Thursday, November 30, 2006
Budgeting time
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Lots to catch up on - so hopefully we can do so over the next several days.
First up should be something overdue, a report on the Lakewood budget. You can read The News Tribune's account if you have not already.
You will note I voted no, though I actually think the budget is very respectable. I had three major concerns ... or I guess you could call them items on my wish list:
Three additional neighborhood police officers so every 'neighborhood' - or more precisely, every police patrol area including Oakbrook - has its 'own' designated officer. Right now, three officers split the six districts.
An ombudsperson who would field complaints and help confused residents and businesses. I am pretty sure I am the only council member advancing this idea, which I think is important in our new city. My regular readers, both of you, might recall that I wrote about this .in my New Year's column.So without much call from either the public or council, I did not have my heart set on this one.
More muscle for our code enforcement (as in, the people who try to shut down and tear down drug houses) I really don't want Lakewood to be the kind of place where a little girl's body can sit around for months because nobody wants to go near some of our houses. Public protection is more than cops - it includes tackling significant health hazards.
That said, I should quickly tell you that the council did add more raw dollars for community policing and code enforcement. I just think we should have done more. Others disagree, and that's how government works.
Oh, one other thing I am long overdue on. About 90 people spent an average of 20 minutes filling out my survey. I'm very sorry - I am overdue on reporting back. You can download a report on the survey by clicking on this link. You might need to have Microsoft Word to read it - if you have a problem seeing the doc, just let me know and we will figure something out.
Some of the findings were really quite interesting and deserve further comment. But I wanted to get the results up, overdue as they are. Many, many thanks to those of you who gave of your time to fill this out. You really helped me - and anyone else who reads the results carefully - get a snapshot of what people are thinking about city services these days. That said, it is also important to remember that the comments mostly come from the people who are on my mailing list, and people who saw the link at The Suburban Times. So this is in no way, shape or form a scientific survey.
There is more to say about the budget and the budget process, and if you know me, you know I will ...
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First up should be something overdue, a report on the Lakewood budget. You can read The News Tribune's account if you have not already.
You will note I voted no, though I actually think the budget is very respectable. I had three major concerns ... or I guess you could call them items on my wish list:
Three additional neighborhood police officers so every 'neighborhood' - or more precisely, every police patrol area including Oakbrook - has its 'own' designated officer. Right now, three officers split the six districts.
An ombudsperson who would field complaints and help confused residents and businesses. I am pretty sure I am the only council member advancing this idea, which I think is important in our new city. My regular readers, both of you, might recall that I wrote about this .in my New Year's column.So without much call from either the public or council, I did not have my heart set on this one.
More muscle for our code enforcement (as in, the people who try to shut down and tear down drug houses) I really don't want Lakewood to be the kind of place where a little girl's body can sit around for months because nobody wants to go near some of our houses. Public protection is more than cops - it includes tackling significant health hazards.
That said, I should quickly tell you that the council did add more raw dollars for community policing and code enforcement. I just think we should have done more. Others disagree, and that's how government works.
Oh, one other thing I am long overdue on. About 90 people spent an average of 20 minutes filling out my survey. I'm very sorry - I am overdue on reporting back. You can download a report on the survey by clicking on this link. You might need to have Microsoft Word to read it - if you have a problem seeing the doc, just let me know and we will figure something out.
Some of the findings were really quite interesting and deserve further comment. But I wanted to get the results up, overdue as they are. Many, many thanks to those of you who gave of your time to fill this out. You really helped me - and anyone else who reads the results carefully - get a snapshot of what people are thinking about city services these days. That said, it is also important to remember that the comments mostly come from the people who are on my mailing list, and people who saw the link at The Suburban Times. So this is in no way, shape or form a scientific survey.
There is more to say about the budget and the budget process, and if you know me, you know I will ...
