Open letter to Council, CF Mayor:
I attended the “budget” meeting on September 3, as you
well know. Prior to attending that
meeting I visited the City website to look at the information under the Budget
tab. I found instead a PR piece that most
closely resembles a “State of the Union/City” and which ran to page 71 of 207
pages. Those first 71 pages focused on
showcasing recent initiatives or successes attributed to the current
Administration.
Make
no mistake about my comments. I do NOT object
to PR
postings, I support letting the
public know how Windcrest is progressing. Be
clear that I am not writing this letter to you to dispute the accuracy of
numbers or genesis of any success stories in the “Mayor’s Summary..”. I simply do not believe that presentation
belongs under the Budget tab, and the multiple pages of information did not
help me understand HOW the upcoming budget would fund the future prioritized
operations of this City (budgets being
forward thinking documents).
Please move the State of the Union/City briefing material
to a more appropriate site on the City web. Replace those 71 pages with one
page that clearly lists the priorities for the 2013-2014 budget (followed by all
the required legalese and 2013-2014 spreadsheets). Ensure that readers know
that priorities listed have been integrated into the 2013-2014 budget as proposed
and presented to the citizens on 3 September, and will again be presented on 9
September, 2013 in a public setting.
At the meeting on 3 September I had hoped to see some
briefing slides or perhaps even a couple of pages of handouts that would be
useful for citizens to understand and comment on WHY specific budget line items were being amended from 2013. Significant increases in line item
expenditures are due to increased emphasis (defined priorities), or expected
inflation. Tell citizens which applies.
I am working under the assumption that ALL of the Department Heads prepared
their section budgets based on their knowledge of what it was going to take to sufficiently
fund their department(s) operations in the coming fiscal year. Most often, such budgets are padded a bit,
but hopefully not egregiously so. I am also working under the assumption that
the City Manager has directed integration of the Department budgets into the
2013-2014 projections as a reflection of internal consistency with the wishes
of the Mayor and Council. Those
Department budgets are “signposts” on the road to a final budget.
I
was disappointed in not hearing and seeing the budget “vision” for 2013-14
articulated with priorities clearly set. I’ve seen the Mayor’s
“Future Vision” (page 40 of the 207 pages) on the website. Since not all actions cannot be equally
weighted, I’d hope to see (clearly stated in bullet form) the top three priorities from that “Future
Vision”, most important presented as #1. Such a format would allow the citizens
present, or watching, or who intend to participate on the 9th of
September to weigh how closely the priorities of the Mayor matches their own
needs and wants. I was also hoping to see those top 3 priorities from the “Vision” discussed
by the COUNCIL , with some dialogue as
to whether each COUNCIL MEMBER agrees with the priorities. I heard no such dialogue.
I
found 3 initiatives on the Mayor’s Future Vision (I
support the posted list pending learning how the list will be executed) which are
consistent with my personal priorities.
Additional police officers was the first bullet on the
Mayor’s list. My most basic need is one
of security. If I and my
property are not “safe”, then I won’t ever be comfortable in my environment and
will move as soon as possible to an environment that is “safe”. I’m willing to forgo a perfectly smooth
street, pretty parks with serviceable tennis courts, put up with a lack of
desirable retail shopping establishments and even willing to pay a high tax
rate if I believe I’m “safe”. In the
presence of a threat (which we know requires constant vigilance and “boots on
the ground” for patrolling) additional police officers gets my vote for the
number one priority for future funding.
Establishing a secure environment is the most basic task of responsible government,
and the foundation to quality of life in Windcrest. I would support a budget expense that ensures
our police force is not unduly constrained by short sighted financial
allocations.
The Mayor’s Future Vision also lists spending over $1 million
($1,320,000 in the 2014 budget) for maintenance and improvements to our
streets. That could fall under the second priority of Infrastructure
Improvements. Implementation of only the street portion of infrastructure
improvement will require significant funds transfer to the street CIP and needs
to be defended on it’s merit relative to other actions such as “Parade of
Homes” support or paying $38,000 for the “Light UP”.
The final priority in the top three taken from the
Mayor’s list could be Employee
Compensation and Retention.
Windcrest citizens don’t expect superior performance from inferior
employees. Philosophically, I reject compensation
for the general population of workers being raised by only 3% (admittedly
higher than a simple COLA) since 3% of $30,000 is only $900 (and that sum is
taxed) while the City Manager will benefit from over 18% boost in compensation
(see page 138 of 207 showing the City Manager receiving a raise of $17,385 [up
to $112,385 from the current base of $95,000]).
I do support pay for performance, and don’t begrudge the City Manager a reward for carrying out his
orders with dispatch. However, I don’t
believe that the QUALITY of the City
Manager’s performance can be defended as deserving a percentage increase in
compensation of more than 5 times the
percentage of the most deserving staff person’s in a lower level job. I anticipate many in this community will
share my reluctance to bestow such disproportionate largess on selected
individuals.
So Council Members, would you please articulate YOUR priorities for the 2013-2014 budget
at the next public meeting? Tell your
constituency what you believe should
receive significantly higher funding and
why, even if your opinion is not 100% consistent with that of the Mayor who has
already published his wish list.
Thank you for reading my letter.
I don’t need, nor really want individual replies. I watch what people do to ascertain their
motives and values rather than simply listening to what they say. I look forward to the coming meeting on
Monday to learn what YOU believe and
value.
Dennis Allen
No comments:
Post a Comment