THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, July 7, 2011 A
brendan@weirs.com
inNEW HAMP SHI R E CAREER CHOICES
FOOL * Live Free *A FLATLANDER’S OBSERVATIONS ON LIFE or Die.
by Brendan Smith Weirs Times Editor
I was a bit disappointed this week. I decided last week that
I needed to save up a bit more money for retire- ment; I’m not getting any younger. So I figured if I cut back on a few things that I might have a few more dollars to be able to put away towards my golden years. I chose a profession where I don’t get a pen- sion so anything I can save after paying my bills can go towards my own retirement fund. But now I read in the paper that the little extra I might be able to save over the weeks might have to be used to pay extra property taxes because they need more money to help pay other people’s pension funds. Shame on me for mak-
ing such a poor career choice. I’m in my fifties now, so
it is a bit hard to switch horses in mid-stream, yet I often think that I would have been pretty good in a state or city job. Take for instance, Laco-
nia, where I live. They’ve just hired a new city man- ager. I’m sure he’s a nice guy and will, hopefully, do a good job. Still, it’s a pretty sweet deal. I was sitting and eat-
ing my tuna fish sand- wich, one I made myself to save a few bucks, as I was reading the local pa- per. Seems the new city manager will be earning almost $100,000 a year. Wow. That’s not chump change. After reading the story
I thought to myself “Hey, I’m just as qualified. I could do that.” The story made a big deal about how the new city manager didn’t have a lot of experi-
ence in the field but he was chosen because he had “a real collaborative style” and a “quiet confi- dence.”
I have those things too. If I knew that was all
you needed, I would have applied for the position myself. But no use crying over spilled milk... what- ever that means. One of the city council-
ors even said he had talk- ed to one of the new city manager’s friends while he was under consider- ation for the job and was told “You’ll be very happy with him.” I’m sure I could have
gotten a few of my own friends to say that. After all, what are friends for? Someone else in the sto-
ry was quoted as saying that the new city manager won’t only manage the city but he will become involved in it. I could do that too, af-
ter all, a lot of the affairs I’d have to go to as city manager have a lot of free food. But I guess that’s just sour grapes.
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I should say that the city manager doesn’t actu- ally get $100,000 a year, he gets $90,000 but he can get $95,000 after six months if he performs sat- isfactorily. So, I’m guess- ing that even if he does a lousy job he still collects a pretty sweet paycheck. Talk about taking off the pressure. I’m allowed some bad
days now and then, but not too many. It’s why I run for Gov-
ernor all the time; you’re guaranteed a job for two years with great pay, even if you stink at it.
Now that’s job security. The city manager also
gets four weeks of paid leave a year which the city manager can use as he likes, not just to take a va- cation. I get two, but usu- ally only take one since it’s hard to cover some bases when I’m not here. But that ’s my own
fault. The city manager, as
well as other city employ- ees, gets to collect money on days off that they don’t
use over the years. That’s pretty cool. I was
thinking of asking my boss about that, but he was busy paying some bills so I thought better of it.
Reading all of that made
me realize that maybe I had made some bad career choices after all. I work pretty hard and don’t get a lot of time off and any money I can save towards retirement is a plus. But on the plus side, I
only have to pay about half of my own health in- surance; so things aren’t all that bad. I’m certainly not talk-
ing against state or city employees; they found
5
themselves a sweet deal and jumped on it. But now I’ve finished my
tuna sandwich and I have to get back to work. I’ve got a tax bill to pay.
Brendan Smith wel-
comes your comments at
brendan@weirs.com.
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