Dowagiac Resident Looks Into City Managers Contract

After reading in Wednesday's paper about the city manager's contract being extended, and some newer data about Dowagiac being found on the Internet, I thought I should share some of what I found. So here goes
The U.S. unemployment rate stands at 9.4 %
The Michigan unemployment rate stands at 11.7 %
The Cass County unemployment rate is 11.3%
The unemployment rate of Dowagiac stands at 11.4%
The median family income in the U.S. is $62,363
The median family income for the State of Michigan is $45,254
The median family income for Cass County is $45,799
The median family income for Dowagiac is $36,706
The poverty rate of the U.S. stands at 14.3%
The poverty rate of Michigan stands at 16.1%
The poverty rate in Cass County stands at 15.9%
The poverty rate in Dowagiac stands at 22.6%
There are 2757 total housing units in Dowagiac of those 438 or 18.3% are vacant
The lucky people who are employed are traveling an average of 20.2 minutes to work ,how far away from Dowagiac can you get in 20 minutes? So you see my point is this, These numbers arent the numbers that a successful City Manager should be proud of, and I think that the City Council should have did their homework before extending this over inflated contract. These numbers appear to me that someone must not be doing their job. On any job that I have ever had if I didnt do my assigned job correctly , I would have been fired not rewarded a contract extension. these numbers may not be up to the minute fresh but trust me you wouldnt want them any fresher. In case everyone doesnt know the City Manager now makes $154,776 or just over 4 times what the average FAMILY makes in Dowagiac.Just thought that this might open a few eyes of the residents.