SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori Monson agrees with Socialist City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant on issue

Jun 5, 2014, 10:53 AM | Updated: 2:40 pm

Dori Monson surprised his listeners by saying he agrees with Socialist Seattle City Councilwoman Ks...

Dori Monson surprised his listeners by saying he agrees with Socialist Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant on an issue. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Taken from The Dori Monson Show.

I am going to shock you because I am on the Seattle Socialist City Councilwoman, Kshama Sawant’s, side on an issue today.

That is the thing about me. I am obsessed with fairness. I evaluate every issue on its individual merits not so I can just blindly oppose somebody with whom I just generally disagree.

She’s right on this one. This is the one issue she’s right on.

The head of Seattle City Light, Jorge Carrasco, he is the highest paid City of Seattle employee. He makes $235,000 a year. But like all of the downtrodden in Seattle, he wants a raise.

With the raise being considered by the City Council, he could end up being paid up to $364,000. That would be a $129,000 raise for the guy that’s already the highest paid employee in Seattle.

KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz: We should pay workers based on the worth of their jobs. In this case, it seems worth the expense; in the case of minimum jobs, they’re not. Listen to the Jason Rantz Show

Kshama Sawant says it’s outrageous to give the highest paid worker in Seattle a $129,000 raise.

“We’re not talking about a minimum wage worker who needs $15 an hour. We’re talking about somebody who is being paid close to $240,000, which I think by any measure, regardless of where you fall on the ideological spectrum, mathematically, everybody would agree that’s not a hardship salary, very far from it.”

Regardless of where you are on the ideological spectrum, a Libertarian like me, or a Socialist like Sawant, we agree on this one. She is absolutely right.

While I’ve been very critical of her on a great number of issues, I’m happy to say she’s absolutely right and I appreciate having a voice on the inside who is speaking out against this nonsense.

“It’s not appropriate for the City Council to be approving this. I don’t think somebody who is being paid $250,000 would be underpaid by any measure,” said Sawant.

There was a committee vote on Wednesday though, and outside of Sawant, every other member of the committee voted to give this guy the gigantic raise. There were four on the committee. They voted 3 to 1 to give him the raise.

Now it will go to the full council for a vote on June 16. And if it was 3 to 1 in favor, the full council will approve it too. Unless, the people speak out.

Taken from Wednesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.

JS

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Dori Monson agrees with Socialist City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant on issue