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Rebecca McClellan, Centennial City Councilmember, Ward III of Centennial writes:

"Ask First Centennial” does not make sense for our city.
As a City Council Member in Centennial, I’d like to share my perspective on the matter of “Ask First Centennial." This editorial is not written on behalf of the City of Centennial, or on behalf of any other elected official. When the Centennial City Council was asked to pass “Ask First Centennial” as an ordinance, no elected official moved for its passage. That may be due in part to the fact that if one sees preventing the of withholding of union dues as a goal of “Ask First," the issue is moot in our city. Centennial is a contract city with no unionized employees.
If you’d been given the impression that “Ask First Centennial” would empower city employees to have greater control over their paychecks, you may want to be aware of some concerns. The plain language in "Ask First Centennial” could be interpreted to mean that our city employees wouldn’t be at liberty to make payroll deductions except as expressly allowed. For example, this may call into question their ability to make payroll deductions to a non-retirement brokerage account or to a child’s college savings fund.
We have one of the leanest city staff-to-citizen ratios in Colorado and even so, our salaries aren’t on the high side. Our staff provides excellent value for the dollar. Treating them as second class citizens by interfering with their paychecks raises concerns both moral and practical. How would this kind of governmental overreach?into the financial lives of city employees impact our ability to recruit and retain talented professionals who can best serve citizens?
If passed, "Ask First Centennial" would make payroll deductions to charitable organizations more challenging for city employees to make by requiring them to submit an additional written authorization annually. Unless you feel it’s in the city’s best interest to interfere with contributions to the Red Cross, the USO, or any other charitable organization, then "Ask First Centennial” is problematic in this regard.
Centennial’s tradition of respect for the tax dollar, and for the value of preventing governmental overreach is not best honored by “Ask First Centennial." The council’s unanimous absence of support for passage of an "Ask First Centennial” ordinance was in my opinion, consistent with Centennial’s best interests.

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

'If passed, "Ask First Centennial" would make payroll deductions to charitable organizations more challenging for city employees to make by requiring them to submit an additional written authorization annually'

First off, I'm amazed that people against union payroll deductions have had the integrity to apply it across the board. I applaud the Centennial group for doing that.
Second, what's so hideous about asking employees once a year whether they want to continue a payroll deduction? That sounds like common courtesy, rather than letting some outfit ride a gravy train.

Gobbly-Gook! I live in Centennial (Piney Creek). I would rather hear a speech about Mayor Pye's, "Sidewalks-to-Nowhere" program. I am amazed at the rip-out of perfectly good sidewalks, which were supposedly damaged by "home-owners snow shovels", during last winter's blizzards. Please don't hide behind the handicapped access sidewalk alterations. Until I'm shown otherwise, this "repair' initiative was just busy work (cash-cow) for Brannan, Inc., and their under-employed criminal illegal Mexican construction workers (housing construction downturn). Most of these sidewalks are under 23 years old. I have family members who have owned their homes for more than 40 years in Denver, and their sidewalks have never been replaced or repaired. My property taxes just jumped from $4.7K to $5.2K. A-nutter thing, folks in the "burbs" don't walk anywhere, and the only damage our sidewalks get, is damage from the "feet" of USPS employees. Very expensive "Pye-in-the-sky"!

I work for a major corporation and annually we have to resubmit our choices, both for health care & for charitable deductions. On the heath care side, no response to the email means "same as last year" - and barring a life change (you know the drill: marriage, divorce, birth, death) that choice cannot be changed for a year. On the charitable deduction side, we MUST respond - but it does take us to a website which allows us to simply click on 'submit' if we are not changing our choices (and we have MANY). This is not rocket science in an age where I am sure every city employee has access to a computer - and takes under 10 minutes a year. Perhaps the city should consider an email or a login to a specific site acceptable with the "e-signature" providing enough proof of the city employee's choice(s).

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