More events of today

After the events at the mall I took LuLu and Smiley to the library. You know all that poetic nostalgia I have for my time as an employee there?

Yeah, tempered a bit.

Today The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel  published an online database of every city employee's salary and financial benefits for 2007.

Naturally, I looked up the folks I know. I was shocked. There are some former co-workers of mine who still have the same position, and all of them have a minimum of 15 years on the job by now, and probably close to twenty.

Even with overtime, the average of the bunch was $25,000.

Wow.

Then I saw the name of my old supervisor. She's since been promoted and now stands two responsibility/pay levels above my old job. With a hefty chunk of overtime pay she just barely approaches what I made last year.

And for the record, I make diddly-poo by most standards.

So the moral of the story is: I guess you can't go home again, or the grass isn't greener, or whatever other platitude you choose to recite.

And feel free to sock anyone who says all city workers are overpaid.

But I guess I really did make the right choice in leaving the library ten years ago.

Huh. Will wonders never cease?

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One thing about that online database, and the criminal and civil court records available on the web, and the Department of Neighborhood Services reports, etc.

I understand they've always been open records, available to all.

But I think the web does a disservice by having it sit out there for all to see. If I want to know what Suzie Q makes for a living or when she was busted for meth, I should at least have to put forth the effort to go to the library or city hall to find out.

I think that physical distance weeds out the freaks and the peeping Tom's. If you go all that way to view the info, chances are you had a legitimate reason to do so.

And yes,  I'm guilty of pandering to the voyeristic nature of it too. But hypocrite or not, it isn't right.

* * *

Here's a shock. The city inspector came back today and out of the blue said "now don't go writing about this on Slapinons again."

Turns out he's read the site, and has possibly visited more than once. Oopsie. Small world.