As Zac and others pointed out, the Dallas City Council inexplicably voted to give new city manager A.C. Gonzalez a truly outrageous pay boost, from the $250K he made as interim manager to a whopping $400K. That’s nearly $100K more than what his predecessor, Mary Suhm, took home. As many have commented, this is galling on several fronts.
In a time of government austerity and minimal raises for other city employees, why in the world should Gonzalez—who post-Uber should thank his stars he got the gig at all—be worth that much more than Suhm, who for all her faults was competent and then some? Then there was the cavalier manner in which the vote was addressed: Sheffie Kadane prattling about what a small amount it was; Gonzalez wanting to hurry on “to the next level”; Mayor Mike Rawlings chirping, “Let’s do it.”
But now the question is: Isn’t there some way to reverse this in-your-face decision about the city manager’s pay? Seems to me it’s the type of issue that should have the taxpayers turning out at City Hall with pitchforks drawn. Or do we just say, “Dumb move. Really too bad they did that”? Surely the people that pay the freight for boneheaded stunts like this—uh, I think that’s you and me—can’t be steamrollered that easily.
