Sources within city hall informed us that while Mayor Paul A. Dyster wanted to fire John Cahill, the former city director of Management Information Services, he was unwilling to do so.
So Cahill's position was removed from the 2015 budget. Dyster took him out of the budget, the council put him back in the budget, and the mayor removed him a second time through a mayor’s veto.
Cahill was officially gone from city service at the conclusion of the 2015 budget process and his last day was Dec. 31, 2014.
Cahill was relegated to the list of “jobs-being abolished” by “the Dyster team.”
The Reporter however is predicting that the job will soon reemerge but without Cahill.
In fact, we are reasonably confident that Cahill was eliminated simply to make room for Dyster’s yet to be announced hand-chosen replacement.
The Reporter predicts that His Honor will fill the vacant position with a person directly connected to the Dyster campaign (2015 is an election year) or linked to Dyster’s Buffalo supporters.
While Dyster has already set the new salary for Cahill’s replacement at a modest (for Dyster’s administration) $62,000 (Cahill made $70,000), we predict the mayor will present Cahill’s replacement to the council while declaring the new person’s resume to be “extremely impressive.”
Dyster will then move the starting salary to $70,000 or more.
As the year progresses, Dyster’s new hire will “initiate bold program directives” and will, for their bold work, receive a bold pay hike or stipend of $6,000 or more.
We predict Dyster’s new person will go into 2016 with a budgeted salary at not a dollar less than $80,000, and possibly more.
The current average department head salary in Dyster’s city hall is edging toward $100,000 and that means many department head salaries have increased by 30% or more under Mayor Dyster.
Controller Maria Brown leads the pack on pay hikes. Between her salary and numerous stipends nets her in excess of $110,000. The city of Buffalo Comptroller earns $80,000 for a city five times as large.
|
