Guest commentary: Hey, guys! I'm on your side!

Last June, the Auburn Area Recreation and Parks District (ARD) had a serious staffing problem: We couldn't get and keep a full crew of fields and grounds workers (Park Workers I & II) because we weren't paying enough. There were too many jobs like that available in our community that started at $20/hour or more, whereas ARD was paying in the $18s. So the Policy Committee, Scott Holbrook and I, recommended raising the Park Workers scale to start at $20/hour. However, the agenda item that came to the board meeting the following week from the administration's finance and accounting group also contained scale raises for the accounting staff. Since we have not, in my 19-year memory on the ARD Board, ever had a problem keeping accounting clerks at the existing pay scales, I opposed raising the pay scale for employees other than fields and grounds, the group who were so underpaid we couldn't keep a full crew. I also have a problem with paying people more for sitting in a comfortable, clean air-conditioned office running a computer as opposed to the people who have to work in every temperature from 25-105 degrees, doing every maintenance task, getting dirty and fixing everything that goes wrong. So I voted NO on that pay raise because it gave raises to positions other than Fields and Grounds. I believe anytime we pay more than necessary for anything, we are cheating our district residents out of the full value they should get from their tax dollars (always remembering that renters pay taxes just like homeowners but do it indirectly through their landlords). What happened thereafter caught me by surprise. Word got around among park workers I had voted NO on their pay raise, and the next thing you know, a gorgeous 20-foot-high redwood tree my wife and I planted in Meadow Vista Park in memory of her daughter who died at age 42 of brain cancer was abused by cutting off all the limbs up to 13 feet, making it look like a pointed lollipop; just an innocent mistake, of course. At the most recent Thursday evening ARD Board meeting on March 28, we had a vote on cost-of-living-allowance (COLA) raises. And once again, as I see it, the agenda item that came before the board from the finance-accounting staff demeaned those who work with both their bodies and their minds in chilling rain and snow, bitter wind and scorching heat, doing the dirtiest and hardest jobs ARD has to offer: All ARD employees received COLA wage increases except for Park Workers I & II. The justification was that those park workers got their cost-of-living raises last summer. I don't look at it that way. Whatever they choose to call it, we were bringing a grossly underpaid group up to the point that we could get and keep a full crew. And now, they deserved a COLA just like everyone else. So I voted NO again. After the meeting, my fellow board member Jim Gray jeered, "So now it's on record that Gordy Ainsleigh voted against giving the staff cost-of-living raises!" Yes, I suppose it is, because I wasn't going to vote for a ruling that didn't give ALL our employees cost-of-living raises. I have planted about 70 trees in ARD parks over the years, and most of them are dear to me. So now I'm asking the ARD Fields and Grounds crew to please be kind to my trees this time. I honor the work you do, having done similar work for many years, and I am your most loyal advocate on the ARD Board of Directors.