2000-02-09 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 02-09-00Page 21 of 41 HERKES: I beg your pardon. SANTANGELO: No, you have a motion to amend, a second. You vote for discussion. You vote on that and if it passes, that becomes part of the main motion that you made, and that’s parliamentary, you don’t need. RAY: Okay, discussion on the amendment. BESS: You know, what I’m going to say may not be directly on the amendment, so you can rule me out of order. Let me just suggest something. I’m just wondering whether or not, if we were to change the name of the Safety Coordinator to a Director, Safety Director, and then we used his language the way he’s saying, and we say ‘such other Directors as provided by the Charter’, and then that, of course, assumes we’re knocking the physicians out, but what I’m trying to do is create a classification of Directors that would cover all of those other positions, and I’m unable to do it with regard to the physician’s position. It’s just a thought. HERKES: But you put the Band back in, didn’t you? BESS: Well, he’s a Band Director. Yes, I’m putting the Band Director back in. RAY: John. SANTANGELO: Safety Coordinator. Am I to understand that this Salary Commission could then set the Directors’ salaries at a different level from one another, or is it going to be one of these straight across the board things? RAY: It was my understanding that, yes, they could. SANTANGELO: Because I would hate to take a position as innocuous as the Safety Coordinator, right now, that really has no teeth, and really doesn’t accomplish much when it could accomplish a lot, and throw it in and have it getting what the Public Works got, or something like that. That would be my only concern. BEN: Yes, the Salary Commission believes that, under the proposal that we had submitted, then since Mr. Ray’s proposal follows the same line, that they would have the authority to establish different levels of salary if they saw fit, based on the factors that’s mentioned in the proposals. SANTANGELO: And then when it comes to the amended motion, I’d like more clarification from the person who moved because, again, the Director and Deputy Directors are what’s most important, and we want that to pass. So what you proposed, why did you propose that, and again, if there’s people out there that aren’t represented, and this helps them, we want to help them but what was your main intent there, Gary? YOSHIYAMA: It’s my view that these positions serve in similar authority to Department Heads and Deputies. That’s basically where I am coming from. If not in terms of supervision, I think the level of authority that they have is comparable. IRVINE: I think I’d have to disagree with that. YOSHIYAMA: That’s fine, Sue, but I’m expressing my opinion. IRVINE: Yes, I’m expressing my opinion too, though, that the Band Director, and I think, Safety Coordinator really don’t equal Head of the Department of Public Works, and I would hope that the Salary Commission - I mean, it looks to me like they pretty much do put Head of Department X amount, Deputy X amount, and they haven’t been considering these others, but somebody has considered these others differently now because they’re at a much lower level. You know what I mean? The Safety Coordinator and the Band Director. And I would hope they continue to do that. SANTANGELO: Point of information. Chair, would his motion change that? They’d still be set a different rates. RAY: They could be. Yes, they’d be subject to the Salary Commission. So, other discussion? I’d like to speak in favor of the amendment. There is some political risks, but it just seems logical to me that if we’re asking the Salary Commission to address these types of salaries that are all within the same category, and I would just hope they would address them under file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 02-09-00.html7/1/2011