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Batavia Daily News for Thursday: Letter: "Reinstate city plumbing inspector"

By Philip Anselmo

Today's opinion page in the Daily News features a letter to the editor on the topic of the city of Batavia plumbing inspector, who recently had her full-time position cut by the city to part-time and her hours dropped one half-hour below the threshold to qualify for health insurance.

This story was first reported in a great article by Joanne Beck a few weeks back.

In the letter today, authored by Beth Allen and Carol Grasso, the argument is made that Toal was treated unfairly by the city. In fact, the authors put it much more emphatically, when they write: "Someone very near and dear to the heart of this community is being treated with gross injustice." Here's some more:

Her salary was cut in half just two months before she would acheive 20 years of dedication and service to this community. Who made the decision to cut $25,000 at the expense of our public health in the first place? Barb spent her entire life in this county and we can't think of anyone else we know who cares more deeply for it. Then to top things off, she is cut to work only 19 1/2 hours a week instead of the 20 hours a week she would need to have her health insurance and other benefits covered.

Our county has a financial deficit to deal with, but what about the people who live here and make it what it is? Is this how our officials plan on rewarding all of its workers from now on?! Are we teaching our children that dedicating a lifetime of service and professional ability is to be rewarded in this fashion? Who the heck will want to stay in a community like that!!

It's obvious that Allen and Grasso feel very strongly about this. One needn't even consider the doubled-up exclamation points and the flourish of rhetorical questions to understand that. Yet there is much more to be gleaned from this letter than a simple and emphatic request for reinstatement. This letter and the circumstances that led to its being drafted make for a great time to have the conversation of how cities—especially small cities—ought to be run.

How much should municipalities be run like corporations? Because really, if we're to be honest with ourselves, this move of cutting Toal to half time just before she would qualify for pension and edging her hours just right so that the city doesn't have to pay for health insurance—that's a corporate tactic. It saves money. But at the same time, you better believe it carries the message: the individual is not important here. All that is done is done in the name of the greater good. This brings us to the seeming paradox that we, the people of Batavia—or whatever other community, however that community is defined—are the greater good. Yet, at the very same time, we, the people of Batavia, are the Barbara Toals of the community. So which do we favor? Which do we identify with? Because situations such as this, as that which is presented in this letter, make it clear that we have to choose a side.

Beth Allen and Carol Grasso make it quite clear which side they have chosen. At the end of their letter, they list the names, e-mails (where available), addresses and telephone numbers for the city leaders. So, will you send a letter?


In other new, if you're wondering what the municipal bosses and boards are doing in Albion, Shelby, Warsaw and Le Roy, today's Daily News is your kind of newspaper.

Out in Albion, that Village Board has decided to pursue a legal battle to "oust" Ron Vendetti, the village's current code enforcement officer. Vendetti has been accused of "rudeness with residents" and "incompetence on the job."

More such Albion news, along with what went on at the Wyoming County Board of Supervisors meeting, can be found inside the paper. Also, the town of Le Roy will hold a public hearing on the proposed 2009 budget tonight at 7:00pm at the town hall.

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

Charlie Mallow

The city of Batavia is run like a business. I understand this is not the norm at this time of big government bailouts and the dawn of socialism in which we live.

Nov 13, 2008, 2:35pm Permalink
Daniel Jones

It's not really a choice anymore, with the economic environment getting tougher throughout the Northeast and the Great Lakes region government revcenues are growing smaller and with spending cuts on the way, member items may see a decrease across the board (especially now that our Congressman and State Senator are in the minority. The city is trying to do everything in its power to keep the tax rates low and tough decisions have to be made, if its a position that only needs to be done part time then it only should be a part time position. We have got to cut down on government fat on all levels.

Nov 13, 2008, 2:53pm Permalink
Gabor Deutsch

Does anyone understand what exactly happpens when a nations economy is in a downswing ? When the state has a budget crisis ? when the state officials hold a press conference on Television and declare that they will make drastic budget cuts including money from education and health care ? Why wouldnt a small county have to cut back ? Its getting so bad that they are delaying raises and pensions for many state and federal employees. The "fat" is already cut this is survival. This downward spiral has just started doesnt anyone else actually see what is still to come ? Enjoy your lower gas prices coz everything else will be going up and jobs will be very hard to find or keep if you dont accept drastic cuts to your benefits.

Nov 13, 2008, 3:18pm Permalink
Mark Potwora

I feel for this person also..But if its only a part time job than that is what it is.Did the letter writer state how
pubic safety will be compromised .If it is a serious issue than we should we look at it..If the powers to be decided there isn't an issue,than so be it.

Nov 13, 2008, 3:47pm Permalink
John Roach

They don't seem that serious yet at the State level. They are only cutting the rate of increased spending. There are no "cuts" yet, spending is still going up. When the State says they are holdimg spending to last years level, then you will know they are serious, but they are not there yet. So far, this is all talk.

Nov 13, 2008, 3:50pm Permalink
Charlie Mallow

I think the governor is serious but, my mailbox is full of special interest groups telling me to call the governor to tell him to NOT cut this or that. There seems to be this right of entitlement that our country has developed and has thrived in the Bush years. When are people going to understand that this economic collapse will end in personal hardship? Do people need to actually be in the soup line before they realize that times are going to be tough? The stock market is free falling, our largest companies are on the verge of bankruptcy and people think that no one is going to lose their job. The average person somehow believes that we can simply go back to the well over and over again without ever paying for the sins of the past.

Nov 13, 2008, 4:08pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Charlie, Bush years?

The growing sense that anybody can go to the government with a hand out started at least as far back as Herbert Hoover (some of the social programs FDR executed successfully got their incubation under Hoover).

Every generation of leadership seems to ratchet up the number of government programs that do things once reserved to private enterprise or charity.

And I'm not saying that's all a bad thing, just that it got out of hand long ago.

Recently I came across a discussion of Karl Marx and his theory that the only way you get to a communist society is to pass through a socialist society, and to be socialist, you must first be capitalist. Marx believed that the such an evolution was inevitable. Lenin once admitted that he tried to short-cut the evolution in Russia.

When I look at the bailouts and the government taking ownership stakes in banks and automakers, I can't help but wonder if Marx wasn't right.

The McCain campaign tried to make a big deal out of Obama "spreading the wealth." But they got it so wrong. All McCain and Obama were dickering about was how to adjust the progressive tax system (which has its merits and its liabilities), but that sort of "spreading the wealth" isn't what scares me. The government taking ownership in businesses -- that's something to worry about.

When governments institute "temporary taxes," they almost invariably become permanent taxes. Will the same thing happen with these temporary ownership stakes in American businesses?

Nov 13, 2008, 4:25pm Permalink
Charlie Mallow

Yes, Bush years. That's when government came up with the idea it could continue to spend like drunken sailors, pay for a war and cut taxes at the same time. The irrational years...

The context of the statement is spending without paying. The idea of government wasting money has been around for years. Not this idea that it never had to be repaid.

Nov 13, 2008, 4:49pm Permalink
Daniel Jones

If anyone wants to have any idea how bad of shape the state is in take into consideration that roughly 40 percent of our revenue comes from Wall Street, as the stock market tumbles so does state appropriations. The real problem in our spending lays in how large of a bureaucracy we have here and the fact that the Federal Government shoves entitlement costs onto states. We pick up a huge share of medicaid costs. If the federal government is going to mandate the program they should step in and cover the costs, ask any county legislator how much of a headache that irresponsibility is. That being said, most other state incomes aren't based so heavily upon a fluctuating source.

What we need to do is institute a millionaire's tax to have a slight raise in state revenue, implement a real property tax cap to encourage growth on Main Street (where it matters) and then cut wasteful spending.

Nov 13, 2008, 7:15pm Permalink
Daniel Jones

We do have to be careful though, if we cut local assistance aid and school aid taxes will go up, we need to go line by line through the budget with a scalpel and in that way, make real spending cuts without hurting local economies.

Nov 13, 2008, 7:16pm Permalink
Daniel Jones

The budget was balanced under the LBJ administration, we expanded programs during the "great society" the right way, the Nixon and Carter years are where mandates grew out of control.

Nov 13, 2008, 7:17pm Permalink
John Roach

The "balanced budget" under LBJ was as phoney as under Clinton. They made the numbers look good. He decided to fight a war and go on a massive spending spree at the same time. both ended up as failures. Thirty years after his Great Society plan, we are no better off, and maybe worse, than before. The "Great Society" was a failure. If you beleive Obam, poverty is greater than ever before and nothing is good. Johnson was a failure. That does not mean the others after him were better, but don't use an economic failure as an example. It was his policies that latter caused the high inflation under Carter, who then had no clue and made it worse.

Nov 14, 2008, 6:19am Permalink
Daniel Jones

Clinton had "phony" surpluses? That's news to me, the deficit was eliminated by fiscal year 1999 and the debt was starting to be paid down instead of throwing it all into a series of trust funds or having huge tax breaks for the top 1 percent. This idea that the Clinton surpluses were a "myth" isn't true, most widely accepted economic theorists will tell you that they were real.

As far as LBJ and Clinton being "failures", look at the state of the economy, interest rates and inflation were low, the unemployment rate was low and the economy was growing.

Nov 14, 2008, 8:03am Permalink
Gabor Deutsch

Alan Greenspan got pressured into bending over for Clinton and his special interest backers.
Presidents only influence the future economy but they can control the present path to what happens.
Even with all the nautural disasters,prices, and especially the current WAR, It has cost so much "green blood" that now this controls our downward spiral economy not just wall street.
Good Luck Mr. Barak Obama !
Get Hilary and Bill will follow.
Dont let Paulson run a muck, and for our main st sake,
Report every cent of the bailout and create JOBS !

Nov 14, 2008, 4:47pm Permalink

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