Budget task force to be struck

By NATHAN TAYLOR, THE PACKET & TIMES January 12 2011
A mayor’s task force on the budget will immediately start work after it is formed at next week’s council meeting.
The task force was approved during a meeting last month, as part of a motion that halted the pre-budget and budget processes.
Coun. Michael Fogarty introduced the motion, which called for monthly reports from city departments.
At Monday’s council committee meeting, city manager Ian Brown suggested departmental briefings be held Feb. 8, 9 and 10.
“This would at least ensure that all senior staff are available and presumably that all members of council are available,” Brown said. “The downside of this is it is a lot of information in a short period of time.”
Councillors seemed to agree. “It seems to me we’re about to
fall down the same rabbit hole again. This to me is information overload,” Coun. Patrick Kehoe said, adding he wants as much information as he can get well in advance. “We’re not as likely to glean the information that’s necessary to achieve our objective.”
Coun. Don Jenkins sympathized with his Ward 1 colleague.
“But I also understand that the city staff have to set aside times,” he said.
Council committee agreed to reserve Feb. 8-10, but asked that the mayor’s task force meet to figure out the best dates and times.
“The task force is going to set the briefing schedule and make sure we’re on the same page,” Mayor Angelo Orsi said Tuesday. “We want to make sure that every councillor has the time… to digest it.”
With a May deadline for submitting the budget, Orsi is “not worried about time.”
“Hopefully, we can bring a budget that will be complimentary as far as not (hurting) the pocketbooks this year. That’s going to be our objective — to keep it at bay.”
Fogarty is also confident the deadline can be met. More than anything, he’s looking forward to a different approach to budget.
“We’ve been on autopilot for far too long,” he said of the annual prescribed meeting dates and predictable range of tax increases.
The new approach will see the new council brought up to speed on the history of the depar tments — how they became what they are today and “how they consume the budgets they are given,” Fogarty explained.
“The whole point of it is to have a real conversation, not just be preached at.”