What would you cut on the city/county level?

reply to post by Wyn Hawks

Originally posted by Wyn Hawks
...make it illegal (with a hefty fine) for businesses to hire "paper hangers" that trash up my front door with advertisements... its bad enough that 90% of my mail is junk but at least it is contained and out of view...

Agreed!! I also get ticked that they leave their stuff on my door when I have a "no soliciting" sign.

One cut I disagree with: Our city had a shuttle van that took people to/from hospital and medical appointments. It was scrapped and replaced by existing city bus service at $2.00 a ride.

$2.00 may not seem like a lot to you, but to the elderly and poor it is a big deal.

The schools spend way too much on admin. Scrap 50% of them, you'll never even notice they're gone.

~Remove those street cleaners. They come by with their machines ONCE a month to sweep the gutters. But encouraging neighbors to clean their little gardens/street areas help.

Municipal budgets in my county have been under stress for the last four or five years. Yet, these local governments keep buying expensive rolling stock (maintenance vehicles) and of course, no budget is too small, too constricted that a brand new SUV can't be bought for the personal and professional use of the Fire and Police chiefs...

reply to post by Afterthought


All public works projects that are not related to safety. No new parks, no new memorials, no more commuter trains. Kibosh it all.

Other than that, I would do what a corporation does. Bring the heads of the organizations and tell them all to cut 25-40% and if they can't do it, fire them and get someone in who can. You'll find something amazing happen. Folks will see where there are duplicative functions and negotiate with other groups to consolidate, folks will understand what their priorities are and pare back things that are not. They will break down processes and eliminate waste. Exempt the managers from having to deal with any issue with respect to unions and just cut 25-40%. What to do with the people who need to be cut? If they are non-union, just get rid of them. If they are, transfer them to a separate organization in a different facility/building and let the mayor/county executive/governor deal with them.

I transfered dozens of folks, union and union to what we formally called the "transition department" but that we informally called "the boneyard". You know what? Most of those folks found other work. They were given 6 months to do so and then they were given their walking papers. The issue in today's age is that dealing with employee issues takes an inordinant amount of time. Getting those folks out of the way so that you can actually manage to provide a function or service effectively with 30% few resources is a difficult task. Remove the people and let managers manage. The lawyers can deal with the employment law issues.

reply to post by AQuestion


Well, I took your advice and checked out the GFOA.
Wow! I'm amazed at the double speak on their website.

They talk about allowing citizens to assist in the financial recovery, but warn against invoking a "bunker mentality".

Broad, open-ended citizen engagement may prove counterproductive when it slows down the recovery. Focused citizen engagement, however, could prove valuable. Identify areas where citizen input would be helpful and consider using nimble engagement mechanisms, such as focus groups, to obtain input. Set the stage for citizen engagement in the recovery process by giving them an appreciation of the hard choices that must be made.

www.gfoa.org...

Then there's this:

The process of developing a plan also allows the organization to begin and/or practice the cultural and behavioral changes needed to reach financial sustainability.

Gotta love that word "sustainablility"!

Then, when you click on 'A Balanced Portfolio of Strategies', you read this:

Eggers recommends following a process to evaluate potential recovery strategies and select a limited, balanced grouping of the most promising. In his view, there are four justifications for eliminating a strategy from consideration:
•The strategy is not politically feasible
•The potential net savings aren’t large enough (Eggers cautions that potential savings are often overestimated and sometimes by a large margin)
•The savings are significant, but it has excessive negative side-effects over the long-term, either in terms of operations or finances.
•The savings are significant, but the strategy is not consistent with other strategies or larger considerations about the organization’s direction.

Then, there's this:

Generic treatments are applied in the earliest stages of the recovery process. Generic treatments provide some immediate stabilization and a sense that the situation is under control. This buys time for a methodical approach to financial recovery.

www.gfoa.org...

So, they're only at the stage where they want to portray a "sense" that things are being repaired so they can "buy time".

I encourage everyone to check this website out.
Homepage link: www.gfoa.org...

And just to really tick everyone off, here's the detailed plans for MANDATORY SOCIAL SECURITY COVERAGE FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES! So much for everyone else's social security being mandatory since Obama believes it's O.K. to threaten to withhold the little guys' checks.
www.gfoa.org... vernment%20Employees
Be sure to scroll down for Proposed Social Security Reforms, which says:

The future solvency of the system that millions will rely on depends on the willingness of federal lawmakers to exhibit the financial discipline necessary to ensure its stability.

Please read that again. Social Security depends upon the WILLINGNESS of FED lawmakers to have DISCIPLINE.
Well, with that being said - I guess we're screwed!

Thanks to AQuestion for beinging this entity to my attention.

I'm sure that there are many areas in which to make efficiency improvements to our city and county functions. The first thing I would do would be to consolidate all school districts in the county into one district with one superintendent, one board of directors etc... In the city I grew up in, we had at least five different independent school districts, each with their own hierarchy and accompanying expenses and that was just in our city of 250,000 residents, not to mention the rest of the county. What a waste.

Sports/bands/extracurricular activities from schools. My ISD in Texas has a over million dollar budget for the football team. If it doesn't pertain to putting knowledge in kids heads, CUT IT!

reply to post by kinnerarity


I agree that sports should be cut. Way too much emphasis is placed upon excelling in sports while the kids' grades slip. Plus, parents today get too worked up if their kid gets benched or the ref rules against them. Sports should be available for the city and kept out of the schools. My friend has his kid active in the city's football team. Nothing says that everyone else couldn't do this, too.

Band on the other hand, I don't agree that it should be cut. I think arts and music should be encouraged. Both are a form of self expression and can lead to expanding cultural values. Yet, this could also be placed into the public level as well like I mentioned with sports. I just don't see the pressure placed upon music like it is with sports. I never heard of anyone's grades being tweaked because the kid was such an amazing trumpet player.

I would shut down all public schools and require the kids to work in forced labor camps.
Stop all public transportation and make people ride horses or mules.
Close down all the jails and bring back public flogging and stocks.
Make all public employes work in just their underwear or naked depending on the job.
Free all the animals in the Zoo except for the emu.
Open the Land fill to public scavenging.

reply to post by whaaa


I didn't know someone could make Gold Level with such a sarcastic attitude! Good for you!

What does working naked have to do with anything? All it would do is clog up the court system with all the rape cases. Yeah, real smart. I can see it now:
Boss: Mrs. Jones. I need to speak to you in my office immediately.
Mrs. Jones: Can we leave the door open?
Boss: Get in here now or you're fired!

Excellent idea!

No more "training seminars" for three to four days up at "Breezy Point" Resort where you get fed buffet style three times a day, get entertained in the evenings and the county pays for your accomodations, reimburses you for gas mileage, etc... All trainings should be done at the worksite via videoconferencing and you feed yourself your lunch.

Originally posted by Afterthought
reply to post by whaaa

 

I didn't know someone could make Gold Level with such a sarcastic attitude! Good for you!

What makes you think I was being Sarcastic?

reply to post by Afterthought


While sports could be more effectively managed and the $1M price tag for the football team described above is outrageous, sports should not be cut. To the contrary, kids should be forced to play sports at some level, even if it is helping out on the sidelines. Having city-wide programs works at a select level, but those programs typically exclude many kids due to their selectivity. City-wide programs are also less convenient than simply letting the kid stick around at school for a bit to go to practice.

There are things that many kids learn playing quality youth sports that they simply don't learn any other place in society today. There are many young boys living without fathers today who only get positive male interaction when engaging in sports. This is especially the case in a time when there seems to be a real decline in the number of male teachers, at least in the younger grades. For some of these kids, the only male role models they get in their lives are in the media.

As far as the parents go, that is the coaches fault, without question. I've coached a ton of youth sports and have ejected parents from the stands under the threat of kicking their kid off the team if they are abusive to anyone, that includes players, refs, coaches or other spectators. I have kicked kids off teams because of their parents. Unfortunate, but it has to be done.

Youth sports would be one of the last things I would cut

Mosquito sprayers-I see two men in the trucks..why do they need two? Plus I freakin' HATE that crap. Once I happened to be outside while spraying truck went by and it was like someone sprayed hairspray right into my mouth and nose..

Street sweeping-huge waste where I live..there is hardly any trash or debris on the streets. Most of the time the homeowners sweep, wash, or pick up any trash.

water meter readers..

Idk what else but we could start with the three of these

reply to post by Afterthought

Schools only funded by the area that they reside in. Eliminate the Dept. of Ed.

Cut all pensions. Replace them with 401k's. All new employees should be switched to 401k's. and contribute what they want to.
That would be a great start.

Originally posted by whaaa
I would shut down all public schools and require the kids to work in forced labor camps.
Stop all public transportation and make people ride horses or mules.
Close down all the jails and bring back public flogging and stocks.
Make all public employes work in just their underwear or naked depending on the job.
Free all the animals in the Zoo except for the emu.
Open the Land fill to public scavenging.

edit on 16-7-2011 by whaaa because: todays code is 9

Free the EMU!

oh, and ban street lights.

reply to post by kinnerarity


You Texans sure do love your football.
Let the sports teams be self-sufficient, collect fees to operate as they do in leagues. Let the schools give them access to existing physical resources for free initially until they get going.

I would stop law enforcement from taking home vehicles, or using them for their own personal activities.

Tax payers should not have to pay for that expense. I also think county LEOs should live in the county that they are employed in.

Good Report