Mayor Nutter’s Fiscal Shenanigans
By Wyatt Earp | January 18, 2008
Remember when Michael Nutter promised to eliminate politics as usual? Apparently, neither does he:
Mayor Nutter is paying two of his top appointees, Managing Director Camille Barnett and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, salaries that exceed the legal limits for those posts.
Barnett’s and Ramsey’s $195,000-a-year salaries are well above the maximums of $174,464 for Barnett’s job and $155,079 for Ramsey’s post provided in a 1995 City Council ordinance that raised top salaries and established cost-of-living increases.
Administration spokesman Doug Oliver said that the officials’ elevated salaries are legal, because each has an extra title: Barnett is a deputy mayor, and Ramsey is director of public safety.
“That means they’re not covered by the ordinance,” Oliver said.
Statements announcing Barnett’s and Ramsey’s appointments described them as managing director and police commissioner respectively, and didn’t mention any other roles or titles. (H/T - The Philadelphia Daily News)
Come to think of it, I am a police officer and a detective. Does this mean that I deserve an elevated salary? This is complete and utter nonsense, and leads me to believe that if Nutter is trying this tomfoolery after only nine days, what is in store for this city over the next four years?