The article notes that Secretary of State Chris Nelson has already made the salaries of his office's employees public. Secretary Nelson has shown himself to be a very open, straightforward, and non-ax-grinding public official. Guys who count ballots and keep elections honest need to be like that.
Governor Rounds and other state officials could learn something about openness from the Secretary of State. Instead, Rounds, Attorney General Long, and others have been more inclined to delay and obfuscate. Long has said the information is already public; however, his report on the matter "doesn't attempt to characterize how easy [sic] that can be done." (I am reminded of the Vogons posting Earth's demolition orders at the local planning department on Alpha Centauri -- hmm, does AG Long write poetry?) Dobbs tells us "Jason Dilges, commissioner of the Bureau of Finance and Management, has called [assembling the state salary data] a 'Herculean task' that was not reasonable to request of state agencies." (What, no master spreadsheet? Four keystrokes: hit Ctrl-A and Ctrl-P? I'll add that to my list of doctoral research projects.)
Corey Landeen of the SD State Employees Organization continues to fret over the release of this salary information:
"It's a bad situation for a lot of people.... It puts people in an uncomfortable position of having their pay being an issue within their communities, and that's been our concern." [Dobbs]
As stated on these pages previously, such is the price of working for the taxpayers. In every other business, the boss knows (or should know) how much of her money each employee is taking home. For public employees, the boss is the public -- us. Public employees (like yours truly) and citizens in general need to remember that, in our blessed democracy, the state is not some separate entity towering over us, with a separate identity, agenda, and secrets. L'état, c'est nous! A state employee's business is everybody's business.
If you choose to work for the state, you must accept that public scrutiny is part of the job. My experience as a public school teacher showed me that public knowledge of my salary was nothing compared to the public scrutiny of my every word and action in carrying out my daily duties. Carry out your duties in accordance with law and conscience (as I always have, and as the vast, dedicated majority of our public employees do), and the fact that everyone knows you're getting $30,900 a year won't matter.
Nepotism is the only reason the Governor doesn't want a complete list (alphabetical) of state employees and their respective salaries made public in an easy-to-digest manner. That will be the next scandal. Entire families sucking off the taxpayer's cow. The growth of state employees under the Rounds Administration is staggering with many of them related to each other. I can't wait!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but is there any PROOF to these charges of nepotism? I know it's nice to have a fun little rumor to kick around but if we're going to be putting serious charges against the Governor, it'd make some sense to have some actual evidence!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Jackrabit1 on this one. [Just what am I doing agreeing with a sports guy, anyway? ;-) ] Note that nowhere has the Madville Times made an issue of alleged nepotism, since, frankly, the Madville Times has zero evidence of any nepotism. If anyone has evidence, post it, and I guarantee the Madville Times will shout it loud. If I have the evidence, I'm not afraid to call the high and mighty on their foibles, and no one else should be, either.
ReplyDeleteOf course, that Sioux Falls newspaper is making an effort to obtain information that could serve as evidence of such nepotism, and the governor's resistance to handing that information over doesn't look good. But again, that's appearance, not substance.
Agreeing with the sports guy... must mean the Apocalypse! That or the Vikings are going to win the Super Bowl this year! ;)
ReplyDeleteComing from a government employee....
ReplyDeleteI feel that it is important that all public employees pay, at any level must be made public. If the taxpayer is footing the bill, they have a right to know the salaries of all public employees.
Each year I open the newspaper and see my name with my hourly wage next to it. It does not bother me that my friends or neighbors know what I make.
Although I think anonymous could be correct, let's wait to see what comes up in the future before we jump to any conclusions.