Rumors, An Iron County Pasttime

Soon after I became a permanent resident of Iron County,
a rumor was spread that West Iron School District was in
such dire financial straits that the band was going to be
dismantled. Presently, we have a repeat of that model of
misinformation spread by rumor. Neither, in the opinion
of your humble correspondent, has validity beyond a
passing acquaintance with facts. The school district
always has need of more funds, while presently the
City of Iron River, with a collapsing population and
economy, has a budget that’s somewhat out of kilter
with realities.

For comparison to Iron River, I was able to find real
numbers for the iron workers union local 16 at Baltimore,
MD[1].  Their journeyman ratio of fringe benefits to
payroll is about 64%. The Iron River police department
is currently experiencing a ratio expressed by 106%
according to numbers I got from city hall last week.
Total payroll is $275,000 and fringe benefits (labeled
as such) are $291,460. Depending on how (I must add,
unclearly) the spread sheet is constructed, that ratio
might be even worse. In fact, the fringe benefit to
payroll ratio appears to be over 100% of all city
employees.

So the rumor being spread around the area is that
the city intends to dismantle Iron River’s police
department without a public hearing on the subject.
Letters have apparently been sent to the Reporter
and the Iron Mountain paper on these topics. It
seems that the topic of services in the context of the
next annual budget will be covered in a scheduled
public hearing in May, 2013.

But now that the realities have come to the
forefront, we question how the excessively high
rates have been approved by past city councils. We
need to bear in mind that those are the same bodies
politic that approved retaining the entire excess work
force in the public works department after
consolidation. The results of that decision are still
being paid for by the taxpayers. While before
consolidation, the work forces for the individual
entities were likely attuned to the amount of work to
be performed, once consolidation took hold, there was
a much larger work force than was effectively usable.
A new corporate culture took hold in public works
that had time to be wasted, and it was. As the work
force shrank through attrition, the corporate culture
did not keep pace, leaving the city with a public works
that has failed to keep pace with the workload all year
round.

The city’s correct solution would be to provide
supervision that did not rise through the ranks (in
other words, real supervision rather than a “pal” as
the boss) and to reduce the work force by
outsourcing work at peak periods. Unlike John
Archocosky's approach to supervision, the city manager
works for the people of the city, not as a defender of
the employees.

I was already a property owner in the county when
Genesee Street was improved in the 1980’s about 30
years ago. Today’s complaints about freezing pipes
and non-functioning valves have no excuse. The
elements of good design and maintenance were
already well established. Water system valves will
significantly outlast the water mains if they are 
exercised as the manufacturer recommends.

Who failed to exercise the valves? Who hasn’t
flushed the water system and exercised the fire
hydrants? This publication isn’t in a position to
second guess all the other stuff that the city hasn’t
maintained as is necessary to keep it working. Rest
assured, given the track record we know about,
there are bound to be plenty of others.

The union contracts for city employees are supposed
to be in negotiation for the police and public works
departments. The city council, if they were actually
doing their job, would have already given instructions
to roll back fringe benefits. The next budget will give
us the answer to that measure of their competence.
That’s where the buck stops in Iron River. And as
was pointed out to me by a reader today, at least the
quorum of the city council will have to stand for
election in November 2013. This publication, and a
number of interested individuals, will make sure that
the voters will be well aware, and remember at election
time, the decisions that are made at the Iron River City
budget meeting next month.

Bill Vajk


[1] http://tinyurl.com/c7a23hs