Smile While You Got Em

City Hall For A Change.

Went to the City Commission work meeting tonight; it started at 5:30 and ran a long time. The main point of discussion was the budget shortfall of $1 million dollars. The scary thing was that next year was projected to be worse. The people, who should know, the staff, were the ones saying it.

The plan to cover the budget deficit was to pay off half of it from what they prudently had set up. The Budget Stabilization Fund. I believe they left a million in it and pretty much swore not to touch it again. Kind of reminded me of the fifty times I quit smoking before I actually did.

The other ½ million in the deficit was made up of various department cuts in salary and manpower. While the police lost 3 neighborhood people, the only complaining that was done was by the Fire union guy who kept saying how unfair it was that three of (his) guys were getting a cut in pay of 10%. There were BTW a lot of other cuts to make up for the ½ million.

All the commissioners added to the lament of how they didn’t like any of the cuts; but in the end they bowed to the inevitable. I give them credit for that as they didn’t have to. Other cities don’t and are going bankrupt. Our Federal government certainly istn't. We because of it are still surviving with some cuts.

My Ward Commissioner Clara Sheppard proposed that the city finance a conference here of the league of cities. A cost of $5,000 was the cost. Pretty minor cost and it would bring in some money. However, the commissioners in effect said they would vote to ok the conference being here but not put any money towards it. After cutting some wages and laying off others and cutting the number of parks for our youth, the commissioners were in no mood to fund some other cities junkets.

I am always pleased as I watch Mayor Warmington conduct the business of the city. It is obvious who the mayor is. His demeanor is as even as mine would not be.

A friend of mine stood up at the end during other business and proposed that the City set up an ethics rule for Neighborhood associations; including the idea to not allow elected officials or married couples on the neighborhood boards, to reduce real or imagined conflict of interest and cronyism. This brought some heated discussion about the issue from Commissioner Spataro an elected official who is on the Nelson Neighborhood Association along with his wife.

This argument continued after the meeting I was told. Another Commissioner also let it be known at that time he also had a wife and they were on another board in another neighborhood. I was told he crumpled up our request and threw it away when talking to my friend.

One thing I think and that is she struck a nerve.

Where this will lead I don’t know. It did prick their interest when she told them we turned down $12,000 for our garden and are doing just fine without it. And that the fund facilitator is no longer facilitating that grant.

For correcting that, my friend deserves some back watching at the least. She won’t get a thank you from the city or the County Health of that I’m sure.

When I get more time we can take a romp through the bureaucratic negligence and arrogance behind all that. For now I have to get ready to get some sleep and have some teeth pulled tomorrow. I won’t be a happy blogger after that so look out. Fair warning. Lol

Regards, Smile while you got em. either way, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative