A quality of life bond project that was implemented horribly has not finished sucking up our money.
Now the city is considering issuing $700,000 of certificates of obligation to build bathrooms for San Jacinto park.
We all know that current city management did not create the San Jacinto mess. We have the prior group to thank for that.
We deserve better
Brutus
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City government | 
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Posted by Brutus
The preliminary city budget for 2017/2018 allows for an increase in Sun Metro’s budget from $69.8 to $71.2 million.
Ridership on the bus system continues decline while costs increase. This chart of third quarter 2017 performance comes directly from the Sun Metro web site:
The chart shows that ridership is down and costs are up.
The proposed city budget documents give the following reason for the cost increase:
Cost increase related to BRIO and Streetcar in preparation for Fall 2018
Isn’t it time for them to change strategy?
We deserve better
Brutus
7 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
Most of knew in the beginning that the quality of life projects were poorly planned and that we would end up spending even more money than the $473 million bonds would fund.
This slide is part of the preliminary budget document that the city manager has given to city council:
That’s right. They are going to consider issuing $16.8 million in certificates of obligation to finish part of the quality of life projects.
We deserve better
Brutus
6 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
The details of the proposed city budget are coming out.
Earlier this year former mayor Oscar Leeser vetoed prior city council’s effort to issue certificates of obligation in the amount of $44 million that would have been used to pay for shortfalls in the $473 million quality of life bond projects.
We wrote about that in Bond projects continue to cost more. This chart was part of the presentation to city council at the time:
Mayor Leeser stalled the effort and said that he believed it should be part of the annual budget process.
Now with a new mayor and a largely new city council they are going to try again except now the amount is up to $62.3 million.
City council needs to change their instructions to the city manager. More money is not the answer. Eliminating and reducing some projects is.
We deserve better
Brutus
8 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
City council is starting the annual budget process this week. Those meetings are “special” ones and are held at a different time from regular publicly attended city council meetings.
From what we have been able to read so far the city manager is going to propose a budget that is slightly smaller than last year’s.
After a rocky start our current city manager seems to be taking care of business.
We will soon see if the final budget our new mayor and city council settle on still reflects a budget reduction.
We deserve better
Brutus
6 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
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