Mayor confirms: No stock holdings, little disposable income
Lakewood Mayor Edward O. FitzGerald, whose 2009 base salary is $71,506, commented on LakewoodBuzz.com regarding his financial disclosure filing. Here’s an excerpt:
First, Lakewood public officials can accept gifts, and many local officials do. I’ve been offered numerous things, from golf outings to tickets to sporting events from people with interest in getting business from the city. I’ve just chosen to decline them. I had the same policy during nine years as a councilman.
Second, I don’t have a fiduciary role in any law firm. My status with my legal practice is that I am “of counsel.” That means I have an office there, but I don’t receive a salary, I don’t get any percentage of the profits, and I’m not an officer of the firm. I performed less than 40 hours of legal work on a contract basis for all of 2008, and none so far in 2009. Like all previous mayors that I know of, I still have some outside employment, which I maintain basically to keep my law license up for when my political career ends and I still have a family to help support.
I didn’t list any investments because I don’t have any. I don’t own any stock, I don’t have a mutual fund, I don’t own rental property, I don’t have a 401k…and with four kids and an old house, frankly, I just don’t have much disposable income. Mr. Summers, who is a great councilman, happens to be the CEO of a family business, and is in a much different position than me. I could earn more if I practiced law full time, but we’re doing okay on my salary plus what my wife makes as a nutrition director for a school system, so I have no complaints. There are alot of people with alot less.
I do have a public employee pension, from my years as a prosecutor, and now as a city employee. That’s basically it for my retirement plan. My oldest son will start college in a couple years, and like alot of parents, I don’t even want to think about what happens if he doesn’t get a good scholarship.
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