In my 44 years as a Floridian I have never written a letter to the newspaper of a political nature until today.

I have decided to write a quick letter because two wrongs do not make a right.

In September 2009, in the dead of the night, after most people had gone home, the North Miami Beach Mayor Rosner and council gave themselves a salary increase of over 1,000 percent. Even though council members Smith and Derose voted against it, and others cited good intentions, two wrongs do not make a right.

I have been president of my homeowners association for over 10 years, a volunteer for many other organizations and an animal activist -- positions that I have given much time to, never expecting to be paid, only expecting to make a difference in our community. Isn't this what our council should be doing? We do have a city manager and staff that run our city.

I'm sure many of us would love to give ourselves raises, I have already heard from many people who now want to run for council -- but for all the wrong reasons. It should not be about the money.

During this time of economic crisis, the mayor and majority of this council considered cutting back our police force, parks, increasing the cost of our water; trash pick-ups and other city services have decreased. But they think it is OK to increase their pay. This is an outrage.

Back in May 2009 at the elections, a $1,200 salary increase was asked for by the council. It was the only amendment out of six which was rejected significantly by the majority of the voters. Is the mayor and council remembering this, or have they already forgotten the voters' wishes? Come to this Tuesday night's council meeting, where they will revisit this resolution.

Remind them we are in a recession, families are losing their homes, their insurance, their jobs and now is not the time for their exorbitant salary increases. Two wrongs do not make a right, and it is never too late to do the right thing.

SAMANTHA L. SUAYA

NORTH MIAMI BEACH

NORTH MIAMI BEACH

TWO WRONGS DO

NOT MAKE A RIGHT

A few weeks ago, North Miami Beach councilman John Julien spent a lot of time going over a spreadsheet that he claimed described the cost of previous councils and that, not surprisingly, demonstrated what a good idea it was for the council to vote themselves an increased salary.

Oh, how considerate of them. This was not self interest.

This was not a last minute, end of the meeting vote that conveniently avoided any public discussion.

No, not at all. They really were looking after our hard-earned tax dollars and trying to save us some money. They now say this is an attempt to level the playing field among their fellow elected officials. I say two wrongs don't make a right. Instead of increasing compensation to everyone, why not eliminate the problem expenses and begin a new? Since they claimed not to want this money anyway, and were only running to help the city.

Well, it seems that the spreadsheet was riddled with mistakes. I am shocked! The city has now produced a ``corrected'' version. And guess what? Although certain errors were corrected, the fundamental question of what is appropriate compensation for a part-time, voluntary, elected official in city that has a council/manager form of government not addressed.

No doubt that eliminating those kinds of unbudgeted expenses is a good idea, but it continues to beg the question: What else do we not really know about? What costs remain hidden as part of the manager's budget? What new expenses will the city take on? Will there be a freeze on travel or will the mayor and council continue to be able to dip into the manager's budget for trips that may or may not be of any benefit to the city?

What if they had kept the old salary structure and simply stopped the reimbursements for ``wellness'' benefits? In the scheme of things, these costs may not make or break the city -- but without full, open and deliberative discussion, in public and with public input -- we are all left wondering what scheme the Scheme Team (oops, I meant the Dream Team) will come up with next.

JARRET L. GROSS

NORTH MIAMI BEACH

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