"DO THE LOCOMOTION" grand funk rr
Talk about loco, our 2011 budget.
Wonder if theres anything in there to pay AMP-OHIO its money we owe.
Have to wonder if theres money for signs not to use Lexington Rd. this year?
Wonder if it has a balance sheet? Assets/ Liabilities?
Our administration is big on pie charts, along with power point budget presentations, telling council members its a flexible work in progress, then when someone votes against something they are reminded "You voted for the budget, this was in it"
Any one who would vote for this power point presentation must also believe in fairy tales. If you believe these budgets presented to council are self explanatory . Find a Painesville City Budget from 20 years ago and compare the two. Then tell me which one makes more sense?
While your looking at this years budget, tell me what's in it to improve the quality of life to the residents of Painesville? I'm curious if anyone finds something.
I believe this and the last few budget presentation are a waste of councils time.
posted by terminator1 @ 7:07 AM
39 Comments
39 Comments:
For a city with the size of budget Painesville has the city manager might as well use crayons. Nothing is explained and how many times do you read the words "other"?
where can I see a copy of the budget?
I SURE HOPE THE CITY COUNCIL HAS A DIFFERENT BUDGET TO PRESENT TO THE CITY MANAGER AFTER MONDAY;S WORK SHOP MEETING..... hada nuff...
My biggest problem with the budget is that there is really no way to read it to get an overall picture. The general fund is separate from (for the most part) the utilities. Someone mentioned pie charts....I would like to see just one pie chart that has a representative slice for each major section of the budget. I cannot see where we pay for outside legal representation or consulting; it's never really clear where and how much the money transferred from the state goes (and from the feds) AND grant money for specific projects. It is most definitely NOT a user-friendly document....The city manager may receive awards for her book-keeping and I asked around about that. Its not as big a deal as some would have you believe.
The basic accounting equation is:
Assets = Liabilities + Equity.
Everything falls into place on one side or the other and the two sides have to balance. I've gotten the feeling that it wasn't MEANT to be understood....and that's a real shame that residents/taxpayers can't get a straight answer on the state of our own budget. (Let alone how much money was committed in our name to deals, contracts etc...ex: AMP - Ohio)
Like any of you could understand Something so complex as a city government budget?
city council should support the purchase of the HARVEY HIGH SCHOOL property. this is a 'very, very, valuable piece of property in painesville. the PORT AUTHORITHY is trying to purchase it for LAHE ERIE COLLEGE. THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA. because, colleges, are starting to out-source their services. in the very near future, classes will be via- the internet. a recent dicussion on this topic, was on C-SPAN, THIS WEEK. A CONCERNED CITIZEN FOR PAINESVILLE'S FUTURE.
I have said previously on this blog that when such huge sums of money come in to play, especially in the form of some of these grants and doing things that don't make sense, like tearing down a hospital for someone that has just dumped our sorry behinds and moved to another city, etc., it just makes me wonder where EVERY dollar goes. Know what I mean? We have a city where many of the people do not trust the people in charge (for very good reasons I might add), and then we have all this going on (owing AMP millions, for example), and the BUDGET is not even clear to people. This just all makes me very uneasy, and I don't think that I am the only one, by any means. I think before they hand out awards for budgets, they should do audits to make sure that everything adds up, and that we know where EVERY dollar went.
12:32 The last thing the city manager or those that run the city want you to know is how much they have sunk in a project, or how many times they have "flipped" a loan or a note as she calls it. Wonder how much cash we have sunk in Diamond Business Center, or paid outside legal services? That could be one of the main reasons so many people in town think she's doing such a wonderful job. They just don't see all the numbers.
8:12 Who do you know anyone that is looking to buy that property? I could be wrong but the BOE would be holding onto that land for a long time. Ask them what about the property they own in between Skinner and North Ave. Who's idea was it to purchase that piece of land, and why?
Terms comment above.
The BOE has a mandated process by which they have to sell the property (if that's what they want to do with it) Just go to the 'Rumor Mill' on their site and e-mail Hanlon....he will give you his answer. What the Port Authority is doing mixed up in it I have no clue. I would think if Lake Erie College wants to buy it they wouldn't need a middle-man to do it.
Plow some more building down,more GRANTS or I MEAN HIGHER TAXES.
RITA
Maybe someone would ask councilman Flock if this is the reason he votes against the budget every year?Just maybe he really doesn't want to evaluate the city manager. chances are he was probably raised by his mother telling him if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.
Term 12:50: Yes - talking about refinancing and refinancing and refinancing. I don't think anything ever gets paid off in this city - everything just gets rolled over and/or refinanced and/or "flipped." If someone just researched THAT, it would be a shocking revelation.
Cracks me up-with what would the city or council purchase the Harvey property?
Everyone's B-R-O-K-E.If the city were to try this I can only imagine the flack for doing so.
And when the property sells, do ya think it will help the school budget? N-O. I dont buy that baloney that certain money MUST go to certain budgets either. Anyone with any business smarts knows money CAN be moved around, kind of like paying Peter to pay Paul. Its the same difference.
If Flock was raised with his mother telling him if he can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all, then too bad the rest of them weren't taught that if their friends jumped off a bridge (AMP-OHIO), it doesn't mean they have to jump off, too.
TO 1;36 AND 9;48 THIS IS 8;12 THE PORT AUTHORITY HAS MADE A OFFER LESS THAN 300,OOO DOLLAR'S TO PURCHASE THE OLD HARVEY HIGH SCHOOL LAND. the reason they are involved for LAKE ERIE COLLEGE a non-profit cannot purchase property from a non- profit. it's a legal manuever which is used. AS I MENTIONED IN MY POST 8;12 A VERY GOOD INVESTMENT FOR THE CITY COUNCIL TO APPROVE TO PURCHASE.
I HOPE COUNCIL ASK FOR MORE DETAIL ON OUR BUDGET monday nite i don't think we are close to being BROKE as 9;48 say,s the city has money. IF COUNCIL WOULD ASK FOR WHAT MAKE'S THE PIE SECTION'S all the monies in each section then they would have some understanding of the budget. MURPHY SAID AT THE LAST COUNCIL MEETING it was a good presentation of a budget HOWEVER IT SHOULD cBE COUNTER PROPOSED BY CITY COUNCIL. CONCERNED CITY RESIDENT.
I finally got a chance to watch the last council meeting on television. To say that I am shocked at what went on is a vast understatement. I'll give my take on it for anyone who missed it.
Councilman Flock's statement was truly wonderful. Fodor and Hada were disgusting. As far as DiNallo goes, I was grateful she voted "no" on the AMP deal, but I am sorry to say that she gave the second nod to get the discussion into a private session.
Councilman Flock gave a truly great outline of a lot of what has gone wrong in this city under McMahon's leadership with the help of her supporters on council. He gave a good history of the millions of dollars that McMahon and her gang have lost us in SEVERAL deals over the years.
As soon as he finished, Hada started vigorously lying. He told one lie after the other in quick succession, accusing Flock of voting yes on projects that he never did. Hada twisted truths and out and out lied. Not a surprise to me because I am aware of some of the lies he has told over the years, but watching it in full color right out in the open (he does a lot of his crap under cover, such as lying about people to keep them from winning elections), was shocking.
Kudos for Flock for defending himself over and over as Hada's lies continued. Don't mean to be condescending in any way to Flock, but I was proud of how strongly he stood up for himself and the citizens of Painesville.
As soon as Fodor saw that Andrew (Flock) was telling the truth and would not be silenced, he (Fodor) broke into the middle of the discussion and quickly asked for an executive (private) session so they could talk about PERSONNEL issues, which DIDN'T EVEN EXIST!
When he was told that no personnel issues existed (which I am sure he was well aware of), he quickly asked for an executive (private) session to discuss legal matters. He desperately wanted that all-important discussion that was finally taking place thanks to Flock, to be turned into a private session so the citizens of Painesville could not hear it.
Sickening. That is my reaction to Hada and Fodor. Sickening. Then DiNallo chimed in to finish the motion to get the discussion changed to a private session.
I would urge anyone who missed watching this meeting either in person or on TV, to watch it immediately. If you need a copy of it, then you can ask at City Hall for a video of it, I do believe. It may cost a couple of dollars, but this is a must-see. If anyone does not understand why people on this blog are fighting against McMahon and most of the people on council, then watching this meeting should explain a lot.
Shocking. Truly shocking.
Who did you upset now? tryed to get down chester and roadblocks, fire trucks, police cars utility trucks right in front of your house?
Feeling the love Term? Lots of tax dollars at work last night on your corner.
It seems a transformer decided to catch fire, burn and explode. PFD came to all surrounding homes and warned everyone.
When asked with Painesville Power on the scene what was the hold up?
It was explained to us with a shrug that the line and the transformer belonged to First Energy? To be truthful I might have been the only one not surprised that First Energy would be running power lines down Chester St.
Power restored around midnight.
Something tells me Painesville will not be footing the bill for this one.
Thanks to the strong showing of the "Tea Party" Our Hispanic citizen and non-citizens have formed a new movement the "Tequila Party" Think its a joke? Watch.
I heard while they were replacing the transformer they put up a camera to spy on Term!
Yes, make no doubt about it. The Hispanics are fighting just as hard to take over our country as we are to save it - actually they are fighting a lot harder than us - most Americans still think it's either not that big of a problem or that someone else will fight the fight for them. Good way to lose a battle, and make no mistake about it, this is a battle for our country.
Another thing that the Hispanics know that Americans are ignoring is that every year millions of the anchor babies become of legal age to vote. Very soon, they'll be able to take over our country THAT way. They are already big enough in numbers to sway elections. So they win if we do nothing, too. If we don't get them out very soon, it will be too late.
Term, You said "I have always believed in unions but what we have here in Painesville is a Monopoly that leaves residents no where to turn and most of the people in charge have spent their whole careers in one government job or another.">>
What the hell does that have anything to do with unions? Your statement is nonsensical!
2:47 How did we get over here? If you buy a product and the union prices that product out of your price range, [You can't sell a car to a guy making $10.00 per hr.if the guy building it is making
$30.00] You have options, you can buy another brand of car. Unions have a responsibility to make sure their members don't price themselves out of a job. Who do the city or school unions compete with? No-one. Look who make up your councils and boards along with administrators that have spent their working careers in this bureaucracy system along with no idea what happens in the real world. Do you believe Councilman Fodor, Hada, Werner,Fountain, will ever think that wages are out of line in Painesville? Same with the schools. They don't run it as a business they run it like a teenager wanting their allowace increased.
Even with wage freezes or 1% wage increases they astill receive that magic "steps" increase yearly.
Look at some of the wages payed to both groups this would never take place if someone was responsible for the bottom line.
At that "Revenue" meeting when they talked about getting income tax from people who lived in town and worked elsewhere I thought we have to well payed retired educators getting a pension that don't even pay income tax on that money, why? neither of you are senior citizens you pay federal tax on that money. Don't even get me started on "double dippers."
Hope that clears the union comment up. Painesville City and Schools need a New Sheriff in town.
To:November 29, 2010 2:46 AM
Thank you Mrs. Flock.
Speaking of a new sherrif, how could we get the state to come in and check the schools?
I heard if they come in and take over, they cut and they cut from the top down. Sounds like a plan to me. Lets get the party started.
This is 11/29/10 at 2:47 a.m.: I'm not only not Mrs. Flock, I am someone who has slammed Flock since I moved here. He's my council person and has been useless as far as I am concerned. Finally, at that council meeting, he did a wonderful job for our citizens. I just told the truth and wanted to be sure that everyone knew what in the heck went down at that meeting. As far as I'm concerned, Fodor can go ahead and get out right along with McMahon, Hada, Fountain and Hach. I'm on the fence about DiNallo. She finished making sure that that all-important and long-awaited discussion was held in private instead of in front of the citizens of Painesville as it should have been. I could slam Flock a couple more times to make sure you know that that was not Mrs. Flock, but he was great. He did a wonderful job for us, and I appreciate it.
Term, I'm thinking your one of those a guys making $10.00 per hr. If so, I am sorry you are, but please don't begrudge people who are making more. Maybe, where you are presently working should unionize. Instead of worrying what city hall does, try getting where you work organized! Think about it.
I totally agree with December 1, 2010 11:08. As stated on other blog, he seems envious of those that have the ability and qualifications to do the work those can and will do.
Remember - anger is only 1 letter away from danger.
To 6:28...what qualifications and ability are you referring to? It's must be pretty tough heaving that big rubber stamp at council meetings so you won't have to actually read your 'packet'. Or the ability to play dirty politics so a qualified candidate has no time to rebut groundless allegations. Sounds like 11:08 and 6:28 are the 'angry' ones...making serious issues personal is no way to fix them, just another smoke screen to divert attention from them. Keep asking your questions Term...where you work or whether you belong to a union or not has nothing to do with city planning or AMP - Ohio etc.
Someone mentioned I was envious of what some city employees make.... After looking at the numbers gee, maybe I am? I will break down the numbers excluding council members and part time employees and see how close Mr. Fodors $38,000 average is?
Also have to fiond out if employee contibuitions to heal care costs , are weekly, by weekly or monthly?
why does Gurley not have to pay a portion of his health care premium if other city employees do. And he's only part time and we pay full time health insurance. 100% of the premium is paid by the city of Painesville.
My guess and it's only a guess is that our law director has a signed contrat and these are one of the provisions. He is hired and retained only by the city manager.
Yes, he does have a contract that states that. My point is, why was that ever allowed in the first place. Why would Queen Rita give such bennies to a part timer?
One good reason that McMahon, Hada, etc. need Gurley so badly is because he says whatever they need him to say, no matter what the facts or the laws are. They just look to him, and he agrees with whatever they want him to agree with, and he disagrees with whatever they want him to disagree with.
I would love to see the investigation that is going on in Cleveland move right over here when they are done over there.
Thank goodness we are talking about all this stuff. Here we have Gurley getting all this money and benefits, while he is also employed elsewhere, and we have to keep hiring outside firms to do our legal work.
Has anyone found out any more info on how to get McMahon out of here and change our form of government to do so?
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home