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Reclassification --- political football?
I got an email this morning from Lew Benton, which says that Mayor Johnson is going before the city's Civil Service Commission on Monday to amend Benton's job description. I don't have a copy of the job description in front of me, but I can tell you that open spaces, preservation and recreation all fall under Benton's purview.
I wasn't able to get in touch with Johnson to confirm this, nor was I able to investigate Benton's claim that such an amendment would violate the City Charter by effectively amending it without proper review (Benton's position is established under the city charter.)
According to Benton, the exact text Johnson is looking to remove is contained in Benton's job description, which charges that his position will "integrate and coordinate the Heritage Area Program and City Historian." Removing this line, again, according to Benton, would have the effect of turning over that responsibility to the Deputy Mayor, Shauna Sutton.
Lest anybody forget that Benton and Sutton are both political appointees, he said in his email that Sutton has not demonstrated an ability to manage such tasks as he currently handles, and says that certain city programs might be in jeopardy, were such a change to occur.
Stay tuned as we investigate the veracity of Benton's claims, and Johnson's motivation for such a move. I does not seem to me that integrating and coordination the heritage area program and City Historian is an essential function that needs to be handled by the Mayor's office, but, I'm often surprised by the reasons for things that I don't think of.
For you information, Benton's job, Administrator of Parks, Open Space, and Historical Preservation, earned him $26,951 in 2007, putting his salary slightly below the middle of earned income for city employees, but comfortably above the salary for a Commissioner or Mayor ($14,500 per year).
posted by The Saratogian City Desk at
4:40 PM
6 Comments:
Careful... He did not work a full year at that position, so the figure is not legit...
"For you information, Benton's job, Administrator of Parks, Open Space, and Historical Preservation, earned him $26,951 in 2007, putting his salary slightly below the middle of earned income for city employees, but comfortably above the salary for a Commissioner or Mayor ($14,500 per year)."
That's because he did not work for the entire year. See below - from a Saratogian article June 25, 2007:
"SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Lew Benton will become the city's first Administrator of Parks, Open Lands and Historic Preservation, Mayor Valerie Keehn announced Monday afternoon.
Benton, who is currently the chairman of the Saratoga Springs Planning Board, said he will be leaving the board to begin his new position as soon as possible.
The full-time position pays a starting salary of $48,000 and will include the responsibility of recommending policies to regulate the use of land and facilities in the city's parks and open lands systems."
5:34 and 7:41, Thanks for the clarifications. I wasn't able to get hold of the full year's salary for that position today, but I was aware that in 2007 he did not earn a full year's pay.
The previous Mayor filled this redundant job description that was integrated into the Charter by the Chief Charter revisionist Mr. Lawton. In fact, she took one retiring City Planner's position and created 3 positions that in five years will double the original burden. How many descriptions of Planner does a City this size require?
And how is it that this city employee goes to the newspaper to complain about his supervisor and without getting "in touch with Johnson" you run a blog on this one sided scuttlebutt?
This office falls under the Mayor’s department doesn’t it? And each Department head is responsible for its management, aren’t they? And insubordination in the private world is usually addressed, is it not?
Another Pchopper calamity.
lew benton has worked the system to his advantage. let's not forget that he was one of the more influential members of the 2001 Charter Revision Committee that created the unnecessary new job of Director of Parks, Open Space and Historic Preservation which he now occupies. Everyone knows that this job is redundant. Mayor Johnson is correct.He wants to cut waste in government as he promised and this is obviously a good place to start.
Maybe now that "supervision of staff" and less important administrative duties are removed from his purview, Mr. Benton will be forced to actually accomplish something within the scope of his job title. He should be removed from the Public Safety building committee also, something that took up so much of his time late last year that he did not have time to seek or apply for grants-something that IS SUPPOSED TO BE part of his job. I think the mayor is setting him up to have no excuse but to produce-if he doesn't or can't then he should resign.
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