In Response to Letter to the Editor by Lon Seitz:Attention Genesee Township Residents
First of all, allow me to introduce myself, as I abhor people who spout accusations all while hiding behind the name “anonymous”. My name is Lisa Soule, and I was the Genesee Township Secretary for three years. This is going to be long, so you might want to grab yourself a cup of coffee.
Because Mr Seitz's letter addresses the annual garbage fee, that is where I will start. Arguing whether or not the garbage fee is fair seems quite pointless to me. On that point I will only say that is is 100% legal and 100% necessary. I spent a good deal of time in my first year as Secretary making sure of just that. Much like school taxes, which you pay regardless if you have a child that attends school, the garbage fee is necessary to cover overhead costs that are required to maintain a service. You are paying for the AVAILABILITY of a service, whether you use it or not. If you think that you can cover all costs associated with those of collecting garbage, large scale, with a $.30 “profit” per bag, I suggest you take yourself a refresher course in 2nd grade math. The service is available to you every week. You need only place your garbage at your curb and it magically disappears, never to be seen again. That is something that no surrounding township offers, and I can only tell you that #1 I am jealous and #2 it's a service I'd be happy to pay for.
As for a surplus in the garbage fund, what do you suppose would happen tomorrow if the garbage truck were to break down? Huh! Wonder of wonders, Genesee Township would be able to buy a new one, with cash. There would be no need to finance. You'd have a new garbage truck and your garbage would continue to “disappear” from your curb every Monday morning, just like magic.
I left the Township in 2007 for personal reasons. I can only speak for the years that I was there, however I can assure you that no money was ever transferred from the garbage fund to the general fund without reason. All payrolls and payroll taxes are paid from the general fund and therefore garbage wages were transferred from the garbage fund to the general fund to cover the garbage fund's portion thereof. Any other expenses incurred from garbage that happened to be paid from the general fund were likewise transferred. To be clear, at no time were garbage funds used to cover general expenses.
Now, on to the secretary and her wages. Unless you've ever been a part of local government in the state of Pennsylvania, you can have absolutely no idea what is involved. I have worked in accounting my entire life. For the past 12 years, I have been a tax accountant. Having had dealt with IRS and their million page tax code for 4 years at the time of my taking on the job of Township Secretary, I thought it would be a cake walk. How naïve. The amount of knowledge required for a Township Secretary, yes even in a little town like Genesee, is staggering. There isn't a wage high enough that could reimburse them for the thankless hours that they put in. I went above and beyond in my attempt to learn it all and I can assure that Sue has done the same. She deserves her wage. If you'd like to argue that point any further, you take it upon yourself to attend a class for new Township Secretaries and then you go right ahead and give me a call. You have a Secretary that CARES about her town. You have a secretary that goes the extra mile for the residents of her town. You have a secretary that KNOWS WHAT SHE'S DOING. Yet, you will flap your gums at the fact that she makes a decent wage? I can tell you that the majority of you would look at the amount of work involved and scoff at the wage. That is, of course, assuming you could be bothered to look into it at all before placing your anonymous judgments in a public forum.
Finally, we'll discuss the Roadmaster. I'm not even sure where to start with this one. First, while you're out signing yourself up for a new secretary class, stop on by your local paving company and ask them what their supervisors get paid. You get what you pay for, plain and simple. When Rance Baxter offered Tim the job of Roadmaster it was with the assurance that the wages he was making at Blades would be matched. (That Blades wage was based on 25 years experience in road work.) Sounds pretty logical to me. Who in their right mind would walk away from a higher paying job? Not me. Especially when the new job opens yourself up to the type of criticism displayed in this post.
Tim is in involved in every aspect of your Township. He takes the time to be. I can guarantee you that he has saved that Township three times as much money as he is “overpaid” as compared to other townships. He went out of his way to open Engle's gravel pit. That alone has saved YOU thousands of dollars. Tim is meticulous in everything he does. He stays on top of EVERYTHING, from the budget to the bookkeeping, to the bidding process. Having worked there I can say absolutely without a doubt that man earns his keep. Good Lord, when I started working at the Township there were 50 years worth of bookkeeping records stored in the SALT SHED. Tim is the one who scraped them up off the floor and made sure that they were taken care of the way that they should've been for the past 50 years. How many Roadmasters do you suppose would do that? Obviously not any that you've had for the past 50 years.
Let me take a minute to educate you on Township equipment, whether said equipment gets used or not. Each year your township receives, from the state of PA, a liquid fuels check. This is money that the state receives in liquid fuel taxes that is then distributed amongst the Townships based on the miles of road each Township is responsible for. Within that liquid fuels money there is an allowance to be used for the purpose of Township equipment. Equipment companies work with Township officials to finance equipment for a certain amount of time allowing that the equipment allowance be used for payments each year. YOUR equipment is bought and paid for out of the liquid fuels money. It is money set aside for the specific purpose of acquiring equipment for YOUR township. I find absolutely no reason to find fault with current supervisors for making good use of that equipment allowance just because past supervisors did not.
As for the ridiculous groundless accusations of who paid for the Roadmaster's wife's education and the rampant nepotism in local government, I will say only: consider the source. Your source is an “anonymous” who doesn't seem to know that postal jobs require absolutely no education whatsoever. Even your anonymous mouth could be a postmaster, if you could pass the postal exam. Good luck with that. Nepotism exists in every aspect of life. Get over it. Bill has never voted in any way in regards to the hiring of Tim or in regards to Tim's wages. He has recused himself in every single instance. This right here is why Township Secretaries keep minutes. You can read them. They are available to every resident, every hour, of everyday. Maybe some of you should take the time to request an appraisal of them. You might just get yourself an education. While you're there, you might want to take a glance at the annual audit form that shows where every single penny is spent. It's quite eye-opening to the ill-informed. You may be surprised to find that the township has operated with the same amount of income for years and years. I lived in Genesee Township my entire life until I was married. You will never convince me that we've had a Roadmaster that has done more. Ever.
Government has always been and will always be controversial. The reason for that is people would rather sit at home complaining about what they think is going on than taking the time to find out what actually IS going on. There is a township meeting every single month. It is well within your right, and some may argue within your responsibility as a citizen, to attend said meetings. If you have questions as to where your money is being spent, by all means ATTEND A MEETING, or two or TWELVE. Tim does. Bill does. Butch does. Dick does. Those men are responsible for what happens in your township. YOU voted for the Supervisors. You think you can do better? Run. Take it upon yourself to get off your couch, grab yourself some signatures and get yourself on the ballot. My only hope is that you win. I hope that you win and in a year or two when people are over this ridiculous gripe they've moved on to one that involves you. Public service is a thankless job. No matter what you do, someone will complain. That's the way it is. One would only hope that complaints would be at least founded in an ounce of truth and reason. Unfortunately for Tim and for Bill and for Denise, that is not always the case.
Grow up,
Lisa Soule
Former Genesee Township Secretary
In absolutely no way related to the Elliots
Letter To The Editor..............
Info Post
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Click to see the code!
To insert emoticon you must added at least one space before the code.