Comments on: City stares down budget cuts

By: Wes Cannon

Wes Cannon — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:34:31 +0000

I certainly agree that the City has too many empoyees but the council has been reluctant to really get down to which ones are “too many” The percentage of employees vs population is proabably 1% or less. And many of the jobs are more necessary than you may imagine. Its the private citizens that want it both ways IMO. Homer is not Colorado and it simply costs more to live here than many other places.
Homer is still a fishing town and likely will never be able to support a large population infrastructure and this is not a bad thing…..You are lucky someone wants to plow snow, sand and deliver sewer and water services – just to be able to live near Homer.

By: franan

franan — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:37:58 +0000

We have 100 city employees – about 35 too many – its one reason why wages might be below some average – but what does that have to do with anything? Nobody forces people to take a job with the city. The reality is that people do what they have to – to survive – they aren’t doing the citizens any favors by doing their jobs. In the private sector money is ripped away from you by market forces without warning. People who want to be insulated from that need to have a reality check when they keep asking for higher wages that resemble what the private sector has. Health insurance w/o co-pay is a huge give-away that is neither earned or warranted. People working in the city to drive up salaries by comparing us to other places results in nothing but an uncontrollable spiral of cost for employees who want nothing to do with what the private sector faces. Maybe with more people like Kevin Hogan on the council we can have some frank discussions why city employees can’t have it both ways – ever increasing pay and insulation from economic harship in the private sector.

By: Wes Cannon

Wes Cannon — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:20:01 +0000

It was not my intention to disparage any private employees at the city’s docks and I certainly apologize if my comment was taken this way as they are extremly hard working and are certainly not driving new cars on their wages. Recent comparisions of city wages show Homer to be lower than average and I would point out that your roads get plowed, your water keeps running, sewage goes away and you can buy ice 10 months of the year. As far as dollars earned by work produced vs number of employees, my record speaks for itself. Prudent city spending should include not wasting money on grand projects, such as the City Center, which could not be supported by the current populations taxes, but yet spent (I think) thousands of dollars just in planning. The library is another example as is the million dollar animal shelter. True, the city does not “owe” its employees anything, but if they want average wage earners to be able to live in Homer to service residents, then they will need to continue to pay a living wage – which includes medical benefits. All the benefits that private citizens enjoy in Homer that the city provides, cost money and the price isn’t going to go down soon.

By: porgeytirebiter

porgeytirebiter — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:15:23 +0000

Wes you were a prime example of an overpaid city employee, Mr Hogan’s Anchor Point employees did more work in a day than you did in a month
but it must have been nice to get paid to drink coffee and eat doughnuts
don’t worry your city pension is safe as long as the city stays out of bankruptcy..
which should be an incentive to support prudent city spending.

By: franan

franan — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:43:26 +0000

Mr. Hogan is a wonderful addition to thecity council. Let’s get something straight – city employees are a long way from rock bottom – and since when does thecity owe them anyhing? If things are too tough let them take jobs in the private sector. What’s that? Oh yeah – many of them don’t want to – because they wouldn’t be doing so well. Good people? yes they are – but maybe you should ask some tourism businesses what they think about enduring such times while city salaries go up. These people have cadillac health care policies for themselves and their families. Everyone else in the country working in the public sector has a significant co-pay fo their insurance – the least our employees can do is pay another couple hundred a month to help out. We don’t owe them anything except to be reasonable – and that’s based on what we think -not what they think.

By: Wes Cannon

Wes Cannon — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:32:28 +0000

One of Mr. Hogans’ many gripes has been “overpaid city employees” and “fatcat city employees” These gripes occurred publicly and before his election. He even thinks he knows how to run the city docks and iceplant better than the skilled employees that work for the city. Many of his suggestions about city dock, iceplant and leasing were simply so he could make more profit from his business. Lets be careful that he doesn’t continue his “conflicts of interest”. City employees are already at rock bottom – trying to live in Homer and work for the city. Hogan’s employees likely live in Anchor Point or in substandard housing on the spit.