Florence Council Gives Themselves a Pay Raise - And They Didn't Even Know It!!

Earlie this week, I attended a meeting for Florence County Citizens in Action, a local tax watchdog group, and Florence Co.'s worst nightmare. The guest of honor was outgoing Council woman Jennie O'Bryan. Like most honest politicians, Jenny decided one term was enough. Dealing with some members of Council eventually took it's toll, and she is takign time of - but she did leave the door open for a return...

During the Q&A, and interesting question came up. "How did Council end up voting itself a substantial pay raise this year?" It seems that the pay raise was jammed somewhere in the nether regions of this year's budget. How much? Well somewhere around 25-35% over the next two years, or 12,500 to 13,500 per year. Pretty good for a part time gig.

The ironic part is that everyone on Council had no idea the pay raise was taking place. O'Bryan, Morris Anderson and Terry Alexander have all said they knew nothing of it. So who did it? We have a pretty good guess, but who knows.... Now , as bad as the pay raise was in itself , what is worse is what the press did - nothing.....

After the word was out about the pay raises, the Morning News and TV 13 killed the story. It was never aired or printed. As someone who has been smeared by these same media outlets, I find it pretty odd that the wouldn't let taxpayers know that their money is being wasted with sneaky, under the table tactics. So, the question needs to be asked.... WHO ARE THEY PROTECTING ???

It's good that we have groups like CIA to watch out for our citizens, but it's sad that they had to pay for an ad (in a competing paper) to let voters know about the waste. If you ask me, honesty in government and the press is seriously lacking in Florence, and the wrong person is leaving Council....