Time for a dialog

The next few months will be very important for the City of Marina. We have heard comments like this before but what happens in relation to our City’s budget over these months is critical to our future. Our City budget must be approved by the end of June which means we have three months to get it right.

We know that two years ago the citizens of Marina voted to tax themselves to maintain the current level of service within our community (Measures M & N). That successful vote cut our structural deficit in half. Since that time our City Council has done nothing to narrow the remaining gap with new revenue. As a result they will have several difficult decisions to make this budget cycle - mainly on the level of service we as citizens want and/or demand going forward.

This is the time to open a major public dialog within our community to define what we as citizens expect from our City government. Let’s be clear. This has to go well beyond our Police, Fire and Recreation services. This dialog must also include:  the services our Public Works department does to maintain our streets, parks and public facilities; our City’s Finance department; our Planning, and our Building departments.

It takes a lot of departments to run a City, regardless of its size - and that means people. Over the past few years the City of Marina has shed many of these people to the point where we are, by most estimates, at the bare minimum of service we can provide our citizens. If that is the case, what services must we cease to provide in the future?

If we as a community decide that we cannot eliminate any of the programs and services that are currently provided, then what steps are needed to properly fund them? What can, or must, our City Council do to shore up our City’s balance sheet to provide the services for all the citizens of Marina?

This is the dialog we must have from here. I for one will be very interested in hearing what you think and what services and/or level of service you want to see from your City. It is important to share these thoughts with our City officials because this budget cycle may well define what Marina looks like for years to come. So I urge you to write letters to the editor and to your Council members, go to City Council meetings, or simply talk to your Council members when you see them, and let them know how you feel. Now is the time for this dialog - not after the decisions are made.

More later