I'd like to make some observations concerning the following story
which is receiving way too much media attention:
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SOME want limit on expenses paid to city manager
Newport Daily News - Newport,RI,USA

By Janine L. Weisman/Daily News staff. NEWPORT - Four City Council
members say City Manager James C. Smith's relocation expenses should
be capped at $15,200, ...

http://www.newportdailynews.com/articles/2004/04/02/news/news3.txt
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* Corporate relocation packages typically have a financial cap.
(Unless you work for Tyco or Enron). Is this news to the city? Or
just evidence that the city has so little experience hiring anyone
outside of RI? Or both?

* As I recall the city has a human resources department that should
understand contemporary hiring practices. Right?

* Didn't the city council, which hired the city manager, have the
city solicitor review the offer? (Hmm, who was holding down the fort
while the city solicitor served as the acting city manager?).


Perhaps our council, eager to paint itself as the victim of an
oversight, should spend its collective energy on:

* How to pay for the new $115M "mortgage" on the city's future due
to lavious lifetime health insurance benefits

* Capping the council's own health insurance perks (which get really
lucrative when a councillor's spouse also works for the city)

* Helping RIPEC and their School Committee colleagues with some
tough cost saving recommendations before the next Ice Age arrives.

* Placing a moratorium on Sister City boondoggles until 2006.