"START ME UP" rolling stones

This memo was sent to all members of Painesville City Council.
It just a start in some reform we wish council will address.

Dear members of Council,

Members of the Painesville Oversight Committee have attended the Painesville City budget meeting and also held a budget meeting of our own. Having spent many hours discussing the proposed budget document for 2012, we have a number of questions, concerns and suggestions.

Firstly we would like to commend everyone for their work in reducing their department's expenses over the last few years.

1. New General Purpose Car - $15,000 has been budgeted for a new vehicle for employees to use for day trips. That vehicle will also need to be maintained and insured. Our recommendation would be to setup an agreement with a local car rental company, and rent a car for those days. Enterprise rents a full size car for $40 per day with unlimited mileage. If used 60 times during the year, that amounts to $2400.

2. Cemetery Mowing - Our recommendation would be to put this out for a formal bid. There are many local landscaping companies that would love the opportunity to do this work. Have any companies been contacted in the past? Who were they? How much was the bid in each case?

3. General Fund Utilities - Can the Electric department give utilities to the general fund at a lower rate? Maybe even at no charge? If this is not possible, why not?

4. Shamrock Blvd Bridge - What is the total cost of the proposed Shamrock Blvd bridge? Who is paying for what portion? Does the city have to pay anything? If so, How much?

5. TIF - How much TIF money have we received in the past? Where was the past TIF money spent? How many more years will we receive TIF money? How much TIF money do we get every year? Does it specify in the TIF contract where the funds have to be spent? If so how much, on what? Could TIF money be used for road or sewer repairs?

6. Wage Increases - What are step increases and longevity increases? Why are we giving any increases at all.

7. Distribution of Expenditures - What change is being made in the distribution of expenditures for the fire fighters, community development personnel and city hall maintenance personnel?

8. Hospitalization - A large and growing portion of the budget is for hospitalization. From what we understand, the city is self insured. Have we had proposals from any health insurance companies? Have we considered joining with the county on their health care plan? If so what are the details?

9. Hospitalization - City employees are required to pay 14% of their health care costs. The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program requires employees to pay 33%. Private sector employees pay between 25% and 50%. Our recommendation would be to increase the employee's contribution to help offset the rising cost of healthcare.

10. Wages - Most private sector people who live in Painesville either lost their job or took significant reductions over the last four years. No city employee has taken any reduction in pay so far. Due to Painesville's current economic condition, you should consider the reduction of city employee salaries including department heads and the city manager. Even a small reduction, might have a big effect.

11. Failed Amp Ohio Project - During the city budget meeting, it was mentioned that we have $3 million dollars set aside to pay our portion of the debt. It was also mentioned that our owed amount is now below $2 million. Could we spend that difference on road repairs?

12. Roads - We think everyone would agree that the roads in the city of Painesville need a lot of repairs. This year's budget only allocates $100,000 for this task. We would recommend this number be more than $1 million. This money has to be found somewhere without laying off personnel from the police or fire departments.

Above we have touched on some questions, concerns and suggestions regarding the current budget document. Please consider these points and revise the budget to help improve Painesville's financial situation.

At this point we would not recommend approving the budget as it is stands today.



Yours sincerely

Members of the Painesville Oversight Committee.