The following letter was sent to Rehoboth Beach Mayor Stan Mills with a copy provided to the Cape Gazette for publication.
It was with great disgust that I read the recent article in the Cape Gazette headlined “Rehoboth loans new city manager $750,000 to facilitate move.” Seriously, you and the commissioners may have banned the sale of marijuana in city limits, but you sure must be smoking some. This contract/benefit package is ludicrous.
I’m sure Taylour Tedder is a fine gentleman and qualified for the job; although, the only quality I can speak to are his negotiating skills because he sure took you (us city taxpayers) to the cleaners.
So let me get this straight, our 1-square-mile city with its bloated $38 million budget is so complex that we have to offer a base salary that is 46.2% higher than our state governor (he makes a paltry $171,000) whose budget is a measly $15 billion. But wait, there’s more. Let’s throw in $50,000 to move (which is likely grossed up for taxes) and another $750,000, which is really additional salary disguised as a loan. If you follow the schedule in the article, basically, his base salary will be $250,000 in years one through three, then jumps to $362,500 in years four and five, $475,000 in year six and finally $550,000 in year seven as the loan is forgiven. Of course, that excludes any annual increases or bonuses he has negotiated. Even though managing our tiny resort town is so complex and time consuming, he has time to work a second job as an adjunct professor. Seems his inflated pay here is not enough to make ends meet. I’m only surprised he didn’t get you to sponsor a GoFundMe page for a couple of new cars.
It is obvious that fiscal responsibility is not your stalwart. It is quite the slap in the face to us city taxpayers who are now enduring the significant increases in water/sewer rates, property taxes and parking rates across the board to pay for the bloated city budget. You realize that you are not playing with Monopoly money, but our tax dollars? Oh, by the way, we are voters too.
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