Many of you are familiar with our friend Bill Adler. Those of us who know Bill, know two things about him. One,is his knowledge of Oro Valley issues is probably second to none, and the other is, his total commitment and dedication to making Oro Valley all that it can be.
Bill was kind enough to pass along the following email he sent to the OV staff & council, and, per our request, allowed us to share it with our readers. Bill's message , and short preamble:
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Art: Please encourage people to understand, that the financial condition of the Town is serious, and complicated. There isn't a silver bullet, but rather some very hard decisions. Cutting back is never a pleasant nor easy task, but it is my perception of what is required. Bill
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When an organization is facing a gap between revenues and costs, it cuts back. And yet, our Town continues to enlarge. We continue to add people, run out of space and build more offices. If building permits are projected at 350 during the next fiscal year, the budget estimated for the departments governing that process is excessive. The costs related to employee salaries and benefits continues to grow beyond what is associated with an organization that is facing insolvency. I understand the need to be competitive. However, the first need is to remain solvent. Employees can understand that salaries, and certainly benefits and merit incentives, remain static until the future financial situation is more promising. If some leave, then that is a motivation to solve the financial difficulty. As a citizen capable of understanding finances, and one who has sat through presentations on the Town budget, I am impressed by the sheer size of the Town, and I believe its size, not necessarily its budgetary process, is weighing it down.
There may be some efficiencies that a consultant could suggest, I have no doubt. I am going through a process now which involves Town permits. I'm not impressed with the responsiveness in terms of timeliness and courtesy I am receiving. However, cleaning that up will not achieve the cost and revenue improvements required. I doubt that zero based budgeting will provide the cost and revenue improvements required. Only a reduction in size will bring the costs and revenues into balance.
What a reduction in size does achieve is the imperative for citizens to step up and pay for services or amenities they want and need. So, a property tax to fund police services or to add amenities to our park spaces becomes more understandable as the size of government reduces. To increase user fees to a level where residents and others are actually underwriting the services they use begins to make sense. It doesn't make sense when the overall size of government is expanding beyond the revenue available to support it.
This, I maintained years ago, is the beauty of the bedroom community. A community that realizes it cannot grow into a city with all the employment, retail, recreation, education and housing to be entirely self sufficient is a community that includes residents prepared to pay for those essential services. Oro Valley decided fifteen years ago to become a self sufficient community, and began to emphasize growth of housing, retail and commercial at the expense of environmental and social considerations. By definition, this was not sustainable. Economic, social and environmental considerations must remain balanced to achieve sustainability. This is basic, fundamental planning 101. The three legged stool, as the analogy goes, has tipped over, and we have financial, social and environmental imbalance.
I see no plausible alternative but to cut back the size of government, and explain to citizens that they must prepare themselves to pay for the essential services they believe they need. The size of our present government, from an employee and financial perspective, creates the impression among citizens that it is government, not residents, who ought to be able to continue to improve roads; provide parks; have terrific emergency services, while at the same time preserve environmental interests. The issue is brought home realistically to citizens when government brings itself into balance with finances, and says we can't do it; you, the citizens, must.
This would take more than three minutes to recite, so I'm writing it down for your consideration.
Bill
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