The baffling intrigue surrounding the immediate employment future of City Treasurer Crystal Alexander thickens as Election Day on Tuesday — when her job officially runs out — draws tantalizingly nearer.
Convoluted complexities apparently are confounding insiders as much as other observers.
According to the revised City Charter, the City Treasurer’s position, as an elected office, ends at midnight on Tuesday, which would seem to complete Ms. Alexander’s service to the city.
But highly placed sources claim Ms. Alexander’s predicament is muddied rather than clear-cut for two reasons:
• Yes, the rewritten Charter calls for elimination of the City Treasurer as an elected position. But no, it does not call for elimination of the person holding the job.
• Fourteen months ago, City Manager Jerry Fulwood said it was his intention that everyone in City Hall, “including the City Treasurer,” would retain his or her employment once the new Charter takes effect.
The call on Ms. Alexander’s foreseeable employment future, at least initially, rests, as it always has, with Mr. Fulwood.
He, however, is not talking.
In fact, throughout the last two years as City Hall gradually implemented large-scale revisions dictated by the remodeled Charter, Mr. Fulwood has declined to be specific about personnel, especially Ms. Alexander.
Down to the final hours, these questions remain:
If Mr. Fulwood has offered her an alternative position, does it include a slash in pay, in responsibilities and/or in prestige?
Would Ms. Alexander find any of those reductions palatable?
Would she be transferred to a status that would require approval by the new City Council? The outcome of such a vote. In that case, would be entirely unpredictable because three of the five members will be new?
What’s the Problem?
Mayor Alan Corlin told the newspaper this morning that from his perspective the view is unclouded.
“In my opinion,” he said, “the voters voted to terminate the elected City Clerk and the elected City Treasurer positions. That is the end of the story.
“My personal opinion is, unless she has been hired, she is gone.
“Crystal has done a good job as the City Treasurer. She has always been helpful to me.
“But I would not expect her employment to continue unless she has had a definitive discussion with the City Manager. I have not had any definitive discussions with the City Manager.
“She is out of a job on April 8, in my opinion, just as I am on April 28.”
In the Rooting Corner
Retired Police Lt. Greg Smith, who brought a quarter-million-dollar claim for damages against the city last month, is a major supporter of Ms. Alexander, and has enlisted her for his case.
Mr. Smith has accused City Hall of a fiscal shiftiness, playing loose with monies, to the benefit of a few and to the detriment of others.
He said this morning he believes Ms. Alexander’s natural-born meticulousness, as an accountant, runs disagreeably counter “to the way those people at City Hall move money around and hide it.”
On the Other Hand
An obscure item on Monday night’s City Council agenda may hold a clue to City Hall’s thinking.
Salted away beneath the anonymous cloak of the attention-discouraging Consent Calendar — it is No. 5 on a seven-item list — is a recommendation to extend the contract of a financial specialist for six more months. (The Consent Calendar commonly is passed by the Council in a single vote, without attention to individual items.)
The specialist, who works for Moreland & Associates, a CPA firm, was hired a year ago to step in as Interim Deputy City Treasurer when the permanent deputy, Karen Maggio, became unavailable.
When Ms. Maggio returned last week from a Workmen’s Comp case, it was presumed by some employees that the services of the fill-in deputy no longer would be needed.
Not so.
Retained at a Jump in Pay
Monday night’s proposal calls for the consultant’s agreement to be renewed for $90,000, a far greater rate than the rate paid to Ms. Alexander, ostensibly the boss of the specialist. The City Treasurer’s salary, for the full year, is listed under $120,000.
In passing, it should be noted that according to the City Salary Survey, Ms. Alexander was judged to be under-compensated by 30 percent.
When the consultant’s extension is approved, she will be receiving a significant raise. Since last May, her rate has been $107 per hour. With the Council’s approval, she will be boosted to $127.25 per hour.