If asked to rank the importance of a city’s annual budget, most folks would put it at #1 – top priority. After all the budget is where the dollars available are spread around to pay the workers, pave the streets, collect the garbage, plant the flowers and do all those other things that are important to residents.
Most of us would buy into this proposition. But at two successive Daphne city council meetings, leading up to the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1 it was clear the council folks felt otherwise. After listening to them, my guess is they would rank having a budget on time at 7 or 8 – way down the list.
Now I know not approving a budget isn’t going to shut Daphne down at midnight the last day of September (as you read this, you can note workers are being paid, garbage is being collected, etc., etc). They are allowed to operate on the basis of last year’s budget until a new one is passed. Common practice. In fact at the Federal level this is done virtually every year using “Continuing Resolution Authority” to fund the government until a real budget is enacted
So why am I bothering to harangue about this common occurrence? Three reasons: First it is a sloppy, undisciplined practice; second it prolongs the disruptive churning that goes on by the mayor and his staff as they create and re-create budgets; and third, there is no reason for this to happen.
The formal budget process starts in August with the mayor’s staff allocating funds for each department and activity for the upcoming. This allocation is based on projections of income compared to known and projected expenses and requirements for an adequate reserve. The council is expected to pass the budget by Oct. 1 after work sessions and public hearings.
If this is done in an orderly manner, at the very start the council will provide guidance, establish priorities and maybe even set up progress reviews. In short, guidance and direction first – not after the work is done. But it was clear at the council meeting just a week before the deadline that this hadn’t happened.
With the ambitious goal of approving a $21-million budget, the meeting started badly. Gus Palumbo opened the pre-vote discussion by declaring, “The (budget) process is defective.” His point was that by doing the operating budget first, with the capital budget following, the capital budget is always under-funded. Great point, but much more useful way earlier in the process.
He then began drilling on line items in the operating budget asking about overtime in the fire department, staffing procedures, equipment manning, sick leave – good stuff to know, but shouldn’t the council members have already learned of these policies and procedures?
Next up was Cathy Barnette who showed great concern over cell phones: How many phones are in use? Who has them? What are the calling plans? Are they bundled? Are we getting the best rates? She then switched to the cleaning of uniforms. Her agonizing examination of this budget item – so important that she was joined in her probe by Gus Palumbo – would have been humorous were it not so inappropriate at this point in the budget process.
How much does it cost to clean each uniform? (Reply: $5.25 – which looks like a pretty good deal to me). Why are there so many uniforms if polo shirts have been authorized? Who wears polo shirts? Why can’t they be washed at home? Are there washers and dryers at the fire stations? Why can’t they be used….?
And so it went on and on, detail after detail, punctuated by the arrival of Council President Greg Burnam an hour or so into the meeting and by a pizza delivery shortly thereafter. This gave us the opportunity to watch Burnam chew pizza and swill Coke as he asked about a number of items in the budget – not how much money was allocated, but what the line item meant: What’s equipment maintenance? Cars in there? Oh, so they’re in vehicle maintenance? What’s the difference between software and computer maintenance?
He should have known all this already but it didn’t really matter. Because, as council member Regina Landry noted, nothing in these questions and answers was going to wring the necessary dollars out of the budget. More would have to be done to achieve the 9 percent additional reduction the council felt was needed. So the council did more – by passing that reduction objective on to the department heads, along with the useless guidance to take the cuts – if they can – wherever they want. And do it in a week.
And a week later on Budget Day (Oct. 1), the meeting opened with Cathy Barnette’s announcement the new budget was unacceptable to her. So they punted the process into the new fiscal year by voting to continue spending as authorized in the 2007 budget.
The last words on this how-not-to-do-it budget process were Mayor Small’s: “Passing a budget on time is really important… The finance department has put out to respond and has taken cuts; then suddenly you need more. Share your thoughts with us earlier next time.”
Good counsel to the council – hope they were listening.
Contact Pete Gleszer at jubilee@lagniappemobile.com.
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