An elected official's thoughts on city workers and the DRI

In an email discussion among City of Plattsburgh Common Council members about the low morale of city employees, who have been quitting at an alarming rate, Ward 2 Councilor Mike Kelly, on his city email account, wrote the following response, which also included his thoughts on the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, or DRI, a $10 million state grant that the city applied for and won in 2016:

I rejoice at low city employee morale, as we will continue to weed out the folks who are "Retired in Place" or otherwise disengaged. I don't really care much about the DRI, either. Throwing $10 million at a city will not help it survive and thrive. Promoting growth that occurs organically and naturally is a better way to go, IMHO. I don't hold much hope that the DRI will do anything except create more divisiveness between interested parties as the money grab commences. I do hope very, very strongly that we don't build a freaking parking garage. That is one more piece of useless infrastructure that the city will not he able to maintain into the future. You can share that with the mayor if you wish. Don't build a freaking parking garage!  

I wanted to verify that this was, in fact, Kelly's writing, so I emailed him, and he sent the following response:

This was in response to a question raised by one of my colleagues regarding whether we should be concerned about employee morale in times of turmoil and scheduling meetings with the mayor to discuss our concerns. The question was also asked about whether or not we should be concerned about the DRI.

The answers sent to you are my honest, heartfelt answers to the above two questions. The day we have a governing body that is more concerned about taxpayer morale (about 8,00 people) than a handful of managers, then we will start to make some real progress in our fair city. Our management packages, and we have more than one, are bloated way out of sustainable control, and the only way to fix that is to either wait for the old-timers to retire or change it. Right now, unfortunately, we don't have the will on the council to do what needs to be done. I do think that will change in time, however.

Luke, I'm assuming that you're still gainfully employed in the private sector, so I would ask you to compare your benefits with those of our city managers. The packages they have would curl your hair. That would be the real story here. I would be happy to sit with you and show you their benefits package if you would like.

Regarding the DRI, I am and will remain very skeptical. Downtown Plattsburgh's progress to date has been pretty good absent any further injection of the people's treasury. I just don't see the need. However, the governing body I represent has spoken out strongly in favor of the DRI, so  I must go along. I do feel very strongly that another piece of infrastructure like a parking garage is the last thing we need. We are struggling currently to maintain the infrastructure we already possess. 

My comments were made in confidence to my colleagues, and I would prefer they stay that way. However, it is a public email account, so I guess you can write anything you want. If you wish to know any more details about what I'm thinking, I'd be happy to supply them.

(He's assuming a lot about my gainful employment--cough, freelance writer, cough--but let's move on...)

These comments should be published, which I told Kelly in a reply email, because they concern city business and are being communicated over city email. Transparency for taxpayers, and all that.

Here's an idea: How about holding these discussions and debates in an open, public forum?

People might disagree about stuff. Some subjects may even be divisive. That's a risk you take when you live in a democracy.