Muscatine

A quick look at the Iowa League of Cities website will answer this question.  In reality, Muscatine is among the very worst cities in Iowa when it comes to compensating its top officials.  Some of those mentioned in the Journal's article can easily make considerably more money in other cities in Iowa of comparable size.  I wonder where posters such as this derive their opinions?  I suspect either out of thin air, or their own inability to climb the socio-economic ladder as these people have chosen to do.  I think that we are collectively quite fortunate to have people working for us with the skills and abilities that some of these folks have, knowing that they could easily move on and be better compensated.  I guess sometimes, it really is about more than just money.

 yes I do live in muscatne.what I meant was what exactly does a city administrator do that effects me.average joe

If the city had no adminstrator, who would run the day to day operations of the city?  We have a part time mayor, and a part time city council, so who would be around each day to make sure what needs to be done is indeed done?  

Before you use the "we used to run the city without an administrtor" argument, think really hard about how poorly the city was run at that time. 

So, I guess the easy answer to your "what exactly does a city administrator do that effects me.average joe" question is that a city administrator makes sure that your city is being managed the way that your mayor and city council wants it to be managed because that's why we elected thme in the first place, to manage the city.  If they can't someone surely has to. 

 

Unfortunately the taxpayers take a hit again. If the usual contractual terms were set, Muscatine taxpayers will continue either some of his salary, benefits, or retirement funding for him after he leaves. There is always something they negotiate into full-time officals' packages. I just forget what his agreement was. The Journal wrote about it once.

 

Have to wait and see, I guess.