Well, here we go again! Our City Council has the duty to work
on and approve the 2012-13 annual budget between now and June 30th.
Let the games begin.
As part of the annual budget process the Interim City
Manager Doug Yount has provided a 20 page budget message. It is a well thought
out and detailed document that explains Marina’s overall financial situation,
our staffing issues and his recommendations for what he calls a “status quo”
budget.
What is even more important, Mr. Yount has asked the City
Council to review the level of services that the City provides its citizens.
This would include our police and fire protection, our recreational services
and our public works services such as pothole repair, building maintenance,
etc. If the Council decides to make cuts in the overall budget, he has asked
that they decide on what services they wish to eliminate.
The document is very clear that there is just no more excess
in the budget, and that any cuts made will directly affect the level of service
that the City can provide. The document is also very clear that our City staff
have been incredible stewards of our City’s funds. They have done their best to
save monies where possible. Unfortunately, some of these savings were due to a
lack of staffing that made it impossible to get some important things done in
key departments such as finance and planning.
Another part of the document outlines the importance of Measures
M & N to our City budget. It shows that the Citizens of Marina stepped up
to cut the City’s overall budget deficit in half by passing the measures in
2010. Unfortunately, this also means that our City Council majority has
essentially done nothing to narrow the revenue gap since then.
There will be a series of public meetings over the course of
June (June 9, 12, 13, 19 and possibly the 20th) to discuss the
budget and to hear your input. I would ask that you pay attention to the
process, add your input to the discussion and let your Council know what level
of service you want from your City.
There will be much discussion over the next month and I will
weigh in with some very specific ideas and solutions to our current situation.
One idea that needs to be a part of any discussion going forward is to consider
a two year budget cycle. We just simply do not have the staffing to stop everything
and take almost two full months every year to approve our budgets. A two year
cycle with 6 month updates will be far more efficient and allow our staff to
focus on the services the City needs to provide our citizens.
More later…
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