Monday, November 05, 2007
Quotes from Tonight's Budget Hearings
The public hearing tonight ended at 10:30 p.m. It's so gratifying to hear from citizens who really care about their community. I'm not at all surprised that people came from around the city to speak up for community policing. I was a little surprised that so many people came to speak in support of human services and parks; I assume that's because the Lakewood CARES guys have said they want to cut the city budget without saying exactly how. The final count of speakers was:
About community policing:11 people
About Lakewood's Promise and human services: 7 people
Parks: 5 people
Senior Center: 3 people
You could argue that I should clean up and explain some of these quotes, but it's 11:30 p.m. and Election Day is tomorrow. So I apologize if some of the quotes are unclear, and/or for any and all typos.
“Tillicum and Woodbrook have had success because of teamwork. …The residents of Tillicum - Woodbrook are pulling their weight, and we expect the City Council to do the same.”
“I hope you are fortunate enough to find a place like the Lakewood Senior Center when life taps you on the shoulder.”
“We’ve got a great city staff in our Parks Department … “
From a Tillicum resident: “Since (community policing) was cut, the crime rate is going up. The dealers and prostitutes are returning.”
“Lakewood needs to know that you support all of Lakewood, and thank you for your past support.”
“I’m not a public speaker. I’m just here today because I fear for public safety…. The police can only do what they are funded to do.”
“They say if something is not broke, don’t fix it. Now we have something that worked so well that we’ve broken it … the crime rate is going up .. let’s admit we broke it and let’s go back to what we did before.”
“We are not adequately addressing the needs of an aggressive community protection program.”
“(After working with the community service officer), August and September was the first time I walked in my back yard when I did think there might be a bullet waiting for me in my back yard … the community service officers has just resigned … If our children do not feel safe, we don’t have anything. Within two weeks of her resignation, we had 15 bullets fly through our back yard. Life is not supposed to be like this.”
“If you go to the dentist, and if you have cavities in your mouth, and you fill only some of the cavities and don’t fill all of the cavities, guess what is going to happen?" (this is a reference to how the initial city budget draft only funded a percentage of neighborhood policing programs)
“(The loss of community policing) was a wakeup call for some of us. This wakeup call got some people to our meetings that would not normally come to our meetings … Relationship, communication and quality of life are all important. In the foundation of a city, the things that are set forth as foundations like community policing need to be followed through. How many of you, if you had six kids, would you say, I will feed four or five of them and make the others wait? I don’t want bullets to fly past my house and I don’t want to someone to leave who has helped me find a sense of security and comfort in my community . The church where I am at has been broken into three times in the last few weeks … so you may say we have the lowest crime rate, but I’m not seeing it. Having a CSO makes a difference … I know who I can go to. Fiscal responsibility. Yes…. Fundamental responsibility to your people. Yes.”
“We’ve added new parks … Ward’s Lake, Springbrook, the small Oakbrook park, and they (and other parks) have all become welcome and safe attractive places for seniors, for kids, for anyone who wants to use our parks.”
"The improvements in parks have been amazing since we became a city."
Last I heard, the council was scheduled to actually decide on the budget Nov. 19. We'll see ...
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About community policing:11 people
About Lakewood's Promise and human services: 7 people
Parks: 5 people
Senior Center: 3 people
You could argue that I should clean up and explain some of these quotes, but it's 11:30 p.m. and Election Day is tomorrow. So I apologize if some of the quotes are unclear, and/or for any and all typos.
“Tillicum and Woodbrook have had success because of teamwork. …The residents of Tillicum - Woodbrook are pulling their weight, and we expect the City Council to do the same.”
“I hope you are fortunate enough to find a place like the Lakewood Senior Center when life taps you on the shoulder.”
“We’ve got a great city staff in our Parks Department … “
From a Tillicum resident: “Since (community policing) was cut, the crime rate is going up. The dealers and prostitutes are returning.”
“Lakewood needs to know that you support all of Lakewood, and thank you for your past support.”
“I’m not a public speaker. I’m just here today because I fear for public safety…. The police can only do what they are funded to do.”
“They say if something is not broke, don’t fix it. Now we have something that worked so well that we’ve broken it … the crime rate is going up .. let’s admit we broke it and let’s go back to what we did before.”
“We are not adequately addressing the needs of an aggressive community protection program.”
“(After working with the community service officer), August and September was the first time I walked in my back yard when I did think there might be a bullet waiting for me in my back yard … the community service officers has just resigned … If our children do not feel safe, we don’t have anything. Within two weeks of her resignation, we had 15 bullets fly through our back yard. Life is not supposed to be like this.”
“If you go to the dentist, and if you have cavities in your mouth, and you fill only some of the cavities and don’t fill all of the cavities, guess what is going to happen?" (this is a reference to how the initial city budget draft only funded a percentage of neighborhood policing programs)
“(The loss of community policing) was a wakeup call for some of us. This wakeup call got some people to our meetings that would not normally come to our meetings … Relationship, communication and quality of life are all important. In the foundation of a city, the things that are set forth as foundations like community policing need to be followed through. How many of you, if you had six kids, would you say, I will feed four or five of them and make the others wait? I don’t want bullets to fly past my house and I don’t want to someone to leave who has helped me find a sense of security and comfort in my community . The church where I am at has been broken into three times in the last few weeks … so you may say we have the lowest crime rate, but I’m not seeing it. Having a CSO makes a difference … I know who I can go to. Fiscal responsibility. Yes…. Fundamental responsibility to your people. Yes.”
“We’ve added new parks … Ward’s Lake, Springbrook, the small Oakbrook park, and they (and other parks) have all become welcome and safe attractive places for seniors, for kids, for anyone who wants to use our parks.”
"The improvements in parks have been amazing since we became a city."
Last I heard, the council was scheduled to actually decide on the budget Nov. 19. We'll see ...
