The Oconee County school board is up in arms this week because their State Representative, Bob Smith (R-Watkinsville), isn’t going to carry legislation they’ve proposed which would grant them pay raises from 333% for ordinary board members to 556% for the chairman.
Perhaps these members, who are in mid-term (if you can call it that; they were just elected back in November), haven’t noticed that the entire country — their state included — is in the middle of a pretty noteworthy economic downturn. Regardless, they clearly don’t see the impropriety in demanding a trebling or quintupling of their salaries at a time when the state is billions of dollars in the hole and the unemployment rate is continuously climbing.
Oconee Board of Education chairman David Weeks seems to think he was mislead and then thrown under the bus by Rep. Smith, with whom Weeks claims to have been “talking…about the proposal since January.” However, “talking” about a proposal, and actually promising to carry legislation that flies in the face of all good sense, are entirely different things, as Mr. Weeks has now learned.The matter had largely been out of the public eye until last Monday, when the school board finally held a public vote on their proposal to raise their own pay to $6,000.00 for board members, $7,000.00 for the vice chair, and $10,000 for the chairman. Previously, they had apparently only held private ‘executive sessions’ to discuss it, meaning that the entire proposal had been closed to the same public those board members are demanding pay their astronomical salary increases (salaries for Oconee school board members come from local property taxes, rather than state funds).
The Athens Banner-Herald‘s Adam Thompson reports that the public vote, which was 4-1 in favor of more taxpayer money in their pockets, was held “at Smith’s urging.” However, Peach Pundit has learned that the public vote was not taken at Smith’s specific urging, but as a last-ditch effort to convince the Representative to carry legislation he had repeatedly advised board members against proposing.
“I’m not going to carry [the legislation raising the Oconee school board members' salaries],” Smith told the Oconee Enterprise’s Jessica Blomquist on Wednesday. “I don’t think it’s right.”
Kim Argo was the only board member to vote against the pay increase at the public hearing. “I just didn’t feel good about the cuts we’re having to make to then ask for a pay raise,” she told the Enterprise.
Smith concurred with Argo’s concerns. “When people run for office, they know what their salary is,” he said. “We don’t need to be raising salaries in the middle of the term without adequate public hearings.” The Monday hearing, thrown on at the last minute with little public warning or notification, clearly failed to meet the definition of “adequate public hearings.”
“State Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, can’t introduce the bill without Smith’s support,” according to the Banner-Herald, meaning the Oconee County school board will have to wait until 2010 at least to push legislation raising their salaries by hundreds of percent.
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Well, I guess it never hurts to ask for a raise…unless it costs you an election.
What are they whining about? School board members around here only make $50 a meeting. With 2 meetings a month, they really don’t do it for the money. The only time they make more money is when they have to meet more often to hire a new super every 2 years or so.
Give me a break. It shows that those board members don’t really have the students’ or community’s best interests at heart.
There has been a trend over the past twenty years or so of part-time politicians seeking salaries commensurate with full time work. This is not a good trend for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that School Board/County Commission/Aldermen/whatevers who want to turn these little jobs into full-time employment rarely have the good of their constituents in mind. Where I live there are a couple of school board members who list their profession as “school board members.” Please.
Our school board gets medical insurance plus a salary and all they’ve done is put us $7 million in debt. It’s crazy!
Perhaps that school board saw Bob Smith push through the Georgia Power legislation requiring people to pay millions to their shareholders based on a non-existent power station, and they figured WHY NOT?
When legislators are out helping private enterprise acquire more money by the force of law, why not ask for more money to be paid to them when they toil away in a not-for-profit environment?
Bill-
no kidding, why not. The House clearly is increasing taxes and fees on the backs of the people, as if they have a right to our money, and expanding government size by creating new agencies, so what’s a raise for a school board?
In Hall Co. we have a school superintendent, Will Schofield, who has gotten us $10 million short in our school budget and has laid off about 100 certified teachers and staff. At the same time he has been “creating” positions and hiring his friends to fill them.
Gainesville only has 7 schools and we are $7 million in debt. The school board continues to allow county residents to pay tuition ($450) to come to city schools. This cost the tax payers $1.5 million a year to subsidize these students.
It is ridiculous!
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