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 Post subject: Just When You Thought Crooks Couldn't Be More Brazen
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 2:56 am 
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http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake ... c478e.html

Attorney for E.C. nets big contract

City could end up paying top lawyer $268K a year




EAST CHICAGO | The struggling city's top lawyer -- who also is a cousin of the embattled mayor -- received a new contract last week that could be worth as much as $268,000 a year.

Corporation Counsel Carmen Fernandez was one of the first employees whom Mayor George Pabey hired when he took office in December 2004.

Without comment, the Board of Public Works and Safety last week approved a professional services agreement with Fernandez.

The contract dwarfs the pay rate of lawyers for other nearby cities. The corporation counsel for Hammond, a city nearly three times the size of East Chicago, is paid $55,349 annually.

The new contract with Fernandez sets a base retainer of $8,000 per month as well as all city employee benefits, including health insurance, and use of a take-home city vehicle.

She also will be paid $160 per hour for all hours worked beyond 50 hours in any one month, according to the contract.

The corporation counsel job has been considered full time at 35 hours per week. At that rate, the retainer of $96,000 per year plus 90 hours of "overtime" each month results in an annual $268,000 gross, not including benefits and the car.

Pabey, who remains under federal indictment due to allegations he used city resources illegally, this year took a 5 percent pay cut, along with every other city employee, for a salary of $54,461. But honoraria from the city's waterworks and Sanitary District push his monthly pay to about $7,500.

Fernandez could not be reached for comment regarding her new contract, and no other city official would answer questions about the matter.

Dogged by a low property tax collection rate and required by the state to reduce its budget to match new caps on property tax rates, East Chicago's 2010 budget of $32.5 million is 5 percent lower than in 2009, with the difference of about $6 million taken out of nearly every city department's funding this year.


Never mind that Pabey should not even be mayor after his apparent criminal conduct cited in his upcoming trial but here we see the city getting screwed on a contract that is obviously way too excessive. Seems like that contract should be terminated by someone. Yet another example of why the patronage system must die a quick death and local government must have an independent HR department with fair hiring and compensation guidelines.

The good citizens of East Chicago should make their personal opinion known to everyone connected to this effective theft of tax money at every given opportunity.

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If you voted for the Dems don't be surprised when things don't turn out quite as you were led to expect. Some might call it pure Marxism. But the problem with Obama economics is there's not enough money in the world to make it work.


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 Post subject: Re: Just When You Thought Crooks Couldn't Be More Brazen
PostPosted: Sat May 08, 2010 4:37 am 
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Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:08 am
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The Wrath of Pabey

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake ... 323f6.html

Looks like Pabey is becoming a menace to the city and needs to be removed from office immediately. While I admit I know nothing of these apparent politically motivated firings aside from what is reported it seems pretty likely these firings were connected to councilmen opposing the mayor's budget. That would seem to be an abuse of power.

In the end it looks like the citizens of EC may yet again be paying people for wrongful termination, so it's the citizens and the city that pay the toll for these political and criminal games. But of course when you pay your own family over a quarter of a $mil for a job that larger cities pay but a fraction for the exact same work you know the wellness of the people and the city are not job #1.

_________________
If you voted for the Dems don't be surprised when things don't turn out quite as you were led to expect. Some might call it pure Marxism. But the problem with Obama economics is there's not enough money in the world to make it work.


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