The Town Manager's Recommended Budget ("TMRB") is out for FY 2020/21. This document is incomplete and hardly gives enough information for the Council to make an informed decision.
I suspect that there are sitting Council members (the Hiremath holdovers) who have no idea that a lot of information is missing. The unfortunate thing is they probably don’t care or couldn’t be bothered with such details. After all, consider how many times we’ve heard them say that the staff gets paid to do this, they’re the experts, and we don’t need to get into the weeds.
The council needs to get into the weeds to understand this budget
In my years on council, I spent countless hours pouring through budget information. It was my job to do that for the people. You have to get into the weeds when it comes to understanding a budget, otherwise some spending will get a perpetual life. Some of these spending items were given life in the Hiremath years and really do need a hard look by the council majority.
Partial information
It's important that all areas be discussed completely. An example is the budget for amounts the town plans to contribute to other organizations. "Page v" the TMRB states that the Town is budgeting $30,000 to give the UA for recruitment and support of new businesses, $275,000 (down from last year’s $300,000) to Visit Tucson, and $40,000 to the Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce. All of this spending was ramped up under Hiremath.
But that is not the whole story. Because the town is actually planning to give away more.
It was only after I communicated with Town Manager Jacobs did I find out that: “The town manager message preface of the TMRB is intended to hit highlights and does not specify all expenditures. Additional details will be covered in the study session presentations."
So the TMRB didn't mention that a continued Children’s Museum contribution of $75K is included (General Admin), that continued membership in Sun Corridor for $10K is included (CED) or that $25K is planned for the Southern Arizona Arts Council.
Why wouldn’t this be in writing in the document? Was it an oversight, or was it that the Town Manager did not want the Council know about these additional expenditures?
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| Detail Included In Prior TMRB Documents |
The TMRB has no pages indicating how each department is allocating their expenditures. In recent memory, all TMRB’s have included this kind of information; what I like to call “onion skin.” Onion skin details how much is spent on line items like travel, training, supplies, overtime, and vehicles.
When I questioned why this TMRB had no onion skin, the Town Manager replied: "We have a new CFO who is bringing new ideas, approaches and best practices to the budget development. We look forward to hearing feedback from the Council on the new format.”
Ms. Jacobs, need I remind you that your new CFO works for you. Could it be you that does not want the decision makers (Council) to have all the information? Without this information, the Council cannot make an educated decision.
I could go on forever, regarding this TMRB
For example, Page 26 of the TMRB shows that there is a $3,000,000 bonding source for the Community Center. It wasn't even mentioned in the Town Manager's statement. Its just buried in a schedule. Seems to me that $3million in bonding for Community Center is something that should have been highlighted. Didn’t the Council mandate Community Center improvements were to be on a pay as you go basis. If so, just what is this for?
I have not completed my review of this 126-page document, but from what I have reviewed so far, this document is severely lacking. It appears to contain only the information that staff wants to present, but NOT the information needed for the Town Council to make an educated informed decision.
