The Oro Valley Town Council approved the fiscal 2013 budget by a 5-2 margin last Wednesday. The dissenting votes were Council Member Garner and Council Member Mike Zinkin, They both want to see greater introspection of police spending and more funds allocated to areas such as parks and recreation and cultural services.
Council Member Burns voted for the budget as a show of confidence in town manager Caton, though at a previous council session he had said that he would not vote for this budget.
According to Finance Manager Stacey Lemos, the budget was the result of five month's of activities. There are two changes that were made from the town manager's recommended budget. One was to increase the funding the the Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce to $30,000 from $20,000. The second was the move the remaining $197,000 in the library fund to the current budget, designated as a "council-designated contingency reserve." This is a reserve of funds that the council can designate for whatever use it wished. There were no other changes to the budget.
Lemos reminded the council that it can amend the budget at any time it wishes during the fiscal year.
There were a number of people who spoke at the public hearing. None of the comments changed the budget in any way:
Several speakers spoke to extol the virtues of police chief Danny Sharp. They included Richard Tracey Sr., an Oro Valley resident with police experience. Tracey was a major contributor to the campaigns of Mayor Hiremath and Council Members Waters, Snider and Hornat.
Tracey "likes what he sees" when it comes to the efficiency of the The Oro Valley Police Department. "We have a safe community and well run police department." He criticized Council Member Zinkin for even questioning the police budget in any way. Apparently, to Mr. Tracey, Council Members should be "seen buy not heard." Zinkin later noted that his question of the police budget has nothing to do with Chief Sharp.
Resident Don Bristow noted: "Its interesting on how everyone is focusing on [Chief] Danny Sharp when the real issue is the budget. Obviously, the 14% increase, bigger than any other department, the Council should be asking questions." He noted that it is the job of those on council to question the budget.
Town resident and employee Carmen Traveso noted that hearing, several weeks ago, that having employees even pay a portion of their own health premiums was really distressing for her. "We haven't had raises in four years." Also, she noted, that "Im a good representative of what this time is a made of...it is the employees that make this a great place to live." Council Member Zinkin apologized for making this suggestion at the last council meeting. "I have utmost respect for the town's employees."
"There's more to a balanced budget than dollars and cents. There's also the service obligation," noted resident Bill Adler. He noted that there is not money in the budget for historic preservation. There was, however, thanks to Council Member Snider, an extra $10,000 to give to the Chamber.
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4 comments:
"(the) town has already spent, over the years, more than $600,000 on studies and surveys related to the Naranja Town Site. ( John M) asked why the town needs to spend another $80,000 for external consultants to do a Naranja town site."
External Consultant is just another word for, well you decide.
PCC hired a consultant who turned out to be childhood friend of the former chancellor. Former Mayor Loomis is a consultant to the RTA. In both cases, a waste of tax payer money.
We need a roll back on the utility tax, maybe then the town will be more careful with OUR money.
Richard..... One of my pet peeves with your predecessor was that he simply posted commentary with little regard for fact. More times than not he was inaccurate in his presentation in one way or another.
I appreciate that there has been improvement. However if you are going to ridicule one of our citizens, "Tracey was a major contributor to the campaigns of Mayor Hiremath and Council Members Waters, Snider and Hornat.",that you at least do sufficient homework to accurately spell his name.
Nombe.....And when you and others voted down the Naranja Park bonds, YOU basically wasted a good portion of that money. I also find it rather humorous that Musolf 'curses' his former profession.......the consultants.
OVOT.
Yes we wasted 600K and now we will wast an additional 80K, but that is ok it is just our tax money.
Unless, of course, I can get a contract to "monitor" the Naranja Town Site. Then it is perfectly ok. I will provide a monthly report, I will report that the town site is still there, and I will do is for 8K vice 80K. HA!
Nombe. I'll do it for 7K BUT that isn't the problem. The problem is that we need another major park in this community and we need to get the voters off their collective asses and approve the money to build it.
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