David Molgaard, City Manager Extraordinaire (or so he says....).

Well, Charleston City Manager David Molgaard has been on the job approximately 3 years, and now is asking for a raise. Evidently, he's SO good (coughbullcrapcough), that other cities around the country are now clamoring to give him a huge raise if he would only come and be their city manager. In last Friday's Daily Mail, there was an article about this, but aside from that, it seems to have slipped under the radar.

Yes, we have another instance of a top government official trotting out the "but in OTHER states (cities in this case) they pay someone like me X dollars." Of course, that logic never seems to apply when the government workers are the actual workers, like cops, or firemen, or office workers, or whatever. Nooooooooooo, you can't use that logic to justify higher salaries for those types of workers. But when a top-level suckass wants a raise in WV, they immediately drag this argument out without any hesitation. And even more disgusting is, Danny Worker Tax Jones' response. He's all FOR paying Molgaard more money. According to Jones, "Losing Molgaard is not an option," and that Molgaard manages Charleston, "into surplus after surplus each year."

Are you kidding me? Danny Jones thinks the surplus is Molgaard's doing? What about the freaking worker tax that was basically a 2 million per year windfall the last two years? What exactly did Molgaard have to do with that aside from lugging bags of money into city hall from the user fee account? Last I checked, the City Manager didn't have a damn thing to do with it. Danny says, "Hey Dave, guess what? I just soaked the poor working schmucks in Charleston for 2 million per year, have fun spending it." And the surplus is HIS doing? Hell, give me half that additional revenue, and I'd have Charleston in a surplus too. And if we've got all these surpluses, that are evidently Molgaard's doing, then I don't see where there is a burning need to raise revenue, in the form of the worker tax. Dannyboy can't have it both ways. He can't trumpet the great job Molgaard is doing by leaving surpluses, and then cry poverty to get the worker tax, and the hotel motel increase (and remember, the hotel tax indirectly caused the cell phone fee to double too). Either the city's got extra money, or it doesn't.

Molgaard makes about $79,000 per year, but other "comparable" cities pay their managers sometimes twice that much. Danny Jones' chief leg-humper, Rod Blackstone, was quick with the facts and figures to support giving Molgaard a raise:

Wilson, N.C., which has a population of 45,921, has posted its city manager's position at up to $130,000 to start. Durham, N.C. advertised last year that they would pay its manager up to $145,000. The city of Frankfort, Ky., with its population of 27,741 -- a little more than half of Charleston's -- in a city manager posting listed the salary as $100,000, Blackstone found. In all, 40 southern cities smaller than Charleston all pay their city managers more. The median salary for city managers in the south for cities the size of Charleston is $143,365. The city of Hurricane hired Ben Newhouse as its manager on a $58,000 salary, which works out to be $10 per resident. Molgaard's salary equals about $1.49 per resident, Blackstone found.

Oh, and Molgaard won't come forward with the cities' names that have contacted him about stealing him away. But, Danny and his chief leg-humper don't need any specifics. Just the mere possibility that someone may have spoken to Molgaard (and the only one we can trust for this information, is Molgaard himself - how convenient) about being their city manager, will suffice for a full court press to pay Molgaard what other cities will pay theirs.

Of course, when you have basically an unlimited cash reservoir such as the worker tax, also known as taxation without representation, I guess squeezing an extra 15 or 20 thousand dollars out of the budget for Molgaard, won't be such a problem. But if some actual city worker asked for a raise? "Noooo, we don't have any money," would be Jones' answer.

And in keeping with something I mentioned in the Rick Staton entry the other day, this crap about politicians are sacrificing for the public good, has GOT to stop. The Daily Mail article implies that Molgaard left his 15 year law practice to become city manager, and its salary of $79,000 . And as far as I can tell, Molgaard didn't have ANY experience as a city manager before he was hired 3 years ago. I bet there are few (if any) city managers around the country that would be hired in to manage a city the size of Charleston, without any previous experience. And now he wants more money? Well boo freaking hoo. Nobody was putting a gun to his head. He knew what the salary was when he took that job. Besides, everyone is always talking about what out of control government benefits employees get? Well, Molgaard gets those too. Figure them in on top of his salary, and I bet Molgaard makes well over $90,000 per year, if not over $100,000.

That's the same line of crap the politicians use when any of the lower tier government workers use the "but employee x in state y makes more than me....." Molgaard knew the salary when he signed on. If he's got a better offer (and, again, the only one claiming that at this point, is Molgaard himself - how convenient for Molgaard), he should take it, and not try some phantom extortion scheme on the taxpayers for more money. If he can't hack it on $79,000 per year in WV, he probably shouldn't be Charleston's city manager anyway. I say good riddance. There's Greyhounds leaving for North Carolina every day. Be on the next one, Dave.

Do as I say, not as I do.

Well, well well. Lookee what we have here. Not hardly a blip about this on the local talk radio scene (that I was able to tell).

Wyoming County Delegate Rick Staton, seems to have a bit of a problem paying his taxes and is going to have to declare bankruptcy. He doesn't have any problem spending YOUR tax money, but just can't seem to find any extra at the end of the day, to pay his own.

How convenient. And typical. Remember, Wyoming County is the same place where Bob Graham likes to spend your tax dollars building himself hot tubs, and paying Senator Billy Wayne Bailey 25 bucks an hour to spoon out oatmeal to the Wyoming County Senior Citizens. That is, when he's not driving around in his brand new SUV, purchased for him by the Wyoming Senior Citizen, er, I mean, you and me. And don't forget those new $10,000 roofs that keep getting put on the center every couple of years. I know my parents' house has had 2 new roofs in about 30 years. I wonder why Bobby needs a new one every 5?

It looks like Staton is making about $4,000 per month (take home pay). That's $48,000 take home pay, per year. And he has to pay about 6 grand to his ex-wife per year. So, he gets to keep about $42,000 per year, for himself. I know a ton of hard working West Virginians that manage to live on a lot less than $42,000 (take home) per year. And they also manage to pay their income taxes. Something that Ricky doesn't seem to have the time or the money to do. He owes the state about $1500 in personal income taxes, and owes the Feds about 25 grand in income taxes (personal and business). Funny, he never seemed to have any problem raising my taxes or spending MY money that I paid to the state. I always hear stuff about how people need to live within their means. Hell, I even remember Papa Joe saying that state employees need to learn how to shop at Gabe's, if they don't have enough money to live on. Maybe Ricky could take Papa Joe's advice, and learn how to live a bit more frugally. I know he doesn't seem to mind that everyone else has to tighten their belts, thanks to his actions in the legislature.

But, maybe even MORE disgusting than this scofflaw's blatant disregard for the very laws he votes on, is the fact that his buddy, Bob Kiss (or evidently, any other legislators), doesn't really see any problem with not paying your taxes. In Phil Kabler's column the other day, Kiss stated: “It’s certainly something that’s not unusual among large cross-sections of society.” Kiss then goes on to state, that it's not really a big deal, because when businesses get in trouble, the first thing they decide to skimp on, is their taxes. He then goes on and gives the Mullens' flood of both Staton's house, and law office in '01 as the reason for his getting behind. While that IS a tragedy, he's still taking home, over $40,000 per year. And he still has the time to serve in the legislature? He ran for re-election twice, in 2002 AND 2004, after the July 2001 flood. If he's so strapped for cash, that he's going to declare bankruptcy, maybe he should have stepped down from the legislature, to concentrate on his finances and actually work for a living instead of sucking off the government for his legislative paycheck (not to mention all the expense checks he got for food, lodging, and mileage, that aren't even part of this income analysis). Besides, how can the rest of us be sure he's giving his full attention to his legislative duties, if he's in such horrible financial trouble? I know it would sure as hell worry me to death, to the point I couldn't concentrate on anything else.

And Kiss later gives us this little gem: “In some ways, it’s indicative of the financial sacrifice many make to serve in the Legislature.” Kiss means Staton works more than 3 months a year for the legislature, and therefore, loses all those billable hours in his law office. Well, like I said above, that's easy enough to remedy. DON'T RUN FOR OFFICE. Stay home and get your finances in order. Hell, it's not like someone is standing there with a gun to his head MAKING him run. PLUS, let's not forget, that for the 3 months or so he spends in the legislature, he GETS PAID (plus expenses). So, it's not like the time he's in Charleston, he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart. So Kiss can take this "oh, us poor, poor, legislators are making such a financial sacrifice" crap and stuff it where I'd like to stick Danny Jones' Worker Tax.

This "who cares?" attitude by the number 1 guy in the House of Delegates, is pretty disturbing, along with the lack of outrage from the other members. I'm sorry Staton's run into hard times because (partly) of the Mullens' flood, but the cold fact of the matter is this. These guys are sent to Charleston to supposedly, "do the right thing." And they have absolutely NO hesitation in sticking a gun in my ribs for increased hotel motel taxes, or cell phone fees, or allowing Danny "Worker Tax" Jones to slap a tax on working people who can't even vote on the matter, but they can't even get their OWN financial obligations to the state taken care of? Staton should at the very least be removed from his leadership position as Majority Leader, if he owes the State delinquent taxes.

Like I said, I guess it's just another case of "do as I say, not as I do." I hated it when my parents said that to me growing up, and I sure as hell shouldn't have to take that crap from "my" elected officials. And neither should you.