Salary list shows town should focus on controlling overtime
Editor, Townsman:
Maybe, just maybe, the recent revelation (Townsman, June 25) regarding town salaries/compensation will cause many uninformed Andover citizens to stop blaming the school budget - where rapidly growing special education expenses are mandated by law - for all Town budget problems and allow them to focus their angst on one of the real problems: inflated compensation directly attributable to poor contract negotiations and union contracts not in our best interest.
I do not, for one minute, find fault with any police officer or firefighter for garnering all they can under the terms of their contract. They should. This is not their fault. They are valued, hard-working and loyal town employees performing critical and essential functions. However, when 70 percent of all Town employees making over $100,000 a year are either police officers or firefighters, there is a problem. Note the percentage of total compensation that comes from overtime - for some employees it's well in excess of 25 percent.
Have we let overtime and the budgeting for it get out of control? Apparently so!
Note, further, that one, only one, of the 117 employees with over $100,000 of annual compensation is actually in the classroom, teaching our children. No other teacher makes $100,000, yet the vast majority have completed over six years of college education, possessing one or more graduate degrees.
I urge Town management to recognize reality; that all salaries and compensation are, and must be, based upon the perceived value of the job/position to the town, and on nothing else. While overtime is occasionally needed, and necessary, it is something that must be monitored with budget limitations and policies enforced. I, for one, am simply tired of the old refrain that "We are in active negotiations to reduce expenses and achieve concessions." Negotiate the contracts correctly from the outset, and contracts that will not allow such grievous excess.
While on the subject of contract negotiations, what about our snow- and ice-removal contracts? Over the course of the last five years (probably more), Andover has spent 50 pervent more than any other Merrimack Valley town, on a per mile basis (all figures are available to the public and were published in City & Town). Why? In 2008 we managed to spend twice what Billerica spent and Billerica has nine more road miles. Astoundingly, Andover, on average, spends 160 percent of what other municipalities in the Commonwealth spend!
Controlling these costs will save, at minimum, $600,000 to $700,000 per year, or even more than the selectmen and town manager wanted back from the schools as they attempted to balance the FY2010 Budget. I, for one, would rather spend these dollars on our children and their education than on giving us cleaner winter roads a few hours earlier than our surrounding towns.
William L. Gibson
125 Argilla Road
