No Siesta for Geary

From the Blog of Record (Link):

According to the city charter, the council must choose a department head to serve as acting city manager. The council also could have selected someone to become city manager for a period of time.

Geary's current budgeted salary is $85,288. He told The Sun he would expect to be paid at the rate Lynch is paid by the city because he will be assuming the responsibilities of the job.

The council did not take action on Geary's salary, though Mayor Rodney Elliott told The Sun afterward he anticipates Geary will make what is budgeted for the manager's position.

Lynch's current annual salary is $179,856.

Anyone else think the so called 'fiscal watch dog' is playing fast and loose with our money?


I can't blame Geary for making the grab. I can wonder, if mayor Elliott made a verbal promise to Geary. Which, of course, he would have no right to do! Not that such a limitation would deter our self important mayor. He openly admits (Link, 5:10) to scurrying around the fringe of the Open Meeting Law by calling up the Councilors, one by one, to get a consensus. The Open Meeting Law (Link) defines Deliberation as "an oral or written communication through any medium, including electronic mail, between or among a quorum of a public body on any public business within its jurisdiction."

What constitutes a deliberation? (Link)

The Open Meeting Law defines deliberation as "an oral or written communication through any medium, including electronic mail, between or among a quorum of a public body on any public business within its jurisdiction." Distribution of a meeting agenda, scheduling or procedural information, or reports or documents that may be discussed at a meeting is often helpful to public body members when preparing for upcoming meetings and will generally not constitute deliberation, provided that when these materials are distributed no member of the public body expresses an opinion on matters within the body's jurisdiction.

To be a deliberation, the communication must involve a quorum of the public body. A quorum is usually a simple majority of the members of a public body. Thus, a communication among fewer than a quorum of the members of a public body will not be a deliberation, unless there are multiple communications among the members of the public body that together constitute communication among a quorum of members. Courts have held that the Open Meeting Law applies when members of a public body communicate in a manner that seeks to evade the application of the law. Thus, in some circumstances, communications between two members of a public body, when taken together with other communications, may be a deliberation. Note also that the expression of an opinion on matters within the body's jurisdiction to a quorum of a public body is a deliberation, even if no other public body member responds.
(Emphasis mine)

So, the natural question is how much is a band aid worth? Please take into account that Geary can hire consultants to help him hold down the fort. Of course, Lowell will be light on payroll, for several months. But, does that green light mayor Elliott and his chain letter deliberations to concoct a solution outside our oversight? Does it allow him to treat our tax dollars like #monopolymoney ?

If we are going to pay Geary for his troubles, and I think we should; then let's discuss what he is worth in a transparent manner. And, what about the 'Acting City Clerk?' Does she get a bump, too? I think she should! What does the Council think about these questions? Regardless of what mayor Elliott said in his inaugural speech, claiming to honor the ideals of 'transparency,' we may never come to know.

Did Elliott expect to catch us asleep?