By Curmudgeon
Two newspaper reports out this morning on the City Council budget meeting last night, at which the Council unanimously approved a budget for the coming fiscal year.
The first report, in the Standard-Examiner, dwells largely on the Council's including in the budget $75K to fund the "Colors of Success" anti-gang program for six months. The story provides some substantial detail about the program. The Std-Ex story also reports approval of $20K to study the financial problems of the Mt. Ogden Golf Course. And that the Council did not include money to pay for the Mayor's lobbyist for the next year. A spokesman for the Administration said it is exploring "other options" to pay for the contract the lobbyist has already signed with the Administration for the coming year. And the Council approved a 2% pay raise for city employees. The Std-Ex story said nothing about funding the ice tower.
The second story, in the Salt Lake Tribune, reports that the Council approved the compromise proposal for funding the ice tower, agreeing to a $100,000 subsidy. And the Trib noted that the $75K for the Colors of Success program was not in the proposed budget the Mayor sent to the Council.
Also from the Trib story:
One of the most substantial changes in the budget is the city's new approach to setting employee salaries. The council - acting on the recommendation of a committee of employees, department heads and council members - put an end to salary ladders and steps. From now on, employee salaries will be based on performance, and each job will be paid according to benchmarks set by comparing Ogden to 10 other cities. For the coming year, those employees not already topped in pay will get 2 percent raises. The city is also picking up the 9 percent increase in health insurance costs.Only one Ogden resident spoke at the meeting:
Only one resident spoke in the public hearing for the budget. Mitch Moyes argued that the city should put more money where its mouth is: into youth recreation programs emphasizing kayaking, mountain bike riding, and bouldering. "If our goal is to become the high adventure mecca of the world, then let's get our young people involved," said Moyes.Comments?
Update 6/11/08 8:08 a.m. MT: Councilwoman Jeske just posted a comment in the thread accompanying this article, indicating that the Salt Lake Tribune has misreported the council's action in re the ice tower. Whereas the Tribune reports that the council agreed to a $100 thousand contribution, Councilwoman Jeske advises that the council merely put the matter over for a budget hearing on June 24th, where the public will be invited to comment on the prospect of enacting a budget amendment to include $100,000 of carry-over funds from the FY2008 budget to be applied within the FY2009 budget to the ice tower.
6 comments:
Curm, in response to your question, Were any of these matters addressed in the budget just passed?
The Mayor and Council are well aware of the problems mentioned by Fireman Joe in the lower thread:
"Jeff-Is there anyone who showed up at Ouray this year still using equipment from the 70's?-didn't think so. The FAA laughed at the airports crash truck, its the same one that your brother worked on when he was here and no longer meets standards. We have other engines with broken frame welds and tanks that leak hundreds of gallons of water a day, stations that are crumbling. These problems along with many others in this city have been ignored for too many years-now we may be in too deep a hole to get out."
The Council recently paid some $53,000 far a independant audit by Citigate that brings to light all of those deficiencies in the fire department.
However, like said before, the Mayor wont spend a dime on fire department matters because of the firefighters lack of political support for the little vindictive sneak.
Playing with the publics safety so he can retaliate for the political support thrown to other more honest public safety candidates.
It pretty plain to see, popscicles, gondolas, handouts to cronys, nothing for basic services required by the city.
THe City wants to change merit pay to Pay for Performance. However the city will not committ to funding the pay portion of the system, they should just call it performance, maybe we will pay or maybe we wont. But do your job and meet all of the expectations we set forth so you can expect to recieve a reward for your hard work, then we will screw you as in the past by not funding the pay portion.
The Council DID NOT APPROVE the budget amendment that included the $100,000. for the ice tower! IT SET JUNE 24th FOR THE PUBLIC HEARING! You will have a chance to have a say about the City putting more money into the ice tower. Please read my post from the lower article thread to find out what the City has already spent on it -- $124K!
Fireman Joe and Another Humble Servant, I missed seeing you at the Council meeting. I did mention that due to Chief Mike Mathieu's hard work the Fire Dept. was awarded a Federal SAFER grant which provides funding for the three firefighter positions that were cut several years ago. This grant also calls for a commitment from the City to fund these positions as the grant money decreases over a 5-year period. I also stated that the Council was committed to addressing the other issues and needs of the Fire Dept. as identified in a management audit in 2007. The Council has set intents and expectations for future planning in the area of facilities rehabilitation and equipment replacement. We have talked with Fleet in obtaining new trucks for you. The Council is committed to supporting you. As you state "the hole is deep," and we are addressing your needs, but it can't be done overnight. The infrastrucue of the City has been ignored and neglected for years, which the broken water pipes prove, and we are addressing them. Just please be patient with us. We are trying to work around the obstacle we confront.
Councilwoman Jeske,
Thank you for your hard work on the Council and your support of Public Safety. I hope that I did not represent myself as accusing the council of in-action in regards to the condition of the Fire department. I know that the majority of the Council wants to and trys to do what is right.
But we all have a common foe in Mayor Godfrey. Its very hard to work with someone who is so short sighted, vindictive, and "sneaky".
Thank you again for the honest ways that you represent your constituents, I feel that as long as we have people like you on the council, the city some day will be much better place to live, work and play.
Keep up the good work, and you have 110% of my support when you run for re-election.
Councilwoman Jeske:
Thanks for the clarification --- which explains why the ice tower appropriation was not part of the SE story [which I found puzzling; now I understand]. Looks like this time, our Home Town Paper got the story right, and the SL Trib fumbled it.
And thanks too for the update on the Council's plans to address shortcomings in fire protection infrastructure, fleet, and personnel. And for digging up the information on how much the city has already put into the tower project.
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