"McBride authorizes $118,000 to City Clerk as a Consultant and plans to add $58,000"

CALL TO ACTION: City Council Meeting February 26th, 2024 7pm 4th Floor County City Building (attend virtually here: http://tinyurl.com/SBCC022624 )

In recent reports, Sharon McBride, South Bend Common Council President and Director of Ducomb Center, paid her mother $105,000 as a cook at the Ducomb Center. It has also come to light that she, along with Sheila Niezgodski, arranged to have the current City Clerk, Biana Tirado, paid $118,450 to be a consultant in the Clerk’s office before being elected, which was more than her mother was paid.

Ms. Tirado was paid by the Council to sit in and perform duties in the Clerk’s Office, which is a separate entity in the City Government. City Government has 3 branches; Mayor’s Administration, Common Council comprised of 9 council members and the City Clerk. All are separate under the State Statutes.

Example: The Mayor’s Office or the Clerk’s Office can’t hire a consultant out of their budget to go sit in on the Council operations. They are separate. Just as our national government has different branches, so does our local government.

Now they want to add an additional person to the Clerk’s Office for $58,000 for work that Ms. Tirado supposedly was to have completed as a consultant for the $118,450.

Currently, the Clerk has the following staff:

City Clerk for $80,000

Chief Deputy Clerk for $68,000

Administrative Assistant for $58,000

Deputy Director of Policy for $55,500

Director of Special Projects for $45,966

Public Relations Clerk for $10.10 per hour

There are 6 people to do the Council Minutes and record votes costing taxpayers $327,000.

Now they want to add an additional staff person at another $58,000. If we already pay $327,000 to record minutes and votes and now add an additional $58,000 that is $385,000 to take and post minutes, on top of the $118,450 they paid Ms. Tirado as a consultant for work that did not show up in the public area for minutes.

If you think enough is enough, please attend or use this link to attend virtually and speak against Item numbers #10-24 and # 12-24 during the public portion of the THIRD Reading. This is your only chance to save the taxpayers an additional $58,000 a year and ask them to explain what Ms. Tirado did for the $118,450.

Let your voice be heard.