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Last
night the public got its only opportunity so far to have a say in the
budget for the next year, after all the decisions and priorities had
already been put in print.
The Mayor bluntly stated that she
thought the Library didn't serve that many people and cost too much; Crull
wanted to charge fees for each activity; Sculatti wanted the Library to
allow commercial events after hours and force it to hold fundraisers and
all the Council members subjected Jennifer Baker to a humiliating 1/2 hour
of grilling, wondering why she can't create the #2 library in the State and
not have to pay for it? Jennifer Baker (one of the few remaining
dept. heads) was incredible, countering that the City had not bought the
Library a pencil in 12 years, or a book, and doesn't even pay for the
lights. The Library Foundation pays for those things and is one of the few
donor groups that pays for basic functions as opposed to extra
programs. There was no mention by the Council of how well the Library
serves those on low incomes who use the computers and find help, nor how
the Library serves as a community center (MIA here) for all of us -- they
had to be reminded. Ms. Baker can name her price anywhere else and
probably will.
For contrast, note that the Police Dept. uses
33% of the General Fund budget (the Library uses less than 10%). The
Chief got a 20% raise this year -- plus plans for a new police dept and
everything they were doing seemed just fine with only minor questions about
a few programs -- Sculatti even suggested that they should get more perks
like therapy to combat stress like they do in New York City, clearly an
environment directly comparable to St. Helena. In defense, the Mayor
alluded to some stressful crimes here that we don't know about, like . . .?
Other interesting things in the budget: For the
part-time temp job of Council Member, each pulls in $30,204.80 per year
(salary and health benefits for their families). The City Attorney cost
over a half a million and next year the costs of litigation go up 250%, mostly
due to being sued for lack of low-cost housing (the Calderon case).
The City Manager's true cost and the Planning Dept.'s true costs were
disguised (that is, not identified), by assigning 25% of the City Manager's
pay to the Planning Dept., the only department where that is done, admitted
Mr. Broad. And, as the Council was cutting staff, removing caps on
restaurants and hotel rooms, trying to annex Meadwood, selling City Hall
and passing the winery ordinance, all with the message to us that St. Helena
was in a bad financial crisis, it turns out for the past 4 years revenues
have exceeded expenses and the panic was about building an even larger
reserve. Building the reserve was never mentioned at the time.
However, according to testimony last night, we now have 3-4 million or
more, 2-3 million to be used at the Council's discretion. But that is not
the key problem. The problem is the reserve seems not to be identified or
accounted for in any of the City's budget documents. News of it was solely
verbal so we don't really know the real number. See the online budget metrics in fun charts. Maybe
you can find it -- click through the options on the left & scroll down
to see the spreadsheet.
Find time to attend the budget
hearing, it continues at the next Council meeting. We have an educated,
professionally oriented population who seem committed for the long term
here yet few show up to protect that commitment.
And lastly, here is a short analysis of the Chamber
Questionnaire completed by Dillon and Chilton. Click on the little
comment bubbles to see the notes.
Sandy
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