City of Port Orange Budget Games?
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to: David Harden, City Manager
Manager Harden what is going on here.
It is now the 19th of June and Council and the people they were elected to represent have yet to see the semblance of even so much as a partial draft of the Operating Budget for FY 2016
It is bad enough that you have yet to present any FY 2016 Operating budget numbers, but to learn last week that you permitted your inexperienced Finance staff to take valuable time away from preparing the real budget to organize highly propagandized budget games designed to encourage greater government spending by ill informed participants is beyond the pale.
Levying taxes on the properties of residents who have struggled to acquire their homes and businesses is not a game, and it is unacceptable for you to repeatedly pressure Council in shade meetings for direction regarding increases for salary and benefits which account for nearly 50 % of total City expenditures when you have yet to provide any insight into the expected operating revenues and expenses for FY 2016
Manager Harden when do you intend presenting at least a draft Operating Budget for FY 2016 ??
Ted Noftall
for responsible government – 2016
Scroll PowerPoint 22 Pages [google-drive-embed url=”https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bznby4cJhHWTaTZVcnAtUjMyOFU/preview?usp=drivesdk” title=”Budget Game Introduction.ppt” icon=”https://ssl.gstatic.com/docs/doclist/images/icon_10_powerpoint_list.png” width=”100%” height=”550″ style=”embed”]
Scroll Window 2 Pages [google-drive-embed url=”https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bznby4cJhHWTZmJNZU1qY1VLRnc/preview?usp=drivesdk” title=”Budget Game Instructions .odt” icon=”https://ssl.gstatic.com/docs/doclist/images/icon_10_word_list.png” width=”100%” height=”900″ style=”embed”]
[google-drive-embed url=”https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bznby4cJhHWTNlhwamFRTjR2YUk/preview?usp=drivesdk” title=”Scorecard.ods” icon=”https://ssl.gstatic.com/docs/doclist/images/icon_10_excel_list.png” width=”100%” height=”800″ style=”embed”]
Scroll Window 29 Pages [google-drive-embed url=”https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bznby4cJhHWTb1ppOGpDXzdacnM/preview?usp=drivesdk” title=”Budget Game Department Descriptions and Impacts.odt” icon=”https://ssl.gstatic.com/docs/doclist/images/icon_10_word_list.png” width=”100%” height=”900″ style=”embed”]
Ted–
The Budget Games format seemed frivolous and manufactured at best–that’s the reason Dianne and I did not attend.
I’m having a hard time at this point believing we can get a serious grip on what needs to be spent next year when we don’t even know what has been spent in past years. Since the last flood event occurred, we’ve been hoping to get some answers to where all the Stormwater fees have gone but Manager Harden admitted at the last meeting that it’s impossible to tell. Hard to believe, but money that legally has to be spent on Stormwater projects, and has been used to guarantee loans for Stormwater projects, can’t be accounted for. If anyone doesn’t believe me, take a listen below:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/Fo-dQkmY3z8?rel=0
Last week a city crew using a city truck marked with the words – DRAINAGE – on the door was cutting grass along Spruce Creek Rd near the park
So the city funding diversion scam continues
In the above video CM says work orders are not issued to city crews \WTF\ . But don’t crews complete a report on the work they complete each day? It says they do according to the Managers weekly summary report
Although the Finance Director did attend the event, the Finance Department had no significant involvement in developing the Budget Game.
The City Code, in Section 2-291, requires that the City Manager present a budget to the City Council “on or before August 1”. I expect to present my recommended budget well before then. Bear in mind that the Property Appraiser’s final estimate of taxable value is not due until July 1, and state revenue estimates are late being released this year because the legislature did not adopt a budget for FY 2016 until this month.