The Observation Deck

Hi, All!

Just a reminder to come to the city hall auditorium this evening for the last of budget hearings--this will be the final or close to as the budget must be together by Monday(3/31).

A little birdie told me that one of the matters to be discussed will be cuts to Health and Human Services--this is important stuff and all citizens need to hear this first hand--as this department is absolutely vital to our community.

See you there!

Ruthie

Ruthie Koenigsmark wrote:Hi, All!

Just a reminder to come to the city hall auditorium this evening for the last of budget hearings--this will be the final or close to as the budget must be together by Monday(3/31).

A little birdie told me that one of the matters to be discussed will be cuts to Health and Human Services--this is important stuff and all citizens need to hear this first hand--as this department is absolutely vital to our community.

See you there!

Ruthie

Thanks for the info Ruthie. It is indeed very important.

It's at 6:00 PM for anyone who's interested.

Committee of the Whole
Budget Hearings
Thursday, March 27, 2008
6:00 PM

The Committee of the Whole will schedule Budget Hearings on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 6:00 PM in the auditorium of Lakewood City Hall, 12650 Detroit Avenue. The topic will be the 2008 Appropriations Ordinances.

ORDINANCE NO. 44-08 – AN ORDINANCE to take effect immediately provided it receives the affirmative vote of at least five (5) members elected to Council otherwise, it shall take effect and be in force after the earliest period allowed by law to establish appropriations for current expenses and other expenditures of the City of Lakewood, State of Ohio, for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2008. (PLACED ON 1ST READING AND REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 3/17/08)

Michael W. Dever, Chair
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

Huge turnout last night, probably the biggest turnout I've seen. It did get heated at times, especially when Refuse and Human Services were discussed.

I was glad to see both city workers and residents speak at the meeting.

Photos will be up later as soon as I can sort through 100+ frames!

David Lay wrote: I was glad to see both city workers and residents speak at the meeting.

I left shortly after the Mayors presentation.

I thought Mike Somers gave a good overview of the state of the City. 1200 abandoned or foreclosed homes and a $4 million dollar deficit.

The Mayor gave a very level headed assessment of the City's finances. Over the last few years we spent all of our savings, continued to increase spending all while revenue was flat.

Even with these cuts the City will only have $200,000 or so in the bank at the end of the year. Even with these cuts the City will have a deficit next year. The reason? Salaries and benefits will continue to increase.

The sad thing is that if the City dealt with the tremendous increase in fire department overtime over the last few years these cuts wouldn't be necessary.

If anyone attended the full hearing I would be interested to know what was said by the crowd.

I was there until about 8pm. Nice turn out. I really couldn't believe how rude and almost condescending the tone of the meeting was.

Comments that I heard (they only took 4 or so in the time I was there) were all along the same lines, that taking away Human Services for the sake of backyard garbage pick-up was wrong and hardly understandable.

I did miss the person who spoke up in favor OF the backyard garbage pick-up, so if anyone knows what he said I would love to hear it. He got some great applause.

Anyone know what happened after 8pm? I will be at next weeks meeting as well, even though it felt like they had already made up their minds on the budget about 3 weeks ago.
Whitney

Whitney--- The speaker to which you are referring I believe was sitting next to me. He is Denis DeVito and drives a Cushman for the refuse department. While they clearly have their own agenda he made points to illustrate that maintaining backyard pickup was in the greater interests of Lakewood. This is due primarily to dense, pack in houses which concentrate the garbage. Any windy day and you would have mayhem if it was all curbside.
The administration does have an RFP out for private collection. But, every administration has explored that avenue and come back with in house refuse services.
And, from my own anecdotal observations of private garbage services in some of the outlying communities--- you get less service at a higher price. Just talk to a friend who has private refuse services and see what the extra fees are for items that don't fit in a trash can such as appliances, and furniture that we take for granted that the city will pick up.

And, I'll give Denis a little publicity---- He's one of many talented city workers. His band, Cats on Holiday is one of the area's best for "swamp pop" a little bit of cajun style rock.

www.catsonholiday.com

Stan Austin

How bad a hit did senior services take?

sharon kinsella wrote:How bad a hit did senior services take?

I'd echo this with wondering how Division of Youth held up.

Sharon,

I left right after the first round of public comment in which Dennis DeVito and Senior residents took the mic.

I wanted to give a comment but didn't, since I had to head over to The Savannah for Robert Lockwood Jr. tribute night.

It upset me that the tone of the meeting escalated. Council passed the mic back and forth and just kept asking questions, not giving any solutions, while the public was being kept away from having a say (that's not news at a council meeting).

I don't know the figures, dollars and cents, that the Human Resource division lost. But I do know that the issue at stake was transportation amongst other things.

As a fairly young lad, cutting these services troubles me. I don't understand the logic of saving dollars and cents by taking away the only legs that these senior citizens have. They don't have a way to get to their doctors appointments, they don't have a way to buy groceries, if they don't have transportation. Think how inhumane it would be to cut transportation for these people if they have to go to the doctors or to fill their prescription or buy food. These are people who lived in Lakewood 40+ years and at a time where everyone is packing their stuff and leaving the city behind, they are staying here. They don't want to give up on the city. If the city gives up on them it would be a SHAME. I really hope that the Mayor and Council realize that.

I think the biggest applause getter was a comment by a senior citizen that said "I'm sure there are more seniors that are involved than young people. Just remember, we vote".

Michael Dever and a lady entered a heated verbal disagreement over public comment and that escalated things. Then it became damage control time and the mic was passed around like a hot potato. People were leaving, most stayed. Bottom line, little was done.

Budget Meeting Photos


I guess I should add to my previous comment that I can understand the frustration that's coming from our Council members. It's not easy having to vote on these cuts. They have worked long and grueling hours on this.

But at the same time these people were voted in by us, the citizens, to be able to handle situations like this and make decisions that will benefit everyone from the city to the residents. Finding a happy medium in this is quite the challenge as we can see.

And also, Mayor FitzGerald was elected because he claimed that the city is going to be in trouble fiscally and he will be the best one to handle the budget "crisis".

It's a change in book balancing from the last administration to this one, that's for sure. It's worked before. I hope this change in leadership works out not for the Mayor's administration's sake, but for mine and everyone else's sake. The Mayor brought on this pressure to do something, and to do it differently, so I hope he can stick to his guns and something good can be worked out.

I've always wanted to stay here in Lakewood after college. But the more our public officials fail us, the more people will pack their things and go. The steady decline in population and the way the residents hooted and hollered last night is certainly proof of how inpatient residents are getting with the state of our city.

Thanks Ivor -

I've witnessed Dever in action before.

I'm really sorry that Senior Services got cut. These are the people that raised their kids here, own or have owned property here and paid their taxes.

Terrible.

I'm glad you understand the situation for so many seniors. Many young people never think about that.

My photos are (finally) up:


March 27th City Budget Meeting

how long did this last for?

from looking at David's pictures, the sky outside looks dark and then gets light.

or did you post them backwards?

I was hoping you weren't stuck in that place for the whole night David! I had enough after 45 minutes!

David Lay wrote:My photos are (finally) up:


March 27th City Budget Meeting

David


Thanks it would seem to capture the energy in the room that night.

A couple things I feel I need to bring up after comments and phone calls.

1) Michael Dever has been asking me, when is the paper covering it, and when will people finally show up for the meetings for months. Ed FitzGerlad and Michael Dever have been saying from day one, people need to know and be involved. This might be why Michael sounded frustrated that night.

2) No cuts in this city are easy, they all affect all of us in one way or another. The fact that cuts went across the board seems at this point fair and logical. I have to give this group credit for doing tough work no one would ever be pleased with. Well with the exception of Bill Call.

Still the frustration being voiced to me is very real and very heartfelt.

It should be an interesting year.

.