Of Interest

In case the video above doesn't automatically appear here, go to this link

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/bell-calif-revolts-against-its-city-council/6uuuqg6

to see this msn news video. Pay particular attention to what Ms. Garcia says just after 6minutes into the video.

Obviously, appointed and elected officials working in "cahoots" and in a predatory manner is not limited to Pennsylvania, or even to Lebanon County politics. Admittedly, these intentional patterns of defrauding the taxpayer in order to maximize the officials' personal gains may not express themselves so egregiuosly here as they have in Bell, it still highlights that every taxpayer must be aware of the FACT that this IS going on, and that if you choose to ignore it, you are making that decision for your neighbors as well--you are choosing to let these politicians take your neighbor's money too. How is that democratic, ethical, or fair? How is it ethical that Bill Care collects a PUBLIC salary of around $110,000 a year when a truly significant portion of that work is really done for private entities, and that when he retires--ALL of that salary--even the work NOT done for public entities, is on the State Municipal Retirement burden and will be used to calculate his retirement benefits?

Here is a different video on the story from the LA Times.

*Salary calculations based on reports from Borough, Authority, Chautauqua Secretary Linda Bell: approx $30 hourly rate, averaging 590 hours of overtime a year, biweekly payroll invoicing, and budget documents. Assumptions were time and a half for some overtime, and double time for the rest. Also, although it doesn't appear that his income derived from "consulting" as a "water works" "expert" to local entities is included in this public payroll, it still must be factored in given that he routinely and regularly uses public resources--staff, equipment, infrastructure, etc., to "deliver" his private consultant services.