Grand Forks Council split on raise for city official
December 17, 2012 at 2:58 pm in Grand Forks Herald
By a margin of one vote, the Grand Forks City Council upheld a 2013 performance raise given to city employee Pete Haga at its Monday meeting.
Continue Reading
If only all city employees had a friend on the city council to champion for them …. but life isn’t fair.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
45 
11
Tax and spend, tax and spend………
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
40 
11
Unbelievable.
While there certainly are much worse things that can happen, much greater injustices to challenge, this whole scenario speaks so poorly for GF city government. Mayor, whatever ego/power allowed you to think your actions were appropriate – well, that’s just a tad scary that our city ‘leader’ leads in this manner.
Bravo to Christensen for saying it like it is.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
55 
6
Elect a full time capable mayor and pay him well. Then cut Haga’s and Duquette’s positions, and save a hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Or, go to a city manager system, and make Ricky and Petey city managers. Then watch each of them whine about how little work the other one really does. Then, fire them both and hire a capable competent City Manager, pay him well, and save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
36 
7
As I’ve said before, a few wins and politicians believe the position belongs to them, along with infallibility that would astound the pope.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
28 
2
I am voting for new council members next election, the ones we have are stupid.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
41 
5
I’d like to clone Terry Bjerke, and elect about four of him–3 to the Council, and one as Mayor.
Get a few more of him on the School Board and on the Park Board.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
33 
9
I agree, there are a lot of stupid decisions made by the current council and we need to get vote out the ones making those stupid decisions
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
34 
3
Way to go Grandstrand you just gave somebody a raise that is worth more than what most people in your district make in year. I still contest the city should have cut everybody else’s pay to be in line with what Haga was making at 70k a year plus benefits you are not underpaid in Grand Forks.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
44 
5
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
9 
29
Do you realize that a lot of people in his area are university students?
Like or Dislike:
15 
3
Lane,
the raise was 25,000 per year. thats almost $12.00 per hour for a 40 hour per week worker. I don’t know where you shop for your food or clothing, but if you need those items, then you need people in town willing to work for less than the raise, because a lot of the floor people in the stores around town make less than $12.00 as do most of the fast food workers, etc.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
19 
0
Comparing students income to a city employee’s is ludicrous.
Hot debate. What do you think?
11 
20
City employees with full benefits and fringe benefits making a 100k plus a year is “ludicrous”.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
40 
2
“A raise was proposed and approved in May by the city’s Human Resources Department.” I’m not up to speed on this, but was Haga given a raise back in May or by “approved” was the decision sent to the council? If it was approved and implemented properly by the Human Resources Dept., why is the council voting on it. If it’s a council decision, why is a department acting on the council’s behalf. I’m just wondering which is it. Anybody have the quick answer?
Like or Dislike:
8 
0
Alvin, he got a raise approved through Human Resources in May, no council action required. Most if not all of the rest of the city workers did not get a raise in May. The current council issue is working on the city budget and the overall budget increase to allow for 3% raises for all workers. However, Haga already got a raise this year, so why should he get another one? It’s not so much a case of singling him out now as it was definitely a case of singling him out in May. He already got his raise for this year.
Like or Dislike:
14 
0
Thanks. I actually misunderstood and thought they were voting on whether he gets the big raise. As much attention as this has gotten, it appears that everything was done properly.
Like or Dislike:
7 
6
You forget he got the big raise to align his salary with like salaries in similar sized cities. The second raise is to all employees. If he did not receive the second raise it could be considered discrimmatory and you don’t want to open that can of worms as the parade to the Federal Court House in Fargo would be daily and cost the city so much more. For an example the city of St Paul just was found liable in a wrongful demotin civil case involving the st Paul fire dept to the tune of 500000 dollars because an asst chief and former chief didnt get along.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0