Thoughts on the Grinch's Article in the Daily Times

As the Great Green One stood up and did the right thing by requesting the Ethics Commission review recent actions by the Salisbury City Council during their budget process but the Wizard feels the new Mayor should be looked at in this process as well. When former Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman submitted the FY2010 budget to the City Council, it then became the Council's Budget.

Terry Cohen is absolutely wrong in asserting that Mayor Tilghman needed council action in removing Health Insurance. The reason is simple, Health Insurance is not in the city charter or code as a part of the compensation for elected officials. It has never been recommended by the Salary Commission. It has never been added to the city charter or code. Therefore, Mayor Barrie Tilghman was well within her authority to remove it from the budget.

Debbie Campbell advocated in the budget session to have it placed back in the budget as did Terry Cohen. Thinking they found a loophole, they convinced Mayor Jim Ireton to make a "correction" to the budget, siting precedent by previous Salisbury Mayors. However, he did it while the Council had the budget, adding an item that the Council had not come to a consensus in a work session. Gary Comegys attempted to do it properly by putting forth an amendment to officially come to a consensus, then vote on the budget, with or without health insurance.

Doing it the way they did it has brought about all types of issue, namely was Mayor Ireton being ethical when he placed this item back in the budget? This is certainly not a good way to start off your first 100 days as Mayor.

News reports have erroneously reported that this was placed back in as an amendment. That is incorrect as there was no consensus by the City Council during the budget session. Fixing it is the key now and Council Members must take responsibility for their decisions.