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I applaud the finance committee for attempting to make cuts to the city’s budget but the problem is not backing up their ideas with good solid reasoning. Just saying a department needs to be cut isn’t showing fiduciary responsibility. It shows lack of understanding about the department and the operations of the city. The Westfield News reached out to Councilors Allie, Emmershy and Surprise for comment and Councilor Matthew Emmershy provided the following response:
This sounds exactly like a Councilor from before the vote. Most of the budget meetings were well attended. There were only 2 Councilors who failed to attended any of our meetings. The Finance meeting this past Tuesday was attended by 11 of the 13. This was when discussions took place over the reductions and why they were being recommended. In a few instances it is correct that we recommended reductions because 20 to 30+% increases are simply not sustainable, excluding one time cost pressures.
Councilor Surprise asked for detailed line item budgets. Some departments provided these details and we were able to have a much greater understanding of their spending. While other departments failed to provide additional information which would have given us a greater understanding of their cost structure. The vast majority of the reductions had lengthy discussions and reasons for why they were being presented.
The tuesday Finance meeting was a discussion of the 3 members for over 2.5 hours. To state that we did not back up our recommendations or provide solid reasoning is patently false. Unlike in years past, this Finance Committee had all of our meetings broadcast and they are available for review.
I would like to add that aside from Councilor Flaherty, none of the other Councilors were even able to recommend $1 in reductions. Chair Allie started referring to percentages of the line item and reduction percentages part way through the ‘workshop’ on Wednesday. The departments recommended for large reductions where done so, to invoke discussion by the whole Council, ie. Airport, IT, Schools. For instance; the fact that residents are subsidizing the airport by almost $450k because they have failed to raise revenue. For instance the $100k in increased landing fees that was identified as achievable by the airport manager.
The budget process is broken. The process needs to be reworked and Councilor Surprise has introduced motions to initiate this. In April we met to schedule department heads. The Mayor prohibited department heads from meeting with us until the complete budget was presented. Which did not happen until May 31st. I think the recordings will speak for themself.
It is about time the water bond got passed! Enough bickering of things we don’t yet know. Get the water filtered so that the folks on the north side can rest easy and be at peace knowing their water is safe.
