With a 21% increase in the general fund budget, St. Augustine City Commissioners approved a record $50 million budget in record time -- less than one minute per $1 million at the second public hearing, held on September 21. That's an astounding amount of money considering the kind of government the City of St. Augustine has -- polluting and undemocratic. Among the questions our City refused to answer were the following:
1. What funds and line items in this budget are dedicated to protecting our environment, safety and health and the ability of St. Augustinians to afford to live here?
2. When will we follow zero based budgeting?
3. What savings can be achieved?
4. What economies and efficiencies were considered?
5. What reductions in fuel and electricity use are planned?
6. Can we reduce the number of FTEs by attrition (not hiring new people as employees retire or quit)?
7. What measures of performance justify the large expenditures in the budget?
8. What metrics are used to determine if a program is succeeding or failing?
9. When does our City Commission ever get to do oversight or program evaluation?
10. What measures are considered to determine whether City funds are allocated fairly between neighborhoods and precincts and can we see them?
11. Can you please ask the City staff to present four alternative budgets -- one at the current amounts, one with five and ten percent cuts, and one with a five percent increase?
12. What limitations have been considered on spending -- why should one man be allowed to spend $500,000 on his own say-so?
13. How can you justify having some 400 blanket purchase orders?
14. How does our budget compare with those of similarly sized cities in Florida and the Southeast?
15. What internal controls have been added to prevent waste, fraud and abuse?
16. Why is there no Inspector General and no Ombuds?
17. What principled reason is there for denying some of our citizens storm sewers, sidewalks, street cleaning, while y'all gallivant to Europe annually, using public funds?
18. What limitation is being placed on travel to prevent future abuse and Sunshine violations?
19. When are we going to institute performance appraisals for the City Manager, City Attorney and other managers?
20. When will we have an annual budget with realistic numbers, pegged to achievement of measurable performance standards, and not relying on large annual interfund transfers, anticipated by Mr. Harriss but not discussed?
21. What if the parking garage is a financial failure -- what will you do? Is there an option to privatize it and put it on the property tax rolls?
22. What can we do to generate more revenue and more historic tourism from city-owned properties like Lighthouse Restaurant and St. George Street, whether through sale or better negotiation of lease terms?
23. What about our budget process would you like to see improved or modified?
24. When will all city vehicles be equipped with GPS devices?
25. When will you post all City contracts and purchase orders on the Internet, as Orlando already does?
26. Do you deny that the City budget is gold-plated in a city that describes itself as a poor community to get cheaper state permits?
To be continued.
When I went to work for then-freshman U.S. Senator Jim Sasser in 1977, at age 20, he called the Senate Budget Committee "like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic," comparing its work to "oral group therapy." St. Augustine's City Commission is not even that good. The smallest number the Senate Budget Committee ever discusses is .1 -- which is to say, $100 million.
St. Augustine Commissioners will waste time with the smallest minutiae, but never discuss the future and hopes of our City's residents, preferring to make developers happy. Their insouciant attitude is why two incumbent County Commissioners were defeated in the September 5 Republican Primary, and why more incumbents are headed to defeat, it would appear.
St. Augustine deserves a government as decent and compassionate as its residents.
Enough of unaccountable officials who create toxic hazards and smirk about it.
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