Larry Clark, a Newberry Springs Community Services
(CSD) director (pictured below), has proposed a 60% increase in
the stipends that the five directors receive.
The directors currently receive $50.00 for each
CSD meeting that they attend. Clark has placed an agenda item
for the CSD's Tuesday, January 22, 2019 meeting, asking that the
$50.00 stipend be increased to $80.00.
That's $400.00 per meeting that would be better
spent on the community's fire department.
The Newberry Springs Community Alliance has
long held that the directors should serve the community without
any stipend enrichment.
The directors principally set policies and
oversee the performance of staff and expenditures. They
voluntarily run in public elections to fill a director's seat
and to serve the community. The position isn't to immorally
steal from the CSD treasury to serve themselves.
Three votes are needed on the board for
the directors to further enrich themselves and Director Larry
Clark will most likely have the support of recently elected
Director Jack Unger.
Jack Unger, as reported in the previous news
blog, has stated his belief that Newberry Springs citizens want
to reward their CSD board members with a "generous stipend."
This kind of corrupt thinking of elected public service opens the
limited CSD treasury to a directors' raid of self-serving
engorgement.
The Newberry CSD board should do away with
stipends altogether and the directors should be simply working
(if one wants to call their oversight 'work') for the
community without any self-enrichment from public funds.
Unfortunately, it appears that some do-little directors run
for office principally for the supplemental stipend income.
They apparently need the supplementary income because they
are incapable of earning it elsewhere. This is a
disappointing reflection of the caliber of some.
Historically, in the past decade, the stipend
for the CSD directors was raised from $50.00 to $100.00 per
meeting, including Special Meetings. After a number of
Special Meetings (sometimes two per month), the public outcry
was so great that the increase was returned to $50.00 per
meeting.
Unfortunately, selfish greed can't be kept
away from elected office for long and they're at it again!
This blog site will be reporting on how the
directors vote on this issue.
