SEE UPDATE BELOW

Last year I blogged the following about our poor, poor mayor and our poor, poor common council members that you really should read before you move on.

Tuesday the council meets to consider this item. Please read carefully:

Ordinance No. 98-1527, An Ordinance to Change the Salaries for Mayor and Aldermen, be and the same is hereby amended as follows: for the Mileage and Expenses, Effective April 19, 2000, for Mayor, delete “$400/month” and in place thereof insert: “$700/month”; for Aldermen, delete “$150/month” and in place thereof insert: “350/month”.

Oh, there’s more.

The Mileage and Expenses amounts provisions set forth in Section 1 shall be retroactive to January 1, 2024 and effective for payments thereof thereon and thereafter, including commencing on the first Mayor and Aldermen payroll of the forthcoming and future City budget years hereafter.

Message from Mayor Nelson and the Common Council to the obliging taxpayers who will just roll over and take it:

SUCKERS!

Maybe some Franklin residents believe this mayor and council have earned and deserve salary, mileage, and expense increases. I don’t.

But let’s be real. What alderperson is going to sit there Tuesday night and deny him/herself a hefty increase?

No, instead it’ll be a chorus of ‘Yes, Johnny. That’s great, Johnny. Thank you so much, Johnny.’

In so doing our local representatives dismiss and scoff at the longtime commonly held concept that officials risk a political firestorm if they raise their own salaries. But here in Franklin they don’t care. The people be damned.

Our city hall is corrupt.

ALSO:

From city informational packet on March 5, 2024 meeting:

The proposed increase in the allowable reimbursement for elected officials has already been approved
in the 2024 Adopted Budget. These adjustments are justified by reimbursing elected officials for the money spent to discharge their official duties.

Current Mayor Mileage & Expenses: $400/month
Proposed Mayor Mileage & Expense: $700/month

Current Aldermen Mileage & Expenses: $150/month
Proposed Aldermen Mileage & Expenses: $350/month

RECOMMENDATION
Option 1: Authorize the increase and adopt the resolution.

Contact your alderperson ASAP and:

1) Inform you’re watching and paying attention and,

2) Urge a NO vote on the resolution.

UPDATE: The Franklin Common Council voted 5-1 to approve the inflated compensation figures.

The ringleader, Mayor Nelson, played the semantics game, that this was not a salary increase.

Please. The taxpayers aren’t stupid. They grasp that this is extra money in the pockets of the elected.

Alderwoman Michelle Eichmann and Alderman Mike Barber, arguably the two biggest disappointments on the council, cried all over the stage about the price of gas, computers, phones, printers.

WAH WAH WAH!

They wanted the job. They ran for it. They need to deal with it and what’s involved in being a taxpayer-funded civil servant.

I don’t recall any of these selfish Einsteins campaigning they’d seek hefty increases in their mileage and expense accounts.

Kudos to Franklin Alderman Jason Craig, the lone NO vote. Shame on all the others.