Yes, it does seem that her time as Wasilla mayor was not an unqualified success--and she's not exactly the model of a fiscal conservative.

1)   She said she was going to save the town money by cutting her own salary from $65,000 to $60,000. So she cut her salary as promised. However, then it turned out she could not in fact handle the job as mayor. So she hired a city manager--at $50,000.

So much for saving the town money.

2) Then of course there's the ice rink. She somehow neglected to get clear title to the property--so as a result Wasilla has had to pay over $1 million in negotiating it--needlessly--since she didn't take the obvious step of making sure of title before she started the process.


And of course hiring the contact to steer federal funds to Wasilla.