Wow that’s the first thought that came to mind when I heard that Steve Minark resigned. My mind is now abuzz with a jumble of different thoughts about this long anticipated event – the send off of the local Republican Party’s # 1 pit bull (sorry to all you pit bulls out there). Yes he was as nasty as they come — but credit where credit is due he was pretty shrewd. So call me a cynic but I don’t see this as anything more than another calculated move in the chess game called politics. Jim Smith — Mike Barry – all due respect to former colleagues of sorts — are where they are because of Minark. And if either become the next Chair, they will be there because of Minark. I hope I am wrong. I hope they or whoever else takes over, recognize that sometimes there is a different way to look at things.  And you don’t always have to trash a person or an idea to make your point. If they don’ t it will be more of the same only with a prettier face. 

Its a fiasco and a crisis. Who will pay the price for Maggie’s mismanagement of the day care subsidy? The kids who are forced into substandard day care, casual care by a neighbor or family member while the parent is working a sub-standard job that doesn’t pay a living wage and pays less than private day care costs, that’s who.

Why is this happening? The Republicans can spin this until Christmas but the reality is this (and I KNOW because was there and this was my issue) the County Administration lead by Maggie Brooks, refused to spend all the day care money. They always danced that linguistic dance of words  — no there is not nor ever was 8 million in “surplus”. There was just 8 million sitting in an account that was something else, a “non-surplus” perhaps. For 5 years over 5 budget I and other Democrats put in amendments to increase the eligibility for the subsidy, to increase rates to providers, add children. Each year we were rebuked, no we can’t do that, we don;t have the funds. We would say, hey how about this use some of the 8 million in “non-surplus”. Always the same answer — “oh we don’t really have a surplus” “oh, its money we have to see what happens”  “oh its money from last year”  One BS response after another no matter what argument.

The reality is that the 8 million was in the budget for all to see. And now the state has done exactly what every child care advocate and we were afraid they would do - said wait you have a surplus, use that money for your day care subsidy.

Now Maggie is up there blaming the State when she created this problem. You might say how did this happen? — Is it incompetence? Is it politics?

At the end of the day it boils down to this: one of the biggest problems with Maggie Brooks and the gang of Repbulicans in the Legislature is their unbelievable unwillingness to look at anything from any angle other than their own. A box has 4 sides but they say no it doesn’t it has one side theirs. That is how they operate government, as if it is a one sided box. I used to think it was all about politics. This proves that its worse, its their own arrogance in their self righteous belief that they alone have the answers and they alone are right.

Except for in this case were they were wrong. Their one sided box collapsed. And kids are at stake. What’s next?

First I need to say again, what a difference a few blocks makes in how a budget is reviewed — the City Council process is in depth and detailed with some intense questioning and give and take. Compare that to the County Legislature where we were given next to no information and where our questions were greeted with evasiveness. There is something to be said for transparency!

This is what we did on the few issues that came up –a budget resolution to require the Fire Dept and the Mayor to report to Council on a regular basis regarding response times. Bottom line response time  was everyone’s concern — will the elimination of the midi trucks and those positions affect response times. Chief says no, Firefighters say yes — we said give us regular reports and at the third quarter if response times suffer you better have a plan to add back personnel and address those issues.

Rec Centers:  we added some dollars to keep them open during the summer and until the Admin and School District can negotiate something. There is a basic disagreement on the purpose of what the city should be funding for the rec centers, i.e. pure recreation or some sort of learning and rec combined. Stay tuned.

One final note, 4 of my colleagues voted against the School District Budget. Its weird to me that we even vote on it if we can’t change it or move things around. But we have to pass it since its the City that collects the taxes for the School. I voted for it because I believe in giving the new superintendent the benefit of the doubt and because to me voting it down was meaningless as it would pass anyway. 4 council members voted against it in protest of the MOE — Maintenance of Effort legislation from the state. Their prerogative, their message.

The City Budget process is almost to the end…City Council’s vote on Tuesday night will wrap up over a month of budget review, hearings and deliberations. There are a few major changes proposed in this budget — the two drawing the most ire are the changes to the Fire Dept and Rec Centers After-school programs. Given the tight budget there were some fairly significant cuts to City staff, mostly in IT — but the Rec Center After-school program is being cut and the Fire Dept methodology changed with a loss of 16 positions (not lay offs, loss is by attrition). The Rec Center issue may get resolved, or at least a reprieve so that City Admin and City School District can try to reach an agreement on these services.

The Fire Dept. will go forward — regardless of what Council does — Although City Council cannot tell the Fire Chief how to run the Fire Dept we can (and WILL) be sure that their plans do not put residents OR firefighters in harms way. The plan involves eliminating the Midi (small truck) and using a Quint ( Truck with a ladder) and Engine (big truck) instead. That leaves a couple of fire stations — like Charlotte — with one Quint. Although Charlotte has relatively few calls each year, they are geographically isolated so I am concerned. At the end of the day City Council needs to make sure that response times are what the Chief says they will be — unchanged.

Otherwise I have to say this was a sound budget — and an even sounder budget process — 2 and 1/2 days of budget hearings — about 1 hour or so from each department head answering our questions. I received more information on the budget in this first go around that I got in the entire 5 years I was on the County Lej. What a difference!!

Will keep you posted on how we manage to resolve the issues relative to the fire department and rec centers.