Talk about being disingenuous. Mayor, "We're A Community Of Excellence," Hiremath's lengthy letter to The Explorer proves the following:(You choose)
1) He is not smart enough to understand town finances.
2) He thinks the people of Oro Valley are not smart enough to understand town finances.
3) It is a combination of (1) & (2)
Should we laugh or cry when the Mayor writes:
"The Town has reduced its budget from $203,121,674 in FY 08/09 to $94,064,647 for FY 11/12. That is a decrease of $109,057,028, or 54 percent."
Maybe the "good dentist" should be forgiven, as he was treating his patients in 2008/2009, and already stated he didn't have the patience to attend any council meetings.
Well, let me remind the Mayor what was going on during his absence. The town set aside $48.6 million for the proposed Naranja Town Site, that the voters, thankfully, turned down. Additionally, there was $33 million that was to be used to fund the ill conceived Municipal Operations Center. The budget in Capital Project Funds for FY 2008/09 was a total of $102,295,413. The Mayor did NOT consider this $102 million + in his letter.
For him to even suggest that THIS Council reduced the budget by some $109 million is either----being gracious on my part, "disingenuous," or more likely, just plain arrogant.
There was a lot more in the Mayor's letter that can be proven to be---if nothing else, inaccurate, but we'll get to that another time.
Here's his letter. Whether it makes you laugh or cry depends on the reader.
http://explorernews.com/voices/
4 comments:
What caught my eye, in addition to the Blog article, was the Mayor's comment in the Explorer stating:"I cannot and will not let partisan factions kill our discussion at the local level, in our community." (Like dutifull individuals following what he says without question). For the benefit of the Mayor who may not understand, this has nothing to do with partisanship.. There are other voices in the community besides his and we still have Freedom of Speech in accordance with the First Amendment of the Constituton.
Individuals have tried to explain to the Mayor, that we can cut the budget by cutting frivolous expenditers. One small example would be to install coffee machines at Town Hall.. Most employees put in quarters for their coffee. $24,000.00 seem a bit high for the taxpayers,to pay to provide coffee for the town's employees.
TD,
Yes, you pegged it correctly! Dr. Hiremath expects to force his goals on Council and mature voters.
What?!? $24K on coffee for Town employees! That's ridiculous!
Excellence by Hiremath's definition is about money. However,Marshall Vest, Director of Economic and Business Research Center at UA told Pat McNamara that talent, availability of intellect, and technical training matter alot to businesses deciding where to relocate.
US 2010 Census counted 20, 139 residents in Oro Valley who had at the minimum an AA degree. OV's College grads, BA or better are 9.90% above the national average, and OV's Graduate degrees are 7.28% over the national average. If Vest is correct that talent attracts businesses, TOV might do well to keep the educated as residents. Sociologists point to education as a key deterrent of crime.
Sociologists state that in areas of poverty where there are strong religious values, there is low crime rate.Quality of life depends on many intangibles.
The "k-ching, k-ching, k-ching" ie, cash register theory of excellence, is questionable. Oro Valley's wealth, in my opinion, is its people.
Will you, Mayor, respect the people's interests and revere the educated and those with strong religious values to keep OV "a place of excellence"?
PARTISAN FACTIONS?
Let's see:
We have the "Let me have a take-home vehicle" party vs. the "Reduce the take-home vehicle" party.
"
The "$24K for town coffee" vs. the "No Free Coffee" party.
Which side are you on?
Maybe we need to create an off-shoot of the Tucson Coffee Party. We can call it, "The No-Free Coffee Party."
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