Remove ImagesFiscal ‘Conservatives’ Support DC Lobbyist
January 28, 2010
It looks like the new Greensboro City Council is going to discuss the budget this year, something it never got around to doing last year, but it also appears that the majority on the council is inclined to give in to every whim and fancy of the city staff.
After a presentation at the Tuesday, Jan. 26 City Council meeting on how an $11.2 million increase in revenue was going to be needed to balance the budget, and that a penny increase in the property tax rate raises $2.45 million, the council agreed to spend $80,000 to hire a federal lobbyist.
Councilmember Danny Thompson asked if the city wasn't already represented by Congressmen Howard Coble, Brad Miller and Mel Watt, as well as having Sen. Kay Hagan as a Greensboro resident and Sen. Richard Burr right next door in Winston-Salem. Still, Thompson supported the idea of spending tax dollars to pay someone in Washington, DC, to take people to lunch and try to get them to send more federal earmark money to Greensboro.
Councilmember Trudy Wade said she was opposed to the idea of hiring a lobbyist and asked some questions about the lobbyist that Greensboro has in Raleigh, Cam Cover. Last year most councilmembers learned for the first time that the city employs a lobbyist in Raleigh. Recently, in response to repeated questions from Councilmember Mary Rakestraw the council was finally told that the staff hides the money for the lobbyist in the city clerk's budget. The lobbyist, the council was told, works for the legal department.
Assistant City Manager Denise Turner at Tuesday's meeting said that Cover was not a lobbyist, which is very odd because last year she was and, according to staff, was doing important work lobbying for Greensboro, which is why the City Council was told they needed to keep her. That story has changed, and according to Turner she is not a lobbyist, which does raise the question of why Greensboro pays her.
It is surprising that even Mayor Bill Knight, who ran as a fiscal conservative, was all for spending an additional $80,000 for a Washington lobbyist, even after City Manager Rashad Young showed the council a chart with the figures of how much money in federal earmarks select cities in North Carolina had received. Without a lobbyist Greensboro had received more than most of the cities that had lobbyists, which might lead one to think that having a lobbyist was not necessary to get federal money.
This budget meeting had the same song and dance from the staff about raising taxes, but in the dire scenario that requires an estimated 4.5 cent property tax increase, the city budget estimates include a raise for all city employees and selling $96 million in bonds.
The city budget is so fat that if fiscal conservatives have really taken over the City Council they should be talking about a tax reduction. When Councilmember Robbie Perkins asked if they could take a tax reduction off the table, Wade said no.
Councilmembers Zack Matheny and Rakestraw both missed the meeting.
Last year the decision was made not to sell bonds until the economy improved, but Perkins convinced the council that construction prices were so low the city could get an $18 million aquatic facility for $12 million if the council acted right away. The council did and the cost of the aquatic center came in at $19 million. Wade pointed that out to Perkins when he tried to talk the same talk.
Thompson asked him, "How many times are you going to ride that pony?" Perhaps Perkins figured with four new members of the City Council he could play the same hand. But this group did get burned by the aquatic center minutes after it took the oath of office and has not forgotten it.
Perkins said the city needed to spend more on paving roads and noted a recent article in the daily newspaper. Looking at some of the unnecessary and inexplicable paving the city has done recently, it makes you wonder if they need more money or if they need to spend the money they have more wisely. Incidently, the worst roads are usually the ones the state is mandated to maintain.
Earlier in the day Knight noted that most other governmental bodies and just about all businesses have gone through a recent period of downsizing, but the City of Greensboro has not.
At the meeting, Young tried to explain the old "rolling hiring freeze" as a "modified hiring freeze" to the City Council, and it didn't make any more sense coming from Young than it did coming from former City Manager Mitch Johnson.
But the figures handed out by the staff show that this year there was an increase of 0.1 percent in personnel costs. There is supposed to be some kind of hiring freeze and city employees are not supposed to be getting raises, but personnel costs were up slightly, not down.
Maybe the City Council needs to institute a real hiring freeze. But balancing the budget without a tax increase looks pretty easy at this point.
The majority of the City Council did make it clear that they are not in favor of a tax increase. But the way this game is played is that now Young goes back to his staff and they find the cuts that will create the most political strife or programs that have the most political support and they suggest those cuts to balance the budget. Usually it involves cuts to the Police Department, Fire Department, garbage pickup or something else that will really affect the residents. Maybe Young has some Ohio twists to that game, but he seemed to be singing the same old song at the meeting.
A couple of easy cuts include the city's Planning Department. The management at city hall hasn't noticed, but there is not much building or development going on. Councilmembers might want to note that building inspection fees are down 30 percent from last year and last year was not a good year. The current Zoning Commission agenda has only three items on it, which is nothing.
Guilford County let almost its entire planning department go because of lack of work. Greensboro is still operating with a full house – the result is really stupid, time consuming stuff like the Downtown Design and Compatibility Manual and the Land Development Ordinance to rezone every piece of property in Greensboro.
The council could save a bundle of money by ordering both of those plans thrown in the trash and then cutting the staff down to what is necessary to handle the amount of work the city has right now. When the economy ramps back up, there are plenty of folks who need jobs who will be glad to work for the city.
The inspections department should fall under the same ax. If inspection fees are down 30 percent the staff should be down at least 30 percent.
The Minority and Women's Business Enterprise (MWBE) Department has primarily been responsible for certifying that businesses are minority or women-owned and operated. The certification process has been taken over by the state.
When the county took over tax collection for Greensboro, the city did not continue to employ the tax collectors it no longer needed. When the city and county combined the emergency dispatch service into Metro 911, the city did not continue to employ its own team of dispatchers, who had nothing to do. The state has taken over the primary function of the MWBE Department, yet the department is still fully staffed.
For many years the city operated with one assistant city manager, now the city has three. How could the city possibly operate with one, if it needs three?
This budget couldn't run down to the corner to buy a milkshake without having a heart attack. Young told the City Council that some of the cuts to balance the budget would be ugly, which sure sounds like he is playing the game.
Councilmember Dianne Bellamy-Small brought up longevity pay, which is more or less a bonus for employees who have been with the city a certain number of years. She was told it amounted to $3 million. Bellamy-Small is right. With unemployment over 10 percent, the city doesn't have to offer bonuses to keep long-term employees.
Budget and Evaluation Department Directory Larry Davis told the council that the city was experiencing some savings in personnel because when someone does retire or leave, their replacement is hired at a lower rate.
The council didn't talk about it because it is a personnel matter, but both Assistant City Manager Andy Scott and Planning Director Dick Hails have been placed on suspension, by Young.