What The Employees Earn: Granville Township

Hey, Thornborough! Gettin’ pretty warm in your kitchen…just feel the love. And don’t touch that stove!
 singlepie

Hi Chris,

Thanks for being willing to post openly. I thought about posting anonymously but felt that would have been a bit cowardly.

I understand that salaries are a public record and everyone has the right to know what Village and Township employees make. I’m just questioning whether it is essential to broadcast the salaries of lower level people. So far no one has answered my question about what important public policy is served by revealing salary information on low level employees. My $767 dollars is pretty much immaterial but if I was working hard to take home twenty-five grand and the landed gentry of Granville was publishing my salary for political purposes I would be annoyed.

In return for this, I have been called “defensive” and “mad” and had my motives questioned “grinding something (unknown to me) in there yourself.” Just to clarify, I not angry and I really don’t have any motive other than that I am a private person who hoped to be left alone. I have no interest in public office and the only property I own is the house that I live in. Can the publisher or the commenters can say the same.

Before this all started I had read perhaps three articles on the Granville Press. Since then I have read several postings and done a bit of research. The feeling I come away with is that every article should be read with the thought “how does this impact the Seven Pines property?” The idea that Jack is serving a social good is certainly questionable here. The Granville Press seems to be the propaganda arm of Jack Thornborough’s property holding company.

To answer some of the questions about how I should have expected to have my privacy invaded here you go:
-When I joined the department I had no idea that there would be any compensation;
-I joined the department when it was a private corporation and salary data wasn’t a public record; and
-The department later voted to become a township entity so that we could better serve the public. I don’t think any of us weighed disclosure of our salaries in the equation.

There is a social cost to the ‘sunshine’ here. If I were a bright young teacher with an offer from Upper Arlington and one from Granville, I would probably go to Upper Arlington to avoid this sort of unpleasantness. In my initial comment I didn’t deny that this site can disclose salary data I questioned only whether it should.

Finley Dunne once said that the purpose of the press is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, that ethos appears to be absent here. What I see from the Granville Press is the comfortable afflicting everyone with whom they disagree. The echo chamber of anonymous comments certainly doesn’t help matters.

Regards,
Steve Barns

Chris,

I largely agree with your comments about sunshine; however, I wonder what important public policy is being served by publishing individual salary data.

The anonymous author of these articles has an ax to grind with village and township governments. I just don’t understand how this is served by publishing the salary of someone who earns his living with a shovel in his hand or one who steps away from his primary job in the middle of the day to help with a medical emergency.

It would take a little bit of effort and a modicum of judgment to write:

“Fulltime firefighter/paramedic salaries averaged $55,984.50, based on rank and experience, for a total of $335,907. Hourly firefighter salaries averaged $7564.35, for a total of $128,594, and twenty-one volunteer firefighters were compensated $10,924.00 based on seniority, training and runs taken.”

Ah, effort and judgment—-both sadly lacking at the Granville Press.

Steve Barns

I just wanted to thank you for publicizing my salary with the Granville Township Fire Department. As a bit of background information this works out to less than $2 per hour, much less if you count the mileage.

I know that it is public data and you have the right to publish this information. The question you should ask is not whether you can but whether you should.

I won’t bore you with the entire Teddy Roosevelt quote but I thought this might be relevant:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better… Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world.

In return for waking up at 2AM to help your neighbors, I get my privacy invaded and to read anonymous comments by those who sleep through the night.

Thanks again,
Steve Barns

Wow. I had no idea. Anyway you cut it the township seems to pay more.

Now that I think about it this could also explain the $750,000 garage…

These numbers are interesting and surprising.

The Township likes to promote itself as a beacon of frugality. That’s supposed to partly explain its old-fashioned, seat-of-the-pants amateurishness — no office for taxpayers to visit, meetings at a cemetery, etc. — just a low-budget, no frills operation.

The salary data show this image is not accurate. The Township is the place to go for higher salaries and less responsibility. Even the elected officials get paid $1,000 a month, plus medical and pension benefits.

And the Village government — supposedly a hotbed of free-spending Denison University liberalism — turns out to be the parsimonious one. Village Council members receive no compensation. The Village pays just $55,000 a year to the fellow responsible for its roads, traffic lights, etc., while the Township dishes out $62,000 a year to a fellow who runs a smaller road crew.

This isn’t to say which employee is overpaid or underpaid. I think Village Council members should be paid $500 a month to offset the enormous time commitment required.

But the salary data does show that, pound-for-pound, the Village delivers services at a much lower cost than the Township. It turns out that professionalism — ie. the manager form of government — is less expensive than good ol’ boyism.

A talented and educated planner earns $55,273 in the Village, the Village Service Director earns $55,273 and the Township Road Crew Superintendent earns $62,104. The person who keeps our water and sewer working earns $55,273.

It seems to me that the planner ($55,273) should be earning more than the Village Service Director ($55,273). She should be earning about $70,000 which is what people with her talent and experience are earning in nearby communities. The Village Service Director should be earning at least what the Township Roads Crew Supervisor is earning ($62,104). After all, the Service Director has 15 employees and the Roads Crew Supervisor has 5 employees. Maybe Terry Hopkins should earn $186,312 - that’s three times what Binckley earns - Hopkins has three times the responsibility.

Seems to me that the Township has too much money to spend - the Village Police Chief earns $59,280 and the Township Fire Chief earns $81,510! Is that fair or appropriate?

I don’t think so.