Clarifying police chief’s salary
Dear Editor:
Eric Goold in his letter (DCI 12/27/2012) misquotes me and then proceeds to pronounce it inaccurate. What I said was, "Paonia has the highest paid small town police chief in Colorado."
Eric left off the adjectives. Find me another police chief in a Colorado town with a population less than 2,000 that is being paid over $100K. I further stated that such a salary is on par with the highest paid public officials in Delta County like the school superintendent and the county administrator. Salary.com surveying all the police chiefs and sheriffs nationwide for all sizes of cities and towns finds his salary to be in the top 5%. In addition, parts of the salary, overtime and free housing, have never been approved by the town council.
The police in Paonia consume 52% of the general fund. To understand what that means look at the streets. Their repair comes out of the same fund.
Two final points of council etiquette. First, you don't sign a public letter as a trustee unless it has gone before the whole council for review. Second, you don't dis previous members of the council. There are trustees and mayors that I fought with hard but I completely respect them for their service and dedication to Paonia.
David Weber,
Paonia