David,

Just thought I would pass this on to you....

As you are aware, Louisville, KY is often used as a peer city to Greensboro by such organizations as the Brookings Institute, etc. when comparing cities of similar size (although I might add that since the Louisville and Jefferson County government merger this year Louisville, population-wise, is now ranked as a larger city than it was in the past).  Anyway, I thought a transcript from a news piece that aired in Louisville on WHAS-11 on 5/19/03 might be of some interest to you and others in Greensboro.

The piece entitled Post-merger, Louisville city employees salaries stack up, discusses the salaries paid to various Louisville Metro government officials.  Comparisons are also made to the salaries of similar positions in cities considered peers to Louisville, those being Jacksonville (FL), Columbus (OH), Austin (TX), and Baltimore (MD).

Here are a couple of excerpts from the article...

"As for [Louisville's] mayor, his yearly salary of $89,000 ranks way under each of the cities we looked at. Abramson makes $100,000 less than the mayor of Austin and $64,000 less than the mayor of Jacksonville."

"Louisville's council members are about even in salary, with the four cities we looked at. But some, like [Council member] Denise Bentley, say they're not impressed.  {Bentley replied,] believe me, the position is considered a part time job. I think it pays $42,000 a year and you probably work an average of 16 hours a day. So I'm making below minimum wage."  I wonder if Ms. Bentley would have considered running for city council if she lived in Greensboro?

Honestly, if the salaries you stated are correct (which I trust they are), Greensboro should feel both grateful and embarrassed.  Grateful that anyone with an ounce of sense would even consider the positions and embarrassed that they don't value those they have elected lead and manage their city any more than they do.

I doubt there are but a handful of elected officials that ever actually ran for their office because of the pay and I am equally sure there are many, like yourself, that seek the position because of what they believe and because they believe they can make a difference.  I have to agree with you though, salaries as low those paid to Greensboro officials will tend to rule out many of those "regular folks" that might otherwise be qualified and inclined to run for office.  Greensboro should at least consider paying their elected officials a fair and equitable salary based upon the responsibilities of the job and the performance of the individual......or could it be that is already the case?

Consider this....While I very well could be wrong, my guess is the mayor of our hometown, Hodgenville, KY (population 2,600) is probably paid at least as much as the mayor of Greensboro......that's laughable!!!

I was going to post this as a comment to your latest blog entry but decided not to, being I may be too close to the candidate.  But, feel free to post any or all of it if you choose to if you want me to I will post it.

Keith