Annapolis Capital Punishment

If it were not for readers asking for more, I would have dropped this Pilsen thing already, but you asked for it. It seems that this jaunt off to The Czech Republic has really hit a sore nerve with Annapolitans.  Previously I tallied hotel and air fares which were of course, many thousands of dollars for the entourage. Each employee also spent our money on ground transportation, meal incidentals, parking etc. to get to the airport. But there is more...a lot more...
One employee was good enough to tally that up for me, and I can assume that the aggregate was in the many hundreds for all of them, if not over a thousand dollars. This same employee, I believe provided an honest assessment that the trip was worthwhile and beneficial for the city. I do not doubt this person's sincerity, but I doubt whether this was the best way to spend our money. Then there were salaries, because they went on city pay time. Here is what was provided to me by Public Information Officer (mayor's press secretary) Rhonda Wardlaw:

Weekly pay before taxes for delegates attending International Award for Livable Communities
Mallinoff:    $2,610.30;
Biba:  $2,101.05;
Blick: $ 1,796.55;
Engelke: $ 1,190.35
Alderman Shropshire  $242.31
Mallinoff, Biba and Engelke flew out Tuesday ... worked the weekend and returned Tuesday, back to work Wednesday.  Blick few out Tuesday... worked the weekend... and returned Monday, back to work Tuesday. (Oh--the salary thing--not bad work if you can get it....of course being a FOE helps in many of these cases--not to incoming mayor---cut the fat!!!!!)

You get the picture. This means a few thousand more can be added in to the total.  But wait, there is one last expense and this one takes the cake. Do you receive The Pennysaver in your mail each week? Most everyone in Annapolis does so you have probably seen the two-sided color insert that came in last week's issue promoting the award we got and all the other gushing and wonderful things about our city and mayor and all the other awards and accolades we have received.

SHE JUST SPENT ANOTHER FOURTEEN-HUNDRED OF OUR DOLLARS TO DO THE PENNYSAVER INSERT!!!  It went to 17,000 households and was paid for out of The Department of Economic Affairs. (Thanks to Annapolitan JN and others for bringing this to our attention...)

There are many good things about our city and there are even some good things about our mayor, but this is pure propaganda about Boss Ellen's reign at our expense. She taxes us so she can spend our money however she pleases so she can then spend more money to tell us how wonderful she is. Meanwhile, the budget monster is slowly clawing its way out of the muck and mire and will soon climb out and eat City Hall....but Ellen will be off on her MUCH RUMORED ABOUT six-month cruise by then.....oh, and keep an eye out for our upcoming glossy, colored city magazine--sure to be jam-packed with Ellen's final word on everything... $84k in the budget for that--and she still needed this Pennysaver insert--did you hear how they put out a voting guide in it but happened to leave out a Republican candidate for Alderwoman???  Hah! How could they have made that mistake...??? So, they apparently had to junk 4,000 that were already printed and hold off on the rest until after the election...all in a day's work at City Hall....

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