Smash Cash

By Thornton Crowe

Good morning everyone. It has come to my attention that a very interesting arrangement has been instated at City Hall taxpayers should be made aware of as its a blatant misappropriation of your money. Instead of paying to have potholes in the roads fixed, adding lights to troubled intersections and solving the on-going dilemma of our fire department, Mayor Jake Day has a staff of six to do nothing but surf the internet for negative articles about him!

Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently, my sources from City Hall relay, there is a group of six employees dedicated to defusing negative press about the Mayor's initiatives. In an interview with the editor here on Salisbury News, it is one of the reasons why Albero chose to start moderating comments with more scrutiny because this so-called 'staff' writes in comments that either contained fake news to counter the original article or issue personal smears against him and his family. Childish use of time it would seem, these people are doing this on your dime, folks.

When an article was published a few months back about a brutal gang rape here in Salisbury that was only reported on SBYNEWS, Day himself took to Facebook, personally slamming the blog as "fake news" when in fact, Albero had proof of the incident. It seems Day will stop at nothing to keep his low-crime in Salisbury myth alive.

As taxpayers who work hard for your money, is this acceptable use of the City's tax revenue? How is this type of propaganda spinning really helping you, the resident? Is it making your lives better to be paying for this type of fodder?

Granted, having a (one) public relations person is always a given with any office dealing with news but a staff of 6? Even if they were paid a paltry $20K a year plus benefits salary each, that's $120K a year. What else could be done with this money to make your lives better instead of pumping up the Mayor for some future run for a higher office?

It is no secret that since his election, Day has re-organized the staff at City Hall; i.e. letting older vested people go so he could hire young people at a much cheaper rate; however, this goes far beyond acceptability for most voters who elected Day to improve the city not defend it's demise. Your money is being flagrantly wasted to the point of lunacy.

Here's a brilliant suggestion for the Mayor: Perhaps if you would bring forth meaningful initiatives that make your residents' lives better and our town more appealing for people to start small businesses, you wouldn't need a staff to deflect bad press about you! Why? Because there wouldn't be that much bad press in the first place if you were really doing your job properly!