Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 18
Mayor Donchess
Well | certainly agree that those responsible should bear the burden but you need to tell the majority in the
Legislature that now because that’s a hard sell apparently and they haven’t been willing to take
responsibility. These pensions are a matter of State Law, you know, we can’t change them. They dictate
all of the details, how much we pay, what the rates are. All the details are determined at the State level.
There are various things they can do to help us but they have chosen not to do that. | agree with Mr.
Teeboom that there’s no need to go to 100% especially for the government, we could explain why. But
even at current levels, they are never going to run out of money. So we are paying hundreds of millions
really into the State that probably aren’t necessary.
Chairman Dowd
We are still in General Government.
Laurie Ortolano 41 Berkeley Street. Does General Government include the City Clerk’s Office?
Chairman Dowd
Yes.
(Audio feedback)
Ms. Ortolano. OK. | guess | have a question then. | am wondering why were unable to hire a City Clerk that
had experience being a Clerk. This is a big issue for me and it’s not personal but | don’t understand a City
of 90,000 placing somebody in the Clerk’s position that had no experience. And we are paying to certify
this individual in their 60’s so for the next 4 years they can work on certification to become a Clerk and then
retire. It makes no sense at all and it is a huge deficit. | had problems at that office as well. And it just
seems to me we could have recruited somebody and gone out and actually hired and not made this an
appointment of yours, that is just picking from somebody within. It’s not fair to the citizens when we don’t
look for the most experienced people to come in here and do the jobs that need to be done. Thank you.
Mayor Donchess
Well | don’t really agree with that. First of all the City Clerk did a fantastic job during the most difficult
election year there has ever been. And | guess we disagree about the approach which should be taken but
| think it is best to appoint someone that you know, that you know can do the job, that has ability,
intelligence, will work hard and to the extent they don’t know the job will learn it. As an example, we had a
former Deputy City Clerk who had Clerk experience but she ended up leaving or being let go because she
couldn’t do the job. So at least in my judgement, intelligence, willingness to work hard, diligence and a
strong work ethic are the most important things. And the current City Clerk had been around City Hall for a
long, long time and understood well how to run the elections and all the other functions of the City Clerk’s
Office. And, again, | go back to the beginning, there has never been a more difficult election that was held
in 2020 with all of those absentee ballots and all of the State red tape regarding each ballot, keeping track
of each ballot at every stage. And the City Clerk and her staff did an excellent job. So if you are criticizing
what they did in that election, | definitely disagree with you.
Chairman Dowd
I’d like to wrap this up for the next two speakers and then we will move on to another division.
Christina McKinney 6 Southgate Drive. Just a question about the actual numbers. | don’t know is correct. |
don’t whether he is, whether you are. What! do know is | spent some time trying to calculate things and
my recommendation for a budget that is meant to be clear to citizens who are not spending all day working
on the budget would be to include what the actual percentage changes — a column that tells me this is what
