Docks get fight but Treasurer gets her bucks

Well you'd think handing over $6,500 to the new city treasurer would have been more of an issue - but it wasn't.

Uniting in disunity were Tom Jones and Tom O'Brien, who both voted against a transfer of $6,462.81 to bring Treasurer Cheryl Robertson's salary up to ... what?

Well, more in line with what former treasurer Mary Lattime made.

I don't buy this argument that she should get an increase because that's what happens when you fill a job that was held for a long-time by one person, especially since Robertson was already a city employee, in the Mayor's Office.

You have a salary range for a position, you should stick to it.

Robertson's salary is/was (who knows?) $74,625/yr., according to Donna Holaday. Lattime's salary was $75,726 with the longevity, and after a mid-year raise last year, according to Julia Godtfredsen, Robertson's replacement in the Mayor's Office.

It's not as if Robertson was an outside candidate; and even then, given that the city is considering layoffs, someone from the outside possibly would have been offered LESS, not more.

But apparently there was some kind of a contract so ... and the money is coming from the salary line for an assistant treasurer, which I guess is a vacant position, so ... 9-2.

Yeah, I agree with Tom Jones, who said it was very poor timing to effectively give someone a raise and with Tom O'Brien, who said it didn't make sense given possible layoffs of police officers.

Everyone is working harder and making less these days ... well, a lot of people are ... It's a sad, but true, fact of life.

The salary line item for the mayor's "executive aide" is $45,218 for FY09 - so I'm guessing that was about what Robertson made before she became Treasurer.