As a former Federal employee I am quite aware of grades and levels with steps within those levels such as the GS ratings or WG ratings. Even so, when someone is being given a "raise" in pay grade they are getting a "RAISE". If they are assuming an entirely different job this might not be considered a "Raise" but if they are staying in the same position, doing exactly the same job then, they are getting a raise.
What I am amazed by is the lack of understanding of how the real world sees this. If a man or woman stays in the same job in the real world and their "Income" goes up either $10,000 dollars or $30,000 it is called a pay raise. To simplify in language most Minneapolis residents speak and commonly understand - "Pay" is the amount of income for the year. "Raise" means to increase. Put together these words are commonly understood to mean "Pay Raise". Was one of these words possibly misunderstood?
Perhaps, this dialogue adequately illustrates what the real problem is in Minneapolis "government". It is one of language! Perhaps when someone becomes a "government" worker such as Jonathon now is, and Mark says he is, a new culture and language immediately is learned resulting in a paradigm shift that makes it difficult for communication. It sounds like the same language but it simply has different meanings. Perhaps this is the reason it is so difficult to understand the explanations for some of the goings on at City Hall. Simply a different "Reality" because of a paradigm shift. What color is the sky when looked at from City Hall?
OK, lets cut the "Bull" and get to the beef! How about one of you government "speakers" telling us what new job is being done by the "workers", or how much better they are now doing their jobs to deserve a raise. Heck, I will even accept that they were under paid to start with and the adjustments are to bring them to the pay levels they should have had to begin with. But please STOP saying they are not getting a raise, it undermines our confidence in government to have employees who can not add and subtract. These valued employees are done a disservice by such spurious logic.
No darn wonder our taxes get wasted! No wonder statistics get used to explain that some one is safer in their home while people are being assaulted, raped, or shot right outside the door. Not only is a different language being used, but the people using it also have different mathematics. This sounds a whole lot like when some government employee types attempted to tell me that stormwater costs were not discriminating against me in a poor neighborhood. Remember when these same folks said I was wrong about paying three times what their statistical biased model called for, even when I had five of the notices in MY hand.
Mayor R.T. Rybak, if he is re-elected, or Peter McLaughlin, when elected should each make a promise to improve government by insisting that the language and mathematics of government become the same as that used by the remaining population of Minneapolis. Oh how silly of me, of course promises of politicians may not mean the same thing to "Government" workers as to the real world. In the real world a promise means you fully intend to do something. In government it means you are just telling voters what you think they want to hear at that moment.
It still smells like baloney. Lets get a little more Beef into this discussion and a lot less Bulloney. Minneapolis deserves a little more Beef and a lot less Bull!
Hate to bow out of a good argument when dueling with over-armed opponents, but I will be doing family and faith for the next several days. So you folks have a wonderful weekend. Smile and hug your kids, your partner, your family, and your friends and may the joy of love be with each.
Jim Graham, from those steps in Ventura Village
"The rarest of gems, with the greatest clarity,
and with the greatest brilliance is not the diamond.
The rarest of all gems is the truth.
Yet as scarce as truth is, the supply has always far
exceeded any demand for it. In fact it may well be
the lest desirable commodity in the Universe.
Ask any politician."<
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