Will a New PG Spin Dr. Cost 150 Grand?
Given that as a "Director" the salary will be in the range of $100,000.00 a year combined with a benefit package that will raise that to about $145,000.00 annually , the "Directors" of the company (being the council ) should have been asked whether they were prepared to see this kind of money being spent in the city.
Keep in mind, shortly after the Mayor was elected she announced a hiring freeze, on 19 positions that were vacant , while at the same time issuing layoff notices to nine employees. One of the positions that was not to be filled was that of communications officer. That you all will recall was followed by the hiring of an executive assistant for a cost of around $75 K a year . Part of that position was to liaise with the Manager and Mayor.
Under the new direction , the new "director" will have two other people in communications to oversee, so in fact the spin from city hall will now cost the taxpayer in excess of $250,000.00 a year. That’s a lot of money, enough to clear the city streets during one major snowfall, or fill a lot of potholes.
To his credit, former Mayor Colin Kinsley had a sign on his desk that said the buck stops here, he believed that in a city this size , he should be able to take the City’s position to the public given that a goodly portion of his salary involved community involvement . Now you might make the argument that ‘well the city has grown leaps and bounds since Kinsley was Mayor so you have to move ahead with the times’. Problem with that is the only thing growing in Prince George has been our tax bill.
If the "Hall" is wondering why their stock continues to fall, look no further than this latest move and instead of trying to reign in spending they have opted to hire a spin doctor to tell us things are "A-OK".
Comments
I think $150k will just be the beginning of the cost, because clearly whomever is at the helm is punch drunk. Assuming someone actually is at the helm.
What is a citizen’s remedy when local representation seem to no longer be advocating for their interests?
In more established countrys like Greece we see them rioting in the streets and wonder what the hell is wrong with those people.They were sheep like us once and finally couldn’t take it anymore . A friend of mine went for a visit there during the last riots and said they were so good at it the they would even burn there own stuff.[ pun ] They say it takes a while for the European trends to cross the pond so time will tell.IMHO
In a healthy democracy citizens are encouraged to be active participants in the governing of their communities, cities, province and country. Here in PG it appears not even our elected representatives are fully aware of the Mayor and City Manager’s agenda. Who decided a new communications director was now needed? What happened to trimming the fat at City Hall? Where are the promised austerity measures…..any trimming that has been done to date has not benefited the taxpayers of Prince George, in fact the opposite has occurred we end up paying more in taxes, user fees, and for crazy poorly thought through ideas like a new 1.3 mil parking meter system for DT that nobody wants. One of my major concerns is the increasing quietness around the council table on initiatives that are clearly not in the best interest of or for the greater good of the citizens of PG. Leadership in governing City matters should be shining through all of our elected officials and clearly this is not happening….instead we are seeing the results of false promises, shades of Thatcherism & Reaganomics.
“why is it that a number of the councillors were unaware of the proposed hiring until the job had been posted on the internet?”
The answer to that is two-fold
1. Hiring and firing, other than the City Manager, is an operation matter. Council does not deal with operation.
2. Internal communication, as well as external communication, is the responsibility of whoever manages communications at the moment plus the City Manager.
Given that Council should have known, there are two possibilities why a number did not know.
1. Some Councillors may be on an inside track to receive information through that way while others are not.
2. Some Councillors may simply not have opened the “normal channel” to receive the message as others did.
Communication is a two way street – the message must be sent in the proper manner and the intended receiver must be ready to receive it.
I suppose that this indicates that we need a communications person at the helm of that function who knows how to do the job properly.
BTW, do we know whether the incumbent, because there supposedly is one for this function, will stay on or has already been removed from that position. Could the total budget allocation for staffing have been rejigged by the City Manager to accommodate this bit of re-organization?
As long as there is no more money spent on staffing, I will support the re-arrangement of the lead positions. I expect many more to come.
I am waiting to hear the good news that we have a new planner at the helm that knows how to be more than a yes person and can handle that position the way it needs to be in a city such as Prince George.
I would bet my last nickel, it will be a woman. I don’t know if any males have been hired in high paying positions since this mayor and council took over. Pretty soon we will be known as “Princess Georgia”.
The way I see it city hall has been fumbling around in the dark for the last few years because of weak leadership.
Ms. James has been on the job long enough to get the lay of the land and has likely seen the piss poor job that the communications department has done. As gus mentioned this is likely only the first change to take place and an important place to start-communication.
As more changes take place it is vital that a clear and concise message is sent from Patricia Bvld on why the change is being made and what the expected outcome will be. If some of the upper management is shown the door there will be some pricy severance packages, but a necessary move IMO as the status quo is clearly not working.
The BC government has also increased the budget for its spin doctors. How many of these masters of propaganda are here posting propaganda to literally put lipstick on the pig and paint a rosy picture.
When the province goes bankrupt, the government pensions of the very same people and their bosses will evaporate.
keep up the work!
“How many of these masters of propaganda are here posting propaganda to literally put lipstick on the pig and paint a rosy picture.”
That seems like a very paranoid point of view.
If one wants to look for that sort of thing, hit Facebook, the site which only allows “likes” …. None of this thumbs up and thumbs down nonsense. Why complicate matters?
“But” wrote:I would bet my last nickel, it will be a woman. I don’t know if any males have been hired in high paying positions since this mayor and council took over. Pretty soon we will be known as “Princess Georgia”.
So what is your point?
That maybe people aren’t being hired because of qualifications but rather because of nepotism/favouritism. There does seem to be a lot of discontent amongst people these days that no one down at city hall seems to know how to do their jobs anymore. Its seems if you have covered your butt with some sort of business degree, regardless of what it is, you qualify for the higher up positions now. Used to be, you needed to have some sort of experience in the job you are being hired for. Now they use a few letters behind peoples name to say they are qualified. I think its more a case of the more experienced and qualified people simply don’t want to move to PG, so they have to choose from the bottom of the barrel. More women are getting business degrees these days because of the gov’t incentive programs out there for women, but that doesn’t mean they are qualified for some of these positions they have been hired into.
That’s my point.
If what you’re “spinning” has a solid basis in fact, you’re doing PR. If not, it’s propaganda.
Many of these so called public relation people (like gus here) are engaged in propaganda to cover up the truth. Some of their tactics are:
1) They engage in personal attacks to silence the critics. 2) when failed to do so, they send 4-5 comments (sometimes irrelevant to the topic) in a row to remove the facts from the last row of comments. When they do the 2nd, you know they are very nervous.
“But” LOL
Ask alot of the workers at city hall and they will tell you the same thing about men LOL Take a look at some of the credentials of the existing men and you will find their qualifications of nepotism/favouritism etc.
Do the heads of each department have the proper credentials? Nope
Don’t forget the old boys club is who you know and not what you know….
Sounds like you are saying women are the bottom of the barrel? LOL
That’s just my opinion…LOL
“Many of these so called public relation people (like gus here)”
You have said that many times. Elaine and Ben know who I am and can verify I am not a PR person for the University or the City. If you were paying attention you would know that also by the frequency I post critical things about the people in charge of both the governance and the operations of the city. BUT, I also post accolades when they are due, in my opinion.
When was the last time you praised someone or some process, univ?
Askum: “In more established countrys like Greece we see them rioting in the streets and wonder what the hell is wrong with those people.They were sheep like us once and finally couldn’t take it anymore . “
Lol. The government couldn’t sustain everyone’s fat pensions and entitlements, while the citizens developed an ingrained culture of tax evasion. What did you expect would happen?
So the Greeks are not as refined as the Canadians, get right to the point by evading taxes, while we are much more sophisticated and avoid taxes through loopholes …. ;-)
As a good accountant will tell you, evading taxes is illegal, but avoiding paying unnecessary tax is one of the keys to building wealth.
Right JB?
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