The city council has 4 standing committees. One of those committees is Finance and Budget. The members of the Finance and Budget committee are the 2nd ward's Lord of the Manor, Rich DiPietro - committee chairman, the 5th ward's Benedict-Alderman, Robert Ryan, and the 6th ward's Unfriendly Ghost, Tom Carey. Yeah, we know - not a promising line up.
The Finance and Budget committee is supposed to consider policy questions about revenue, expenses, and appropriations, generally.
It is with great pleasure that we report, so far this line up of aldermopes has not been able to do a lot of damage to city policy as it relates to city finances and the city budget. The reason is, they've scheduled 10* meetings since last June and they have canceled 5 of them - more than half of all their scheduled meetings; this means, cumulatively, the Finance and Budget committee has met less than once per month since having been convened. They didn't meet at all in August, only once in September, and tonight's first October meeting has also been canceled.
Still, we wonder who is minding the city's finance and budget store. Since it is the Finance and Budget committee that is supposed to keep track of account reporting and dialogue with staff, we wonder who's been doing that. Providing oversight to the city finances and budget is one of the most important functions of a city council. We aren't impressed with the lack of public discussion taking place regarding contingency fund expenditures, the debts owed to the general operating fund, and the city's overall $48.5 million dollars of debt.
We sure do hope the Lord of the Manor is paying attention, because his won't be the only ass that could get bitten by something that creeps up from behind.
*correction* Our thanks to a keen eyed reader who let us know that we missed counting one of the Fin./Bud. meetings. On Oct. 1st, the Fin./Bud. committee met for 15 minutes prior to the city council meeting that evening. They met to formally give committee approval to two action items on the city council agenda that evening: 1) a contract extension and 2) payments to Vistara Construction.
October 9, 2007
Lesson #1: Pay Attention!
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4 comments:
Some people opposed Mayor Frimark's cut-the-council referendum by arguing that there would be too much work for only 7 alderpeople - but DiPi, Ryan and Carey sure are proving them wrong, aren't they! And why should those three waste their time worrying about a $48.5 million budget when they can spend it finding ways to give Mayor Howard's campaign contributor variances from our zoning laws so they can stuff some extra units into the Executive Office Plaza that they can sell for a few more million$?
Have the members of that committee given any explanation of why they have been cancelling meetings? Is there really nothing to do, or are they just derelict in their duty?
Is there a rule about how many times they have to be meeting?
We are unaware of any reasons having been offered for why the Finance and Budget committee has canceled more than 1/2 of their meetings. We count this as a mixed blessing.
There is not a rule for the number of meetings the Finance and Budget committee must hold. However, there is a budget schedule that must be met. The committee should be providing oversight of the preparations that should be being conducted by city staff at this time.
The city council has recently been discussing added expenditures for unbudgeted programs. The Finance and Budget committee is supposed to review the fiscal feasibility of those kinds of issues.
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