last minute calculations
Process is process and budget is budget and ne’er the twain shall meet
Based on past sessions and behavior, AY PAC doesn’t really need to be at city council meetings to know how the final budget may well play out…
There will be meeting after meeting, both closed and open. City staff will have worked diligently to assemble the numbers, budgets will be public and plenty of time will be given to review and comment.
And yet, on the last day, when our city council gets ready to vote, we won’t be surprised (in fact we fully expect) that Mr. Murdock brings several last minute changes and line item shuffling to the proceedings. All of which will be voted on that last, very long and tiring night.
In this scenario, there is little chance that anyone will object because no one will know. No citizens will have public notice of his proposals because of his late-night-last-night-upload and last minute council votes. However, ALL residents do have to live with what is left afterwards.
Pete’s expediency is the new transparency?
Why do we expect this? Because AY PAC and the city have noted Mr. Murdock’s behavior and methods in the past. Just a few examples:
- His now infamous last-minute public transit proposal, voted on with no citizen notification after he spent ‘an entire weekend’ working on a resolution that would have cut Route 5 and restricted other routes.
- His resolution to add all subcommittees to the Open Meetings Act. Of course, he gave no notice or opportunity to 72 volunteer citizens directly impacted by that to voice an opinion before it was voted on the same night it was proposed.
- His closed Water Street Committee which includes no representation from Ward 1 in which it is situated and (now subject to the Open Meetings Act requirements has shockingly posted no meetings of this committee to AY PACs knowledge) has brought nothing to council nor has considered the Planning Commission proposals for that project.
There is more of course. It is this pattern of his that is the most distressing thing to AY PAC. We have commented on it before. Nevertheless, with police, fire and other sadly needed services on the chopping block, we are newly alarmed and worried.
We encourage citizens to attend the budget session meetings despite the fact that they are dry and somewhat boring. AY PAC asks city residents to read the budgets as they are proposed paying particular attention to the line items that you personally care about the most. Whether it is police and fire, parks maintenance, recreation facilities, city staffing, garbage collection, or anything else – if you care about it, look it up!
Most importantly, AY PAC will be watching city council and paying close attention to those last-minute budget proposals that do not get appropriate review and vetting by our residents, city staff and legal counsel.
posted by B. Bashert