Bean counters counting human beings
To the editor:
We need bean counters. Most would agree. In younger days, do you remember going into the corner store and seeing a big jar filled with “beans”? The sign on the bottle said “guess how many beans and win a prize.” No one counted the beans; we just trusted the ‘bean counter” for the answer to determine the winner.
Auditors and CPA’s are different than bean counters. They take the numbers from the bean counters, analyze the numbers and come to helpful conclusions.
Recently a well known and respected retired executive emerged from his extremely important duties as the “chairman of the Government Oversight Committee.” (Rumors are this chairmanship might qualify for a Secret Service detail) and was commissioned by a powerful local “Club” to go to City Hall and count “beans.” He was ordered to expose the “Vast Empire” of corruption (too much overtime) and waste (high wages and pensions) in “salaries, wages and benefits” and in “other benefits” of police, fire, and city workers.
We pay our city employees too much! That was the core of his letter to the editor, even though he tried to disguise it. Using a “snow-magedon(blizzard)” of numbers, percentages, dollar signs, and convoluted logic, the “have calculator, will travel” bean counter makes many “subjective” conclusions that agree with the conclusions of the club that sent him to city hall. He is not a CPA. The problem is his previous efforts at bean counting, to expose government waste, have been disputed and even proved inaccurate by upper management and at least one CPA.
His premise is that the percent of increase in dollar costs in City Departments is out of line with the percent of increases of population (he uses 18 percent increase for population), for the city. This is almost absurd on its face. There are many factors that must be considered to understand increased employee costs. How much is a police officer’s life worth? Tell us, Mr. Bean Counter! Do city employees have the right to a “collective bargaining” process with the city? Should city employees have pensions? He makes an apple-and- oranges comparison (dollar increase vs. population increase) to make his point. It is unfair and mean spirited in its intent.
Yes, every bean counter knows you can’t pay out more beans than you take in (unless you can issue U.S. Treasury notes).
Is this city paying too much for police, fire and city employee’s services? Perhaps, that is why this mayor argued so aggressively at the last council meeting to make sure the city “negotiator” in upcoming employee/city talks would answer directly to him and his handlers (read bean counter here)?
Employees are very aware of the money concerns of this city. Most compassionate taxpayers would see it as unreasonable to balance the city’s financial problems solely on the backs of city employees and their families. Please stop all the negative and deceitful monkey wrench tactics we have seen since your Gang Ahead Group took over city hall. Please enter into good faith and responsible negotiations with our city servants who make this city a great place to live. Stop the mumble, fumble, speech making routines. Honesty and respect will be the best policies!
These guys need to hear from you. Wake up Cape Coral!
F.C. Perry
Cape Coral