After spending some time with a new Web site focused on Harrisburg's city hall spending I decided to give the comptroller a call.
"The reason I did it was because I believe in transparency," said the newly elected Dan Miller, who spent four years on city council.
I can't imagine the Web site is popular with city employees. Their names and salaries are posted online. I sorted spreadsheets for a while and discovered a city employee who made $66,000 in overtime when the base pay is about $55,100.
I asked Miller about the overtime. It was before he was in the comptrollers office. Doing quick math, and assuming time-and-a-half for overtime pay, that means this person logged about 1,600 hours on top of a regular 2,000 hour work year, Miller said.
The public needs this information so they can scrutinize spending in city hall, Miller said. People have been asking a lot questions after checking out the Web site, he said.
Sometimes there's a good reason for the spending. Some times not.
The last mayor Stephen R. Reed (who spent nearly three decades in office) had a "very repressive, dominating regime" that made it hard for city council to get information they needed, Miller said.
Reed was the guy who decided Harrisburg should have a Wild West Museum.
I wonder, did spending $35,000 on a cannon and millions more on artifacts maybe lead to the mess the city is in?
"The reason I did it was because I believe in transparency," said the newly elected Dan Miller, who spent four years on city council.
I can't imagine the Web site is popular with city employees. Their names and salaries are posted online. I sorted spreadsheets for a while and discovered a city employee who made $66,000 in overtime when the base pay is about $55,100.
I asked Miller about the overtime. It was before he was in the comptrollers office. Doing quick math, and assuming time-and-a-half for overtime pay, that means this person logged about 1,600 hours on top of a regular 2,000 hour work year, Miller said.
The public needs this information so they can scrutinize spending in city hall, Miller said. People have been asking a lot questions after checking out the Web site, he said.
Sometimes there's a good reason for the spending. Some times not.
The last mayor Stephen R. Reed (who spent nearly three decades in office) had a "very repressive, dominating regime" that made it hard for city council to get information they needed, Miller said.
Reed was the guy who decided Harrisburg should have a Wild West Museum.
I wonder, did spending $35,000 on a cannon and millions more on artifacts maybe lead to the mess the city is in?
(On the subject of city hall overtime, the Erie Times-News did a great story about this issue that ran in Sunday's paper. Link via Sarah Hofius Hall, a reporter for the Scranton Times-Tribune and a former colleague of mine.)
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