Doug Plummer

To the editor:

As I was searching for information about the Gilford salary debate, I found a web site that had a lot of helpful information ( gilfordgrok.com ). This site has figures from credible sites for anyone to confirm. Or if you don’t have the countless hours to compile and compare this enormous amount of information, you could trust that our elected officials on the budget committee have "accurately informed" us! This site also has the letter from the selectmen, also elected officials, questioning the validity of the budget committee's report. If, in fact, all of our "elected" selectmen feel the need to chastise the committee taxpayers have elected, and entrusted, to oversee spending, we have more problems than out of control spending. I would think the civil thing to have done would be to have privately compared notes instead of slamming the budget committee in the local newspapers for doing their job. It is quite embarrassing. One would assume that the people on the budget committee must be, at least, a little offended. Even if the figures were a little off, it’s clear to see our town employees are overpaid for their responsibilities.

It would appear that when an employee leaves the town that many times the new employee is brought in at the same, or close to the same salary as his predecessor. This may explain why our town administrator with about two years on the job is fourth highest, at $89,542, to the 30 or so towns compared. Lets not forget that he also has a fourth ranking assistant at $70,570. This may not be the explanation. I don’t believe anyone can even begin to explain the mega salary of our school superintendent! I do know that my taxes are out of control. Again the site gilfordgrok.com may help you come to your own conclusion about the generous salaries, don’t forget benefits, of our town employees.

Doug Plummer

Gilford