Through many years many of us have listened to the establishment of new ordinances and the reading of this falls to the City Attorney. Most times most don't understand them and consider the readings just part of his job as City Attorney. He reads and interprets if necessary.
Now with the investigative report by Balestri, we find that the mayor is now interpreting the ordinance he believes gives him the right and power to establish payment for hours not worked. We have frequently heard an item referred to the city atty during council meetings asking an interpretation of an ordinance with regard to many things and sometimes it is the council who asks for an interpretation. Right on all counts.
The time between the election of the mayor in April and the filling of the position of SPW in July is really a very short time frame and it would not have been unrealistic for someone in the Public Works to fill in without any additional pay, just part of the job. Did the mayor realize he was setting precedent?
My other question is "Did Mayor Harl ask our City Atty Schweickert to interpret that ordinance he refers to as the basis for his decision to give OT pay for hours not worked?" Considering that he was new to the office of mayor at that time, does it not seem logical that he would have asked the attorney for his opinion on something this important? Especially since Judge Balestri refers to him as a new mayor with other things to be concerned about or did he take it upon himself in spite of his lack of knowledge on the workings of the city, to establish the OT protocol for the specified employees?
16 comments:
This is like the death of a football player's imaginary girlfriend. The money was paid for hours that didn't exist.
Now, Council Members, who is going to pay it back ?
No. Boss Harl wanted to give a raise to his friends and knew it would not fly with the council. Therefore, he told his friends to charge extra hours. Plain and simple - he told two employees to lie, then told their supervisor to approve the lie.
Now we must assume that everything Boss Harl says is a lie. He could tell me the sky is blue and I will verify it myself before I beleive him. There is no act of contrition he can perform that will clear his reputation with me and I will do everything I can to make sure he is never elected to any public office again. I will actively work against any politician that appoints him to a position of public trust.
There are so many discrepancies with this whole ordeal. Here's another prime example. The mayor told the retired judge that he felt he had the authority to approve the added hours because in the absence of a superintendent he was the "de facto" super.
However, when he appointed the 2 chiefs as co-supers and Mr. Potthoff suggested that the mayor take on the duties with the help of the public works foreman the mayor argued that he was not aware of the ordinance that gave him that power. The same power he claimed he had when approving the added unworked hours.
People can't remember their first lie. Which leads to another.
6:08, EXCELLENT POST!!!!
It has been brought to my attention that Mr. Ron Keeney is considering running for our Mayor in 2017.
Hopefully there are several people considering running for mayor. Can Harl be impeached by council? Curious. Who is Mr. Ron Keeney?
Good for Mr. Keeney, I'd vote for him.
It is never too early to start a campaign strategy.
2017 being three years away is plenty of time to put all important aspects in proper order for the next Mayors election.
First and foremost it must be determined what are realistic qualifications for someone to run for Mayor.
A positive characteristic for someone to run for Mayor would be experience as a aldermen. This experience could be obtained by being voted in as aldermen in the March. This would enable all to observe the mayor candidate in a political situation and how he handles himself. Some Political Experience is also perferred before taking the Mayor position.
I am not saying that having time as a alderman is a must but I will say that if you don't you had better have a proven experienced successful history created on your own with a proven track record of being able to work well with all others when in charge.
Being that Peru does not have a city manager the qualified candidate must have a vast amount of business ability as Peru has over $40,000,000 in revenue and $35,000,000 in expenses. The person will also have the ability to know how to get goals accomplished efficiently and with dollar smarts, plus he will have to have the intelligence to know what priorities determine which goals are to be confronted and in what order. He will also have to create short and long range planning and above all vision of what is needed today , tomorrow and downstream and how to work these things together for the best results in the future.
With over three years before the next election we should be considering what Peru needs in a Mayor not who wants to be Mayor.
12:25, don't think the mayor or alderman care as to qualifications of some department heads. That's a proven fact, such as the present building inspector/zoning officer that Harl appointed. Am I correct? 12:25. Was Harl an alderman? Don't think so. How about some alderman now, would they have the ability to run a city? Most not, except ALD. Pot. The more people that aren't around the table now who may be interesting in running might be the best thing that could happen.
What type of qualification should a person have in order to run for an alderman? 12:25, do our current alderman have qualifications to be an alderman? Your blogs references a few points in which confuses me with our present administration. ?
10:47 That is how Harl got re-elected the last time - TOO MANY PEOPLE RUNNING! One on one and then you will have an election.
Harl should not be able to run again he should be asked/ordered to step down now
10:41 He was asked to step down by Alderman Perez, I believe his answer was, that's not going to happen.
At the last city council meeting Alderman Perez specifically stated that he thought that Peru was having to pay for Mayor Harls' mistakes and that Harl himself should be paying for them.
How much money has Harl accumulated in his war chest? Shouldn't the war chest money be used to pay for these mistakes rather than the taxpayer. Doesn't
the Mayor have to have some kind of insurance policy to cover his blunders? Recently one golf outing per year is hardly enough.
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