Palin hired a City Manager when she was first elected to be mayor of Wasilla...town of 7,000

[RedEarth]

From the blog.... Progressive Alaska...

Judy reminded me, as we walked around the outskirts of Wasilla today, canvassing for Obama, that when Palin was first elected mayor there in 1996, she had to hire a city manager. When her predecessors had occupied the office, they did that job themselves. There went $60,000 per year. And so it has continued to go for her.

http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2008/09/saradise-lost-chapter-eleven-sarah.html

[earthside]

1. So ... NO 'Executive Experience' From Being Mayor!

In city manager forms of municipal government, the mayor is usually a figure head, just the city council member who presides at meetings and signs documents. In that form of government, the city manager acts as the executive carrying out the legislative decisions of the city council.

If that was the case in Wasilla when Palin was mayor, then -- ha! ha! ha! -- she cannot even honestly claim 'executive experience' from her tenure as mayor!

Drip. Drip. Drip.

[tanyev]

3. No, no, no. Outsourcing all your responsibilities?

That is the definition of Republican executive experience.

[vaberella]

4. More shit that will hurt McCain. I am starting to feel sorry for him. n/t

[roguevalley]

13. many towns up here have mayors and managers. Soldotna where

I live does.

[krkaufman]

19. Sure, but this information definitely hurts her resume. nt

[spooky3]

2. so what exactly did the Mayor do all day?

[vaberella]

5. Go to hockey games, shoot some moose, aerial flights to hunt wolves...

You know...same old, same old.

[apnu]

14. Apparently being the Mayor is a lot like going to a country club?

some experience.

[JBoy]

8. LOL. Good question!

I wouldn't want to take on that mayor's job until someone answered that for me.

[spooky3]

12. Egg-zactly!

[Hope And Change]

6. K & R!

[madmax]

7. K & R

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. Managing even a small town is better left to a manager.

I've seen too many mayors bollocks things up because they aren't there day-in-day-out.

Based on my personal experiences, I don't criticize mayors/councils for bringing in managers.

[earthside]

10. Mayor-Council

Sorry to say, apparently Wasilla does NOT have a city manager form of government.

http://www.codepublishing.com/ak/wasilla.html
(Chapter 1.08 - FORM OF GOVERNMENT AND GENERAL POWERS)

http://www.cityofwasilla.com/index.aspx?page=49

What that means though is that Mayor Palin was directly responsible for the $27 million in earmarks from the feds received by the city and for the lobbyist hired to get the earmarks, etc.

So, for her 'executive experience' she also must take 'executive responsibility'.

[DoctorMyEyes]

11. What kind of salary did SHE earn?

When I lived in tiny towns in NJ (that were still more populated than Wasilla) the mayor positions were kinda "honorary". The mayors only made between several hundred or a couple thousand a year and had to keep their day jobs.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

17. That would be absolutely shattering, if true in Palin's case

Earning peanuts as mayor, with no managerial duties but only honorary duties, and with virtually no hours spent on the job.

[Madam Mossfern]

20. I live in a town in NJ of about 13,000

It's a Falkner form of government with the mayor making about $4,000 and council members about $2,500. The Town Manager makes mucho mucho, but does all the heavy lifting..a professional who does a bang up job. The Council is the legislative body and the Mayor makes more money because he has to sign all that stuff and marry people etc.

[DoctorMyEyes]

22. That's how it was in the towns I lived in

Hell, in one town bigger than hers we voted a guy in because he promised to put the goldfish back in the fountain!

[vanderBeth]

15. For someone who gets all this experiance from being mayor,

she can't even do the job herself. :shrug:

[ClarkUSA]

16. Even more comical: when she was mayor, it was a town of 5000

She raised taxes on the middle-class and cut them for the oil/gas companies.

[krkaufman]

18. Another post here indicates that she was forced into hiring the add'l city manager ...

... after all the hubbub surrounding her early "loyalty" dismissals.


p.s. Ah, here it is...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6881935

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running
this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been
pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had
gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had
given rise to a recall campaign.

[Overseas]

21. Just a little drop of the $20 million in debt she left the town with. /nt