We were extremely dismayed to see Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke receiving a $20,000 cash windfall (taxpayer money) when her term ends.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Apparently, a “management benefit program” was done in back room meetings unknown to taxpayers some time ago.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
They say it is because the mayor is exempt from getting overtime pay. Does the mayor ever work overtime? Does she work less than 40 hours a week sometimes? How do we know? Being single, she should be living well on $102,000 a year, plus medical, dental and vision paid for by our money.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Recently, the mayor proposed raising vehicle license fee tabs to cover fixing roads. That boondoggle, the ShoWare Center, is losing money every month.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Something is really wrong here. She should not accept that $20,000. Why couldn’t that money be used to fix potholes on Southeast 208th Street, part of Highway 167, or another road?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Mayors and management have more than enough taxpayer benefits. I say abolish this “program” immediately.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Then we are told Mayor Cooke’s salary is less than comparable nearby cities. What? Maybe those cities should reduce their mayor’s salaries to be in line with Kent.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
We are sick and tired of these elected politicians serving their interests first, when things in our city need fixing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
We used to like Mayor Cooke in the past, but we are now seeing her true colors. She intends to take care of herself first before the needs of Kent citizens.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
If her salary \u2013 and those of other Kent city managers \u2013 and benefits were cut back, and the management benefits program were abolished, we could still attract qualified mayoral candidates.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Put the money to useful city needs, and not in the politicians’ large pockets.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2013 Richard Schurk<\/strong><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We were extremely dismayed to see Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke receiving a $20,000 cash windfall (taxpayer money) when her term ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2983"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}