County Support to Hamlets becomes questionable

Emails announcing You're Fired, Redundant, Unnecessary and that your services are no long required just bite.

This one came out a couple of weeks ago:

It is a difficult time for local government budgets in Oregon and around the nation.  Clackamas County is no exception.  Due to budget constraints, Public and Government Affairs is undergoing a reorganization to better maximize limited public resources.

Unfortunately, this means that the County is eliminating the staff liaison position for Hamlets and Villages effective June 30, 2013. 

Chris Roth has contributed to the formation and stability of the nationally-recognized Hamlet and Village program.  Please join me in thanking her for her service.

The Hamlet has only known an existence with Chris Roth in it. As liaison from day one she was our best resource and inside connection to the county plans, processes and persons. If we needed to get into someone's ear, she made it happen. The list of what she organized and physically did is long and the many boxes of sign in sheets, agendas , easels, sound systems, etc that she dragged around for our meetings were heavy.  Chris was always there at our Saturday Town Halls and our Monday meetings, quietly observing, speaking only when it seemed in our best interest.

So it was sad news to hear that her job (and our Hamlet support) was eliminated due to budget cuts at the county and ...

Wait!!! Stop the Presses!   Breaking news!!!

The county is in the works of approving a new budget!
 In the midst of these budget constraints our clever and worthy commissioners are giving themselves 4% raises, 6% if you're the hard working Chair.

OOOPS!  This is a stool, not a chair.  My bad!

Wow!

Are these merit raises? Hell no!  They're 'comparison' raises.  When the commissioners discovered that they're not making as much as Commissioners in wealthier counties with bigger tax bases (basically places with more people than horses, unlike Clackamas), they decided to use the old Can Do spirit and give themselves raises. That's why we voted them into office, right?

Other overworked county staff can absorb Chris' job duties on their current salaries and we won't even see the difference in support. Promise!!!


Clackamas residents everywhere can now feel we're keeping up with the Multnomahs.

Bye Chris - best wishes and thanks for all the late nights, weekends and endless emails and support you've given us over the years. I'll miss you. We'll miss you.