Welcome to my world

Just so you know: Jeffrey Alan Savitskie. JAS – pronounced “jazz.” I’ve lived in Potsdam for at least a decade before there were blogs. I only recently found out that blog is short for Web log. I still am not clear on what that means, but I was asked to write one. So I sought guidance from a friend at a paper in Michigan. Here’s what he told me:

JAS: I don't really know what a blog is, even though I've been doing it for a couple years. I write whatever I feel like. Blogs are supposed to have links to other Web sites, I think, so I try to do some of that.

I assume writers are supposed to be edgier online, so sometimes I throw things in that would never make the paper. You know, like “ass.” Good luck. BSF

I figure I can do that. Writing what I feel like may be the easiest assignment I’ve been given in my nearly 25 years working at newspapers.

I could write about the elected goofballs on the Potsdam village board who pretty much scoffed at a fellow trustee’s suggestion that municipal workers should start contributing to the health care plan now fully funded by taxpayers. http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20090407/NEWS05/304079956

It isn’t like Trustee Steven W. Yurgartis was reinventing the wheel when he made the suggestion. Workers contribute to their health care plans at lots of companies in the real world. And workers are being asked to contribute more each year as health care costs rise and the economy tanks. Ask anyone who works at the Watertown Daily Times.

So Steve’s idea seemed pretty reasonable to me. Not so much to Mayor Ron Tischler or trustees Ruth Garner or George Regan. They apparently don’t want to balance the budget on the backs of employees. I guess they think the taxpayers have strong enough backs to keep carrying the load. A load that includes – to the tune of $35,000 a year each – coverage for those three officials.

I am thinking these elected goofballs missed a chance at gaining some political good will across the board. In making their stand for the workers, they might have at least thrown me – the taxpayer – a bone. Something like, “I know it won’t mean much, and I do want to protect our workers, but I’d surely consider having elected officials contribute a little bit to the plan.”

That’s what Steve asked them to do ... or at least say. There are unions and contracts and all sorts of stuff to stop them from making any meaningful changes on a grand scale without lots of work. But the gesture he asked for would have been easy. And smart. And the right thing to do.

But what do I know? I am just a guy with a blog. What would I have written about today if they had done the right thing and agree to absorb some of the costs of health care? Maybe I would have written that they did the right thing – like Steve and trustee Abby Lee did recently by giving back some of their salaries in a symbolic gesture that they have the interests of taxpayers in mind.

Then again, as I understand the rules here, I could have written about anything I felt like ... as long as I included a link to somewhere else and – oh my, I totally forgot – made it edgy. I guess I’ll save edgy for next time.