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Alameda County, CA November 5, 2002 Election
Smart Voter

Vote No on Measure K!

By Lance Montauk

Candidate for Member, Board of Directors; Berkeley Unified School District

This information is provided by the candidate
Rebuttal to argument in favor of measure K by School Board Director ..... this measure would raise school board directors' salaries by 71%!
Candidate Montauk's Official Rebuttal to Measure K Argument by Director Selawsky (rejected by the City Clerk)

"School Board Director Selawsky's argument in favor of almost doubling his and his fellow Boardmembers' salaries would be more convincing if the District hadn't managed to
overspend its budget by several million dollars. As he points out, the complexities of managing a $90,000,000 budget are daunting - apparently so much so that, at today's compensation level, the present Boardmembers aren't up to the task. But, do we really think that by paying them more, the School District will run better?

Rewarding School Board Directors for leading the District into the middle of yet another financial crisis is like giving Enron and WorldCom CEO's a raise and stock options just before (or after?) their corporation goes belly up.

In reality, School Board Directors are striving to become full time professional politicians, who work at this job 100 hours a month and partially live off of its salary. If they truly just wanted administrative assistance, instead of money for their own income, then the ballot measure would provide funds for Board Member support staff, rather than making that optional at the Boardmember's sole discretion. Furthermore, this measure allows future pay raises without returning to ask the voters' permission, because it codifies indexing the Directors' salaries to inflation.

What is needed instead of professional School Board Members are citizens willing to volunteer their services at today's remuneration - or for no remuneration at all - to represent the philosophies of the Citizens of Berkeley on their School Board.

Sincerely yours,

Lance Montauk

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ca/alm Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 21, 2002 13:46
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