What we have here is a big difference in opinion. Here’s some point-counterpoint.
Jerry Abramson says he needed Rick Johnstone and Jane Driskell to save the city by working on the budget, so he made a deal and paid them, and didn’t allow them to take vacation. So some extra vacation pay was in order, even though it had never been done before. “I feel very confident that I made the right decision for the people of this community,” he told the C-J.
Kelly Downard, the Republican Metro Council member, says that “every single person who works for this city should be outraged.”
Abramson’s H.R. guy, Bill Hornig, supported the unprecedented move. Police and firefighters union bosses were enraged.
Potential mayoral candidates Jim King and David Tandy put their feet firmly on both sides of the fence, hesitant to side with the Mayor or to speak out against him.
Oh, and the newspaper, of course, weighed in on Jerry’s hiring decisions Sunday, leading the cheers in an editorial that was sugar-coated even for a paper that’s never wavered from supporting Abramson. It called the Kim Bunton fiasco an aberration in hiring, ignoring the debacles involving, say, Animal Control and IPL.
Republicans, of course, love this kind of story. Here’s how GOP Party chair Brad Cummings piled on:
“It was recently uncovered that Mayor Abramson broke the law by awarding extra vacation pay for two of his cronies, Jane Driskell and Rick Johnstone. He claims this was the right action to take for the city of Louisville. We find this statement to be highly offensive to those who work in city government. I guess it’s official, there is one set of rules for his friends and another for the rest of city employees.”
12 responses so far ↓
1 Mark H (Not Hebert) // Jul 28, 2009 at 9:13 am
Hold onto your purse strings City Government, Jerry is a lame duck Mayor and is going to make it rain on all of his cronies before they get tossed out of their plum jobs.
2 Michael // Jul 28, 2009 at 9:45 am
He could pull a Palin and step down to fight for us and not have to deal with being a lame duck.
3 Terry Sullivan // Jul 28, 2009 at 10:37 am
One has to ask the question: Why didn’t Big Head give some incentives to get employees who were eligible to retire to do so instead of laying people off?
The answer? He’d have to treat all the nearly retired fairly, but he could screw individuals he didn’t like by laying them off.
What is Beshear thinking?
4 Steve Magruder (I, not D or R) // Jul 28, 2009 at 10:45 am
Mayor Jerry Abramson is out of control! (Umm, wait, this isn’t new)
By the way, search on “Mayor Jerry Abramson is out of control!” on Facebook. :)
5 AB // Jul 28, 2009 at 11:06 am
While he actually made a reasonable decision regarding the vacation forgone during the “budget crisis”, it looks like a huge amount of vacation was allowed to build before that point. That’s just another example of lax management. Most companies have a policy that such vacation must be taken or given up by a certain date. Had that been done, there would have been no policy violation/exception. Of course, for these particular two people, the right thing would have been to not accept the payment – especially during a budget crisis. Clearly there is little management accountability or personal accountability under McCheese.
6 JasonL // Jul 28, 2009 at 11:56 am
Jerry is making it harder for any democrat to try and ride his coattails into the mayor’s office.
It appears we might be getting a R in the office soon. Maybe Jim Bunning should run.
That’ll be strange.
7 bill // Jul 28, 2009 at 12:43 pm
I want to reassure everyone when I retire, Metro will not bend over backwards for me! Just wait the rats are lining up on this sinking ship already. The shape metro is in we should give incentives for good people to stay!
8 Jerry Hater // Jul 28, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Typical Jerry. I cant wait for an R to be in the mayors office. It will be a long over due change. Louisville is becoming more and more like Detroit everyday. It is truly a shame. And why not a R in office? It cannot be any worse than the last 20 years.
9 Chef // Jul 28, 2009 at 3:36 pm
This is beyond my coprehension?…If Jerry has (burp!)…..Broken the law AGAIN?….WTF….Why doesn’t the Metro Council, the AG, County Atty, or someone in a position with responsibility to the community & taxpayers file a Taxpayers Lawsuit and put the AHole in his Place.
I know there are a lot of individual business owners & former business owners that would love to do it ,however it’s just cost prohibitive for one taxpayer to do it on his own.
Who would join that cause??….I would contribute , who else would. Cost is the only thing preventing the action against Jerry!… He should be crimminally charged and held accountable, But he knows that the prohibitive cost involved to initiate such an action protects him, while he uses our own hard earned tax money as his own piggy bank, to embilish his personal adgenda.
I’d be interested in seeing some responses, Who thinks it’s possible to raise sufficient funds to get the trigger pulled?
10 voter // Jul 28, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Count me in as soon as the Fund is set up and started!….I’d rather contribute $1000 bucks to see justice done then give it to some other politician who won’t even remember my name 30 days after i give it to him.
11 Jerry Hater // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:08 pm
No one will investigate him or charge him with any crime because they (AG, county attorney, etc.) are all of the same political party. Same old partisan political bullshit. Somebody grow some balls and do the right thing!
12 bill // Jul 28, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I know a lot of people who retired last year, that lost lots of time. Sucks how some people gets treated so much better than the average person.
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