By Chris OBrion for The Roanoke Times

Roanoke City Council on Monday unanimously postponed its vote on a 28 percent raise for council members and a 15 percent raise for Mayor David Bowers.

Councilman David Trinkle, who opposes the hefty increases, is apparently drafting an amendment that would reduce them to more reasonable 8 percent pay hikes.

But there’s another reason for delay that’s afoot, too.

It appears that council is lined up 4-3 in favor of the big increases, which are sponsored by Councilman Bill Bestpitch. But if that tally holds, it would mean they’d have to pass the measure at two successive meetings. (If they could round up a fifth vote for the raises they’d only have to pass it once).

And Bestpitch has already announced he’s not going to be at the next meeting, which could have left the proposal with a 3-3 deadlock on the second vote. In that case it would fail for lack of a majority.

So it looks like we’ll have to wait until June 3 to see which way council goes on this issue.  Stay tuned.

It also looks like council members have prolonged their own agony on this issue.

Your thoughts?

Today’s the day Roanoke City Council takes up the issue of a 15 percent raise for the mayor and 28 percent pay hikes for council members. Raises were first broached on April Fool’s Day by Mayor David Bowers, but the formal proposal came from Councilman Bill Bestpitch. With that in mind, a reader forwarded this snapshot of a previous Bestpitch campaign flyer below. Hmmm.

Submitted photo

Bill Murray, from “Groundhog Day” and Roanoke Mayor David Bowers

Have you ever seen the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day?” It’s a Bill Murray comedy about an egotistical TV weatherman from Pittsburgh and an annual assignment he despises: covering Punxsutawney Phil, the famous Pennsylvania groundhog.

One year the weatherman finds himself trapped both in Punxsutawney and in a time loop, repeating Feb. 2 over and over again. Ultimately, this causes him to take stock of his priorities in life and make significant changes.

Which brings us to Mayor David Bowers, his and Roanoke City Council members’ salaries and Bowers’ serial attempts to raise them over the past 17 years. The issue will be back before council Monday.

It’s been a comedy of errors each time, with Bowers usually ending up as the brunt of anger and many jokes. In 2000, it arguably cost him re-election. Let’s review. Read more »

The Roanoke Times | File 2009 | Altered by Dan

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — May 9, 2013

Dan,

The economy in Roanoke is not the best, tough times for most.

But yet the newly re-elected 2012 mayor, David Allen Bowers, wants to raise taxes on Roanoke City folks, but wants a pay raise???

Vice Mayor Court Rosen says no to raising taxes in Roanoke City . . . What did Court Rosen say about the mayor’s pay raise???

The mayor is not a grateful person at all. I am a Democrat. If Mark Lucas runs again, I would vote for him.

W.T.
ROANOKE

——————-

Note from Dan: The most recent story on this subject by my colleague David Ress is here. In it, Court Rosen spoke against increasing the mayor’s and council’s salaries. But it looks likes it a done deal. Four council members — Bowers, Sherman Lea, Anita Price and Bill Bestpitch — appear to favor the raises.

. . . was about the contest for Roanoke City Sheriff. Could either one of these guys get elected dogcatcher these days?

Photographed, and photoshopped, by Dan

Photo by E. Duane Howard

To Roanoke city administrators:

This is the perfect example of why the city must spend millions on curb and sidewalks.

The driver said he was doing it to get it more out of the street. That’s the excuse everyone uses for parking over the curb and on sidewalks.

Furthermore it further enhances the image to kids on up that it’s okay to park over the curb. From city employees to police themselves they simply don’t understand the damage they are doing. They don’t know, nor will we immediately know, how much they have weakened or cracked the curb once they have driven over it.

Why is this not instilled on every driver the city employs? I like to call it job security, they break and eventually will be back to fix it with the citizens’ tax dollars. Been reporting and sending these kinds of pictures to city administration for 15 years now and not a darn thing has changed.

The city is asking for over a million more for infrastructure, yet will not take the simple, prudent steps to keep city employees from damaging city and persona property.

E. Duane Howard

GUEST POST

By Dennis Wade

Recently returned to my Salem roots, from RaleighWood, N.C. I see a lot of growing pains here, paralleling what I saw happen, over my 30+ years in the growing Raleigh area. And ‘group think’ by city planners, resulting in wasted effort and dollar$. I joke that Roanoke, or any city’s planners, should not drink wine before, or during, committee sessions. Grins come often when you hit on some of the local silliness with your tongue-in-cheek columns . . . Like the double St. Patrick’s Day events. Sigh.

I’ve got a FARCICAL idea on the Market Square conversion proposal. The Taubman Museum is underutilized and cash-poor. How about converting the spacious street-level of the Taubman to parking? Or a Drive-Thru and Park Museum! The Taubman’s exterior walls have a retro-look, and could be painted to resemble tail fins of mid-’50s cars, advertising PARKING. Voila! The lost Market Square parking spaces are replaced, and the financially strapped Taubman generates more revenue. in-Win solution! Read more »

Krista Conner (left) and Melissa Miller near a stormwater retention pond they they blame for flooding troubles down at their homes on Narrows Lane in the Southern Hills area. The pond is owned by Rockydale Quarries. Its president, Ken Randolph, said the pond is not the source of their stormwater flooding issues. Photo by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

You’ll have to forgive Melissa Miller if she sounds aggravated these days.

When heavy rains hit at the end of January, floodwaters filled the disabled grandmother’s yard and rose almost up to the bottom sash of her bathroom window. It was the umpteenth time in the 46 years she’s lived in her home that this has happened.

Miller and her 5-year-old grandson, Daymien[cq], spent that night with a friend in Vinton. They fled right after she called 911 and begged operators to have the fire department shut off electricity to her house, so it wouldn’t burn up from a short.

Once she returned, she found out a firefighter had reported her for hoarding, because she had piles of family possessions in her yard and house. Flurries of desperate and angry phone calls to Roanoke City Hall elicited only more vague and unsatisfying promises. Miller has heard them before. Read more »

A note from E. Duane Howard today:

A neighbor in S.E. says she has contacted the city on this location and this most unbelievable, unacceptable situation and no response.

She said they said they can’t do anything because the property is in foreclosure — Bank of America.

I’m sorry, but I can’t help but to go back to my old line: If this were in South Roanoke, how long would the problem be allowed to exist?

You can see this neighbor’s comments on the Southeast Action Forum FaceBook page.

I think this is such a perfect examples of the problems we have in S.E. that the city seem unable or unwilling to go after.

Patriarca12 | Wikimedia Commons

First there came the Roanoke City Market Building project, a multimillion dollar rehab of the market area’s jewel. While it was underway, the market area was a mess.

Depending on your perspective, that either vastly improved the aging food court or it robbed the place of its character and soul. It pushed out some longtime and popular tenants, but now we have some new (and good) ones.

During that came an underground gas lines upgrade. That discouraged even more foot and car traffic for awhile, adding greater hiccups and stress to Market Area businesses and vendors.

Next came the Center in the Square project. That building has been mostly empty since 2011, and the work there has pushed around a bunch of the market’s indoor and outdoor tenants. It should be done by May.

With all they’ve had to put up with in recent years, the business folk who rely on the market for their livelihoods have been eagerly awaiting the end to 2-1/2 years of disruptions. But they’re finding out finality can be an elusive thing.

Now another project’s on the horizon, with a new scope and schedule that will exacerbate the disruptions and drag the work out for even longer, during spring and early summer, their high season.

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.