I hope that I am not the only person stunned by a suggestion made at Bellevue Council's meeting on Tuesday, but given the lack of horrified gasps in the room, that may very well be the case.

The issue under discussion was whether DPW supervisor Tony Barbarino should be the only noncontract employee in Bellevue to get a pay raise next year. Tony wondered whether the reason he may not get a raise might be personal on the part of some council members. The remainder of the borough's employees are probably wondering if the reason he may get a raise is personal on the part of some other council members.

That question loomed even larger when council president Kathy Coder offered to pay Barbarino a $1,000 bonus next year out of her own pocket, with contributions from people who lived on streets that have been paved in the past year.

Are there any horrified gasps yet? Read on.

Not only does this have to be illegal about six ways from Sunday, but the potential storylines that will flow from such an idea are mind boggling.

Want your street paved? Come up with the cash to pay the DPW supervisor a bonus. Your neighbors don't have that kind of cash? Wow, sorry, maybe you can come up with enough to get a pothole patched.

Want your street salted earlier? An extra pass by the street sweeper? Find a council member who will front a "bonus" for you!

Did Coder mean it this way? I don't believe so. I think she was trying to think outside the box and ended up falling over the edge.

Employee compensation has to be decided by council as a whole, and kept within the confines of the borough's salary ordinance. It's the only way to be fair, and it's the only way to protect both your employees and the borough from what the legal profession likes to refer to as "even the appearance of impropriety."

I don't believe either Coder or Barbarino would be influenced by an offer of cash from taxpayers or anyone else. If I did, I'd be screaming from the front page that they both needed to be sent packing. My headline this week would have read, "Council president proposes pay-off for DPW super."

But knowing both people, I can say very confidently that such is not the case. There are many other people, however, who won't see it that way. And there should never, ever be that kind of question in taxpayers' minds about their municipal officials.