City Council Election

What do the recent council election results tell us?

In this single party controlled city council, members cannot say in all honesty that the people have spoken or that they represent the majority of the residents. They can only say their party has spoken and even saying that is ambiguous when eighty two percent of registered voters stayed home. One incumbent member was reelected by winning less than 14% of his wards possible votes. That is hardly a mandate. This being the case, a special burden is placed on the elected members. In my opinion they should reach beyond personal and political beliefs when considering legislation affecting all of the people.

In any case it is what is.

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Council members of the more conservative wing of the ruling party have often stated that the city has a spending problem and not a revenue problem I would posit that we had both back in 2010 but through much budget cutting and trimming the spending part has been pretty much solved. That leaves the revenue problem that has been exacerbated by significant reductions in revenue sharing from the state, loss of the estate tax, stagnant income and property tax receipts. Another threat to revenue is looming in the state legislature as they plan to force de facto income tax reductions on the cities.

The problem with focusing only on the spending side is that we are forcing the city work force to carry the majority of the burden of austerity while we residents get a short term free ride.

A couple of examples:

Who are the hardest working city employees that toil in the early hours of rainy, windy and wintery days? If you think it's our trash collectors you are right. We set out trash, yard waste, tree limbs, recyclables and even bedding in the evening and voila, the next morning it's gone. Every week of the year.

Tell the collector that was hired in 2008 for $13.63 an hour and now makes an adjusted $12 an hour that he is responsible the city's budget woes.

Michelle Horner who works in the building and zoning department was hired as an assistant in 2009 for $13.66 per hour. Since that time she has taken over many of the duties of the former building official who was making almost $40.00 per hour. Michelle is now making an adjusted 12.30 per hour for her part in making a significant reduction in the spending side.

As I have opined on several occasions, the voters should be given a choice in the revenue issue. The best measure of the voters thinking is for the council to offer a non partisan – non council sponsored property tax levy choice in next spring's primary.

I ask the conservative wing of council, what possible objection could they have to letting the underrepresented residents make the decision to tax themselves a few dollars a month to prevent an exodus of experienced city workers as the economy recovers.