Jan Pemberton's Observations on the March C.O.W. Meeting
March/05/2010 17:51
I always look forward to receiving Jan Pemberton’s synopsis of the key Shores meetings. I find her observations on the March Finance “Committee of the Whole” particularly insightful. As you can see from Jan’s recap, the current strategy of Mayor Cooper and his incumbent slate is to try to forestall taking any real action on our fiscal crisis, in hopes that the recall will go away. Not at this stage, Mayor! Over 500 Shores citizens have spoken.
Rather than empower Ted Kedzierski to grab the bull by the horns as the new finance chair, the incumbents’ game was to block the public town hall meeting Ted wanted to have for Shores residents. Why? The same reason that Mayor Cooper and former finance chair Brian Hunt did not want to have a blue ribbon advisory committee.They want to keep the grim fiscal facts away from both the public, and especially from those educated enough to render an honest opinion about where the Shores really stands.
Thanks, Jan for the great service you do for the Shores by sending out these meeting recaps!
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Neighbors,
The C.O.W. meeting was disappointing. The only "budget" that was presented was the General Fund. Of course, this is the fund which receives all incoming revenue until it's dispersed to the other budget areas. The marina budget was not presented...meaning the Bond was not taken into account at all...and this is going to be a real problem since 2011 is the year when not only the interest must be paid but the principle must be addressed as well.
Ted asked when the streets that were designated for repair would be worked on. Vick said that there was $200,000 still earmarked for roads but it wouldn't be spent until more revenues were collected. He spoke about the need to hold onto those funds - remember that's what part of that 1 mill increase was for - because the State was providing funds for Vernier/Lake Shore and we had to have money in reserve to collect that "windfall."
This is why there is no trust with this manager and the incumbents....there's a lot of money shifting around and touting of "temporary" surpluses between disbursements - kind of like "smoke and mirrors." Then Cooper, Boyce and Graziani spoke about having a separate mill increase just for roads...gee whiz, they said it was done in the past...maybe it should be done again. DO I HEAR TAX INCREASE? I felt that this entire meeting was a preparation for more taxes. I did not hear anything of substance with regard to any more cuts in the budget or reductions in non-union contracts/salaries, benefits, health plan, and fringe benefits.
Ted brought up his plan for a Town Hall Meeting on March 10th. Boyce jumped all over Ted saying she did not hear about it in advance, (guess over one week isn't long enough for her to "prepare" for such an event...and, quite frankly, there will never be enough time for her to do this - since Ted is the ONLY one with the ability, the knowledge and the expertise to provide the residents with the REAL facts and figures on this City - that is if Cooper and Vick will give Ted access to all financial records and data). Graziani and Vick said that this Town Hall meeting should be delayed until after the surveys are in and tabulated. Again, I think the incumbents are afraid of losing control of the information that is presented to the residents. And THEY do not have the ability to present the REAL facts, so, at such a Town Hall meeting, Ted would be the only recognized authority and source of facts and THIS just can't be allowed by any of the incumbents nor the city manager.
I'm sorry I was not prepared to respond to this during the Public Comment session. It was obvious that Graziani and Boyce were "prepared" to attack Ted and his idea to inform the public and present financial data - Cooper was quite controlled and silent during much of the discourse. Ted had informed all council members of his intent to hold this Town Hall in advance, so they had plenty of time to rehearse their "strategy" to make sure such an event DID NOT TAKE PLACE.
There was even a representative from Conyers office in attendance "discussing" OUR survey and this proposed Town Hall meeting. Tell me, HOW IN THE WORLD DID THIS WOMAN GET SUCH INFORMATION? She is NOT a City resident. Did Cooper call Conyer's and or Bledsoe's offices and plead for an intervention - to influence the coming recall election? One has to suspect something, as this woman droned on and on....and, by the way, I'm so pleased that the 3-minute limit is no longer an issue...because this woman certainly wasted all of our time with her lengthy presentation, and as I said, she wasn't a taxpayer - I hear she is planning to run for Martha Scott's position...look out GP....this is an audacious woman who thinks a lot of herself to intervene in a FINANCE meeting of this community....not a "normal" council meeting where this kind of presentation is sometimes at least "expected" - and hardly ever welcomed.
Again, I apologize to the residents of this community for not being "prepared" to speak out FOR Ted's Town Hall meeting - where all residents could come and ask any finance/budget question they wished and Ted would have all the facts, data for each and every resident to review and see for themselves. FINALLY, the residents could have had a chance to really confirm what a sorry financial state we have. Residents could even had asked which areas of the "total" budget could be reduced to have the most impact at city solvency and the least impact on resident services.
Dr. Rahi also spoke about keeping our present level of resident services foremost in mind...it's what a premium community is about! THEN, if the council (incumbents) wanted to hold a Town Hall meeting on the survey - to hear what residents think of it, and what the real dollar amounts would be pertaining to areas of the survey, they could have another Town Hall meeting. I saw this "put down" of Ted's Town Hall meeting by the manager and incumbents as a desperate attempt to make sure they retained control of all the facts and information...NOT Ted, our council's financial expert. I should have pointed out that these were two separate issues:
1) the finance facts of our city and
2) the survey
I do not run my life from deception, innuendoes, untruths...so, when I am bombarded by this kind of rhetoric, I am, quite frankly, stunned and slow "on the come back." AND I apologize for this, as members at that C.O.W. table had been well rehearsed and versed on exactly what to say in advance, and gang up on him to STOP his Town Hall meeting. Ted did say that he had informed the newspapers about such a meeting. It was to take place on March 10th at 7:00 at city hall - so, if it's still in the papers, I'm sure Ted will be there, in case some residents already placed it on their calendar and planned to come. That's just the way, Ted is...and what we want in members of our council - ACTION and ANSWERS with the residents....not dances with figures.
Another truly disappointing and disrespectful action by a resident was that of Alex DePetro. He used this Finance meeting to attack the recall website, Dr. Lee, and the facts and figures on the website. I spoke to DePetro after the meeting and told him that I was also a "stats" person and know that numbers can be manipulated to say whatever you want them to say....and if he had found some discrepancies on the recall website, why didn't he just call Dr. Lee, go for a coffee and "discuss" like a good neighbor the differences. Because when everything is done, WE ARE ALL NEIGHBORS, and should NEVER use a public meeting to criticize or speak poorly of a resident without that person in attendance - to at least give that neighbor a chance to rebut that attack. (You might recall that DePetro did this to John Booth, and fortunately, John was still at the council meeting to counter that attack.) DePetro needs to work at learning how to be a good neighbor - as I see a pattern in his behavior at a public forum. Cooper was heard to thank DePetro at the end of the meeting for coming...was this another "planned" oratory? I could not help but think so, since any discussion of the recall was not only out of line but inappropriate at THIS FINANCE MEETING!
Also, I would like to say a few things about the "Minturn Mailing." I didn't directly receive one, guess I'm neither a "Grosse Pointe Shores Friend" nor "Neighbor". When Minturn speaks of "net assets," he is talking about the property of the city...buildings, grounds, etc. These are not "cashable" assets...the property was given for city use by private residents...they are not disposable...and, quite frankly, to find out they are only worth $11 million is horrific...tells you how deep the property values of this area, this State have fallen....SHOCKING! Again, Minturn throws that figure out like that's cash in hand....and that's pure deception. And, he states that none of the city funds have a negative balance...of course they don't they are FUNDS.... until these funds are applied to our DEBTS/EXPENDITURES.... then the real fun begins.... for the "moment" taxes and revenue are collected.... and they are FUNDS until they go out - in 24 hours, in 3 days, in however long it takes to try and meet our debts....which we cannot do with the revenues that are collected....AGAIN, these are just a few examples of more "smoke and mirrors by Minturn."
Oh, by the way, you'll probably hear a lot of "positive" budget words in the newspapers....as Boyce told Ted to "admit" that the council has been financially responsible - with this "stand alone for the minute" General Fund surplus....(which would be projected to disappear to the tune of over $100,000-$600,000 in arrears by 2012, according to Vick's data and would place the city in arrears by over $500,000-$1 million by 2013 - in various "scenarios")...Ted did say that "we are headed in the right direction." To which we should remember is only because of the 2 new council members on the council - of which one is a financial EXPERT!
The next C.O.W. meeting will be on Tuesday, April 6th at 7:30 p.m. (a half hour later than usual) and Vick has stated that the entire budget would be ready for review then! I don't know about you, but I can hardly wait!
Dr. Jan Pemberton