Vision

The Marina City Council finally passed the City’s 2012-13 budgets this past week. On several levels it’s a good thing, especially since there were not any significant cuts that would further affect the level of service to our community. On the other hand, the budget was completely void of a vision for the future of our City.

As a result of the budget decisions, the City will maintain the status quo. This means we will remain understaffed in key areas, thus resulting in a continuation of our endless pothole battle, building maintenance deferred, and staff shortages in the key areas of Recreation, Finance, Planning, Engineering and Economic Development. In other words, there is no forward vision for our City.

The City simply cannot move forward with any conviction without a vision for the future. We need new revenues and new jobs- it’s as simple as that. The approved budget does not address these issues. The current Mayor expressly removed a new airport manager from the budget. This is a position critical to the development of the airport as an economic driver of jobs in Marina. The current Mayor also removed the funding for both the Development Services Director and an Economic Development manager, the key people responsible for bringing new businesses and jobs into the City.

While I am not advocating solving every issue out of one budget that is still drawing on our reserves, it does not get fixed without looking to the future and knowing what you want to accomplish. There are key areas that need attention now and others that need to be addressed as soon as possible. This budget did neither.

It’s been four years and we have yet to see a vision for Marina. So let me suggest a start. Let’s concentrate on growing our revenues now so that we can fully fund our core services first. By funding key personnel positions, we put the City in the best place to create new revenues and to move forward. We will then use these new revenues to find the permanent solutions needed for the future. It’s a simple vision, one that can be acted on now. It is a vision that will show results quickly and one that we can afford today. So let’s make it happen!

More later