The video abruptly begins with City Manager Jim Hock's report to the Council on the Financial Condition of the City (.pdf). Beyond the discussion of the City Manager's report, there is also discussion of the Treasurer's report, which does not appear to be part of the documentation available for review on the City's spanky new website. Though now we better understand where the Herald-Advocate reporter got her information for the simpleton report she wrote for this week's edition.
All in, it's another budget discussion cluster. But the PRU Crew has a new drinking game! We call it 'A Hard-on for Hynes' -- every time Mayor Schmidtzkrieg mentions the State's Comptroller, take a drink!
Further indexing of the video, as time allows -- no promises.
16 comments:
The Mayor thinks every group who gets services from the town for an event should have to pay.
I hope the Mayor gives notice to the American Legion Post 247 & Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3579 about this idea of his.
They should have to pay for the services they get when they hold the Memorial Day Parade.
I guess the Mayor doesn't think Veterans who want to honor their fallen brothers and those who gave their lives in the cause of freedom have paid enough.
>>I guess the Mayor doesn't think <<
...pretty much covers this. Most unfortunately...he's not the only one.
Smoetimes I like to play around with numbers. It tends to really put things in perspective. The city OK'd 190K for community groups, right? There are approximately 14 thousand house holds in PR. I know that does not jib perfectly with the number of taxpayers but it will do for this example. That is 13.50 per house hold per year!!!!! I went lunch with my daughter at Wally's and spent more.
Anon 2:29
Not to mention that the City of Park Ridge is around 13% of the total property tax bill.
Not to say in any way that all tax dollars shouldn't be watched, but the amount of time being spent on this paltry sum is ludicrous. Rest assured this is not about $190,000. This is about a small group of individuals pontificating on the role of government. All fine I guess, except for the fact that we elected these guys (note guys only) to be the fiduciaries over our tax money, not re-invent the direction of government while Rome burns.
Anon 1:12
Do Legion Post 247 and VFW Post 3579 generate revenue from the Memorial Day parade? Does the City give them money to operate? Or is an apple and orange all the same to you?
Anon 3:35
"Fiduciaries" are supposed to spend our money with as much or more responsibility and care than they spend their own. I don't see that happening with this Clowncil.
Anon 3:38
Did you bother to listen to what Mayor Dave said?
His exact words were:
Quote- Any time an organization or an entity is using the city's Police or Public works employees they should be paying the city for that expense and that includes everybody including the Taste of Park Ridge. -end quote
Mayor Dave did not say anything about if they generate revenue. Maybe you should talk to Mayor Dave about apples and oranges because it looks like they're all the same to him.
...:::snork:::...DipSchmidt was playing to his two "handlers" seated in the back of the room...
Or...maybe DipSchmidt IS as thoughtless as his statement makes him sound...?
3:35:
Well stated!!
It is so funny to me all this focus and statements by the Mayor. Are you telling me that the rest of the budget is soooooo freakin' "lean" that this is all they can focus on?? Are you telling me that there is not money to be trimmed from all the contracts the city has with outside vendors??
But all the talk is about a relatively small amount that is given to organizations that are helping people. Good lord, I can almost see the authors on the other blog sneering and twisting their mustache when discussing the senior center .
3:58:
I would like the Mayor to present the bill to the people who work so hard on Anelise's Run at a city council meeting. Do you think they will video tape that??? We could run it over and over!! I will make the popcorn!!!!!
This stuff about city works and revenue is tough to define. The footbal games at Maine South charge admission and use traffic control and on-site police. Analisa's Run uses city services and generates revenue, but I would bet that most don't want them to pay. The VFW may get donations in association with the parade, and I would bet they have an uptick in hall revenue on parade day. I would also bet most aren't interested in charging them for the parade.
If you want to charge for city services, that's fine, but be careful how you word the ordinance. You may catch a few dolphins in your tuna net. . . . Or simply forget about appearing like you want reimbursement from everyone and deal with it on a case by case basis. There are few enough events in this city to make the call on each unique one.
So I just got home from the charity run this morning. Now if one was not careful they could really get sucked in!! I mean all these people (families) enjoying a beautiful morning, seeing friends and neighbors, exercising and helping others, but I was not sucked in!!! What this really was was a terrible waist of tax payer dollars. I hope the Mayor presents them with a bill at the next COW meeting!!!!!
*HICCUP* Tomorrow I'll have a Hangover for Huynes.
Can anyone here make sense of this for me? The State's Comptroller is reporting the numbers are down then how can Park Ridge not be down like the Mayor asked? I did listen to the Manager's answer but I don't understand it.
Where's the video for the other meeting after this one?
Anon@10:59 --
We wish we knew. We were hoping at least the audio would be posted by now.
Anon@9:29 --
In the same way it is possible for the sun to be shining at O'Hare while it rains in Cairo.
The State's Comptroller reports State-wide receipts and payments, which does not necessarily correspond to what is taking place locally.
Another example of how State-wide reports can be more grim than the local picture is in the area of unemployment -- there was a recent article in one of the local rags about the State's overall unemployment level vs. local community's unemployment levels.
To further illustrate the disparity between State figures and Park Ridge figures -- the not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the State in May 2010 was 10.0% and for June 2010 it was 10.6%. However, in Park Ridge the not seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for May and June 2010 were 7.6% and 7.8%, respectively.
To even further illustrate and confuse the picture -- the State's seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for May and June 2010 were 10.8% and 10.4%, respectively.
So, which "trend" should you believe? According to a quote in the the press article referenced above, "The immediacy of monthly data as it trickles up or down does not overshadow the long-term trends that show our state moving in the right direction," Maureen O'Donnell, director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security, stated."
We believe the same general principle applies to Municipal revenue collections, only more so. And why we said in an earlier post, "We would strongly urge some local alarmists to learn the difference between State and local revenues and collections."
You didn't ask, but we feel it may be worth an attempt to explain why we found Ms. Lazarra's and another Herald-Advocate article to be rather simpleton in their presentation --
If you've ever been employed under the condition of a draw salary with bonuses attached to sales performances it may be easier to understand.
You draw a base salary of, say, $50K per year but your sales bonus for last year was another $50K, making your total income $100K for the year.
Now, if you take your coming year's base of $50K, review the sales in your pipeline and project another $50K in bonus for the coming year, you will expect to earn another $100K for the coming year.
Except, as some sales people know, deals need to be worked and warmed before they come to fruition. So, historically, you may not close the bulk of your deals until the second and or third quarters of the year.
But if you take your projected income of $100K for the year and divide it by 4 -- as in 4 quarters -- your first quarter earnings would be projected to be $25K. But you haven't closed any deals, so you've only drawn one quarter of your base salary of $12,500 for the year. Your first quarter income is 50% less than projections! Time to panic, right?
Wrong.
The above simple approach fails to account for the seasonality of your sales.
All that being said, we again strongly urge all interested parties to keep a keen eye on the budget, and the ebb and flow of the revenue and expenses, especially as to how those numbers stack up against this year's projections.
ParkRidgeUnderground,
Thank you for trying to explain it. I will have to read it a few more times before I think I understand it, if I ever do.
Thanks for the explanation,
I for one totally understand it and am glad you put the example out there.
I must admit when I read it I let out a little >sigh< mumbling to myself... "exactly!"
I hope more people grasp it.
Have a nice day.
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