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| Including the City of Corunna, Village of New Lothrup, Caledonia township north
of the river,
Hazelton township, New Haven township and north Venice township (including Juddville)
July 31, 2006 Original letter as submitted to the editors of the Argus
Press, the Shiawassee Independent and the Flint Journal. My name is Jack Johnson, and I am the Democratic candidate for District 3, County Commissioner. I have concerns over a re-classification given, to alleviate the responsibilities of our elected representatives. I question where this money is going to come from. If you polled the elected and mandated offices in the county, how many would report that they are doing more? As more legislation, rules or mandates come into the county from our Legislature, everyone’s job is becoming more complex. Every office is asked to do more with the same or less. That is not just a condition in the county, but everywhere. People are losing jobs, losing health care and retirement benefits, taking cuts in pay. The general population is asked to pay more for less… more for groceries, more for gas. What salaries, services or programs are going to be cut to accommodate the budget increase? What services or programs are going to be sacrificed just when they may be needed most? I would like to see everyone get the raise they deserve, including every citizen in this county. But there is always the question of where the money comes from. It is entirely probable that the Board of Commissioners has granted every re-classification request that has come before them, as indicated by the chair, Mike Fuja. But I would ask the Commissioners to also look historically at how those re-classifications were implemented. I believe that when the re-classification constituted a large wage increase, they were started at the bottom of the scale, and worked their way back up to the 3 year level, no matter how many years they had worked. This would seem prudent in order to fund the increase at a reasonable level over a period of three years as structured in the pay scale. I believe everyone should be paid well. You keep quality personnel by allowing for good pay and benefits. I also know that every one I talk to has had to make decisions regarding their own expenses. What to leave in, what to leave out. Can I afford it? Do I really need it to survive? While acknowledging that a good employee deserves a good salary, the Commissioners should also acknowledge that they understand how hard this is for the average taxpayer of Shiawassee County to accept. Do the Commissioners understand that the same people who fund these positions don’t have the luxury of just rearranging their employer’s budgets to fund their raises? Dignity, a universal Human Right, is circumvented when the citizens of Shiawassee County are not acknowledged and respected. Sincerely, District 3 County Commissioner Democratic Candidate
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