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.