be working and actually contributing via taxes, and then there are the people who don't do either, live off assistance and don't pay any sort of taxes towards the city.  Those people are the first to complain, file law suits and take money from the city over peppy crap, but want to complain how the city spends the money.   

[Willy]

Real Talk. Teachers are not paid for the summer months off. They are paid an annual salary for 9 months of work and can receive that money over a 9 month period or stretch it out for 12 months. The problem, which you are not understanding, is that most of the taxpayers do not have the benefits that Government workers have but they are expected to pay dearly to provide those benefits. Don't you see a problem with that? Government employees should have the same benefits, and nothing more, than what the average citizen receives. Why don't you join the conversations and talk about the topics instead of always running down X and other posters?

[Real Talk]

So government employees should have the same wages and time off as "average citizen?"  So shouldn't the average tax payer work the same amount as a government employee?  There are government employees who work 12 hours plus.  So the average tax payer should be working that much.  The issues are the people who complain about government officials, but don't work.  They are the drain on society.  Not working, collecting government money and winning government money in lawsuits and not paying any government taxes.....those are the people who should be complaining about.

[Willy]

There are very few Government employees that work 12 hour days and those people are usually on a flex schedule and they rarely work over 40 per week. There are millions of private citizens who must work two or more jobs just to make ends meet. I agree that folks collecting "Government money" who could/should be working should do so, but that's the Government's fault for creating a "nanny" type of system. Most people will take anything that's free. Everyone has the right and duty to "complain" about the Government especially when corruption is evident.

[XLFD]

Happy New Year, Real Talk.  I hope that 'posting factual information', 'being civil', 'proofreading your posts', and 'no more trolling' wasn't among your resolutions for 2016, because you have already failed miserably in each. 

I remark unfavorably with the amount we pay our city management, because it is an excessive amount of our public money, and as exposited here quite often, the position's holder is corrupt and incompetent.  Amy Williams manages Scottville and even does double duty as treasurer for about a fifth of what we pay John Shay and Jackie Steckel to do what they do. 

If you throw in Ludington's treasurers salaries and benefits (it must be noted that all Ludington city hallers get great salaries and a 70% benefits package) , it approaches seven times the amount.  Yet I can't point proudly at anything good our city management has accomplished for Ludington, but I can easily list a score of things they have done detrimental to my city.

As for me, I have never been on government assistance, but I know my insistence on this fact hasn't stopped you in the past from throwing that false statement out on the internet in an effort to somehow discredit my point of view.  Fortunately, I work 365 days a year setting the record straight, even on Christmas-- which I hope you had a pleasant one, Real Talk.