Priorities
By Mitch Berg
Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak shows that deals with the city’s fiscal woes with the aplomb of a Gabor sister;if you take care of life’s luxuries,the necessities take care of themselves:
The day after Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak vetoed a City Council effort to prevent 10 firefighter layoffs, the city sent out a new job posting: a bicycle and pedestrian coordinator.
Which just goes to show that no matter how much Minneapolis and Saint Paul carp about losing (part of) their subsidy from the parts of the state that work, they can always find the money to take care of their pets and their pork. The bike and pedestrian director will make betwen $61-84K.
The mayor’s office argues that the new coordinator will make the city safer for cyclists and pedestrians, but council President Barb Johnson said it is a “tempting” target for extra revenue to save firefighter jobs.
“We’ll look at that. We’ll look at all the general fund positions that we have currently,” Johnson said. “Because a majority of the council wants to maintain these 10 firefighters and not lay them off.”
Those 10 firefighters, of course, have less to do with balancing the city’s budget than they do with serving as a battering ram against the GOP in the legislature, giving Dayton, Tom Bakk and Paul Thissen a chanting point when the GOP attacks “Local Government Aid”.
Speaking of which, here’s what the city’s hiring:
In addition to the bicycle coordinator, the city is looking to hire a database engineer, a stationary engineer, an internal auditor and a manager of intellectual properties for the police department.
Intellectual property in the police department?
Cops are getting patents? Or are so many of them writing books (I guess that reference dates me) that the department needs to be administering copyrights and trademarks?
Can anyone ‘splain me that one?
August 25th, 2011 at 6:51 am
Intellectual property in the police department? – Mitch
In the 1990’s, the police department got out ahead of the IT wave and created several systems that generate revenue, the most successful being the Automated Pawn System (APS). APS protects pawn shop profits and the public by identifying stolen property.
Much of the credit for this goes to the late Gary Ritari, who pioneered a number of state-wide data sharing efforts. It is his position that Rybak is filling.
I agree with you on the “cops and firefighter first” approach to budget manipulation that the DFL is engaged in and I really don’t know whether Gary’s position is needed at this time – but the MPD does deserve credit for being entrepreneurial and generating revenue rather than relying on taxes.
August 25th, 2011 at 7:29 am
Greg,
That’s what I was looking for. Thanks!
August 25th, 2011 at 8:10 am
I agree, Mitch! DemocRATs just keep showing their fiscal ignorance for all to see. The problem is, too many people look the other way.
August 25th, 2011 at 8:23 am
City of St. Paul buys computer service from the State. Not saying they don’t need an in-house guy for $100k in the MPD, but just wondering who manages intellectual properties for other entities? Could you contract with, say, Lawson Software, to provide that service for less? McFee Antivirus? 3M, maybe? Thompson-West? State Attorney General’s office?
Seems to me there are local businesses with expertise in managing their own intellectual property rights – ought to be possible to offer that service to MPD.
If not – Mitch, here’s your golden ticket.
.
August 25th, 2011 at 8:40 am
The bike coordinator, according to the job description, supervises up to five people. It’s not just a job — it’s a department!
August 25th, 2011 at 9:28 am
And Minneapolis does need a pedestrian coordinator. Have you ever driven down there? Those morons just walk out in traffic. The concept of “crosswalks” is completely lost on them.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:08 am
Watch for a posting for a Fountain Monitor, reporting directly to R.T. to keep an eye on his monuments to his reign!
August 25th, 2011 at 7:18 pm
Nate,
The city of Minneapolis has outsourced its computer equipment, operations and support to Unisys. I can’t tell you whether it is a good deal or not because I haven’t worked for them for over a decade. I can tell you though that the city was a mess when I left and from what I hear, still is.
By the way Mitch, I would like to see you do a blog on the quadruple dipping civil servants. I knew a lot of City employees who retired at 48 (after 30 years) and collected a pension from MERF. They would then cross the street to work for Henn. County, while still collecting their MERF pension. There they would earn Social Security and a PERA pension. If they were wise they contributed to a Deferred Comp fund.
So when they finally retire, they collect:
1. Social Security.
2. A MERF pension
3. A PERA pension
4. Deferred Comp.
In effect they collect more after retirement than they ever earned while working.
August 25th, 2011 at 8:35 pm
I volunteer a large amount of time for a non-profit. Something like a bicycle coordinator sounds like the kind of job you could get a volunteer to do.