Letters to the Editor: What is the price Ottawa Impact is costing us?
What is the price Ottawa Impact is costing us?
I have watched the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meetings go from well-organized and informative, to chaotic and unorganized, although there is an agenda. In fact, the norm was 2.5 hours to conduct county business. The former primary and deputy county administrators along with the county attorney were quite well organized to advise the former sitting board on the pros and cons of any agenda item. That was their job.
That economy and efficiency evaporated on Jan. 3 with the unvetted hiring of John Gibbs and the Kallman Law Group, I have watched how Gibbs and Jack Jordan seem to have a real disconnect with each other. Case in point, the HR policy changes. Gibbs insisted they had been reviewed, but Jordan more review was needed due to legalities.
Another case in point was the Dec. 12 meeting. It looks as though Gibbs and Jordan did not do their job on the 123Net contract. Why was it necessary to have the full board review the entire contract? That really is not their job. That meeting was nearly seven hours.
Gibbs was nominated to be director of the office of personnel management, which oversees the federal workforce of about 2.1 million employees and acts as the executive branch's human resource function. During a September 2020 confirmation hearing before the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, senators in both parties expressed concerns about Gibbs' fitness to hold office. My question is why you would hire a law firm with no municipal law experience and a county administrator who is showing he is truly underqualified for this job? In the final analysis, it is costing Ottawa County taxpayers fiscally and emotionally.
Nancy Pochron
Georgetown Township
Don't mess with the tipped wage system
There is currently a fight in front of the Michigan Supreme Court that would do away with the tipped wage credit in Michigan. This would essentially force servers and bartenders, and other tip-based jobs, up to the standard minimum wage level.
As a person who has chosen the service industry for my entire adult life, I want nothing to do with this.
I’m trying to imagine who brought this up because I don’t know any servers who are complaining about how we earn our money. Right now, we give hospitality and service. If you give us a flat wage of $15 an hour, you’re going to get less service and less hospitality.
From my experiences in the industry, people will tip less or completely stop once they know I’m making more in my paycheck.
Worse yet, will I even have a job anymore if the court kills the tipped wage system for restaurant servers and bartenders? The profit margins for a restaurant are SLIM. Anybody who’s been in this industry knows it’s only a few percent. If you require an owner to pay everyone $15 an hour, I will lose half of my coworkers. They won’t have jobs anymore. I may not have a job anymore. Restaurants that are not shrewd business managers will fold up. This coming after we have barely recovered from COVID as it is.
It is risky for servers to even speak out about the possibility of losing our current server/diner relationship. I recently spoke to the media regarding this issue and we saw our tips decrease for the next three weeks. Some customers, including the regulars who come to me for top notch service and a relaxing time, mentioned that they heard servers and bartenders are now getting the full minimum wage. I had to explain that the courts may force us to accept that pay, but we did not ask for this attempted change to the tipping system. We don’t want it.
I returned to serving because it is what I wanted to do. It was best for me. This is a job where I could put my kids on the bus and take care of my family. I could be there for my family and still make a livable wage to support my household.
If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
Tracy Bolman
Holland
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Letters to the Editor: What is the price Ottawa Impact is costing us?
