(edited to add) HitH printed the list of salaries of several top level appointees. Surprise to me - press secretary Doug Oliver makes more than City Representative and campaign spokesperson Melanie Johnson. Feel free to discuss.
Couple of interesting points related to early personnel decisions by the new administration...
The Inquirer's Marcia Gelbart secured a list of salaries for Mayor Nutter's "top mayoral aides, Cabinet members, and 13 commissioners and department heads" and reports that at least 5 of them will be making more than the mayor's $186,044.
While at first, the numbers being thrown around as salary levels for these people may seem high, it is important to note that, according to the article, "the heads of 13 major city departments in Nutter's administration collectively are costing taxpayers about the same as they did during Street's tenure, nearly $1.7 million."
In addition, at least a few of these top-level aides are making significantly less than they were in the private sector.
So, blog readers, is this even an issue? Are you on the side that believes that if you want very highly talented people to be working for your government, then you have to pay them pretty well? Or, do you see a problem with these salaries and think that they should be linked more directly to performance with, perhaps, a lower base level and bonuses contingent on certain outcomes?
One top-level city official who seems to be the subject of some controversy is actually a holdover from the previous administration - Commissioner of Streets, Clarena Tolson. Like the City Paper's Loose Canon, Bruce Schimmel, I was a little surprised to see that Nutter was retaining Tolson given his commitment to recycling and the often harsh things that recycling advocates have said about Commissioner Tolson in the past. Schimmel puts it like so:
When I first read that Michael Nutter would be retaining Tolson's services, I honestly thought it was a misprint. So did many of the Greenistas, at meetings the following day of the Next Great City coalition and of the Recycling Alliance. These are the leaders of the same constituency whose early support ignited Nutter's campaign.
With Tolson's reappointment as commissioner of Streets, they felt kicked to the curb.
Is it possible that she saved her job with the decision, late last year, to expand single-stream, plastic- and cardboard-inclusive recycling to Center City and South Philadelphia? Personally, I've been happy not to have to schlep all of my cardboard and plastic to a once-or-twice-a-month drop-off location several across town from my house.
Those same "Greenistas" to whom Schimmel refers will be out in full force tonight at this month's Urban Sustainability Forum about creating a "bike share" program in Philadelphia. The mayor himself has this event on his schedule. Will fireworks ensue? Guess I know where I'll be tonight.
Do any green activists who are reading this care to weigh in on the Tolson decision?
Comments (48)
Clarena? politics, pure and simple. Nutter kept her for the union negotiations.
The Center City and South Philly single stream expansion saving her hide is a joke. The city could go to weekly, single stream recycling pickup tomorrow. The single stream trucks and trash trucks are exactly the same. They have to pick up the same amount of refuse, whether it's called trash or recycling.
Posted by Anonymous | January 17, 2008 10:59 AM
While I don't know while Tolson was kept. I've seen her at community meetings around town. I'm not sure she can fix everything but it may be that she was kept on because when it came to responding to things she could fix, she may have done that, especially in the 4th district. Just because she couldn't implement recycling doesn't necessarily mean she wasn't responsive--which is probably what Nutter demands most of all.
Posted by Anonymous | January 17, 2008 11:56 AM
during Tolson's "reign", they've had no strikes or union troubles (unusual), plus she and her father come from a union leader background.
Posted by Anonymous | January 17, 2008 2:09 PM
Dan, thanks for the Tolson report.
Tolson was a part of the problem and it looks like Nutter doesn't care. You gained some points with the zoning situation but lost them all with this, mayor.
Posted by Patricio | January 17, 2008 5:22 PM
Why was she retained when the city has been dirty and the Streets Department is regressive and unresponsive?
She needs to be dismissed.
Posted by Anonymous | January 18, 2008 2:26 PM
Clarena Tolson has been an excellent Streets Commissioner and her record speaks for itself. Recycling is a very important issue, but let's face it; in some areas it is difficult to get people to throw out their trash. Requiring the same people to do recycling and expecting them to follow through is a pipe dream. Also, recycling is not the Street Department's only issue, they battle with illegally dumped trash that reappears almost before they leave the site. There is a major cultural change that needs to take place and it doesn't happen overnight. The Streets Department has done an excellent job at implementing recycling and making the best use of City dollars in doing so.
Mayor Nutter made the right choice in not letting go of a bright, dedicated and resourceful public servant.
Congratulations Commissioner Tolson.
Posted by Anonymous | January 21, 2008 1:45 PM
Ms. Tolson is nice and smart and politically connected (Fattah, I think) but is in a job that is not a good fit for her. Recycling in Philadelphia could be better if she didn't stand in the way of a RecycleBank expansion. Hopefully she'll be a temporary holdover.
Posted by Truthbetold | January 23, 2008 7:33 AM
Clarena Tolson has run the Streets Department like a gulag. Instead of focusing on getting the Department qualified personnel and funding, she has spent time alienating the engineers, rewarding her sycophants, and punishing any managers who don't say yes to her at the table. She has used her political juice (Councilwoman Verna is her godmother) to stay in the job, wears blinders, and basically does a poor job - just ask any City employee who thinks..... As for recycling - in her years as Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation, and as Commissioner, she has treated it as a liability and it was basically treated like a stepchild. Why do you think everyone who was a Recycling Coordinator ran away???
Posted by anonymous | January 23, 2008 12:42 PM
Tolson? She can't even get trash cans out on the streets. What a waste. No pun intended
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