Conservation Commission Salary Increase

The current controversy about giving an administrative worker a 9 percent increase represents a management failure to plan for employee increases and should not be a situation of a catch-up. It flies in the face of the Taxpayers. Whether deserved or not it looks bad.

What is really disturbing is that this process allows any department to "game the system" so an increase can be given at any time only subject to approval by the Town Manager and unless the Town Manager communicates with the Selectmen and gets their advice and consent, wage increases can go unnoticed by both the Selectmen and the Budget Committee both groups trying to do the best for Hampton. There must be transparency by the Town Manager. In this case where the raise may be totally justified, to have made this decision without advice and consent or checks and balances circumvents the entire system of our local government. We would hope that this situation is a one of a kind and not to be repeated. There must be transparency with the Selectmen and Budcom.  For Rational Taxpayers of Hampton, Norman Silberdick