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The first meeting started with an overview by the finance director and then reviewed the budgets for senior services, CDA, public works, CATV, and the fire department. Not a lot in the way of disagreement or likely amendments.
The mayor's budget proposes to use $95,000 from the general fund balance, which would leave our emergency fund at 18.71% of the total general fund budget or $865,000. Our policy is to keep this fund between 15% and 20%. I would like to see the city use a bit more of the reserve this year to reduce the otherwise 8.63% total levy increase.
Going down to a 17.5% reserve would reduce the levy increase to about 7.36%.
Going down to a 16.0% reserve would reduce the levy increase to about 6.06%.
Other items of particular note. The expenditure for gypsy moth spraying is increasing from $4,000 to $10,000 to spray more of the city (some infested areas were not sprayed this year).
An amendment to the capital budget will be prepared to buy new floating piers for the Winnequah Trail and Tonyawatha boat landings. The current piers are in very poor (embarrassing) condition. By the way, this amendment is a great example of how citizens make a difference when they engage in the process. Jeff Hinz took it upon himself to appear the Parks Board, photos in hand, to demonstrate the deplorable conditions of the piers, especially at Winnequah. As a direct result of Jeff's effort, we will almost certainly add new floating piers to the 2009 budget.
It is also likely that an ordinance will be drafted to allow dogs to be off-leash to run off the geese in Winnequah Park with restrictions.
Most of the evening was taken up by review of the departmental budgets with the department heads. Even though there was were very few changes the process is invaluable to the council's oversight.
holy crap, there actually *is* a bike licensing fee in Monona??
ReplyDeleteYeah, but since we collected only $81 in 2007, it must be reallllly cheap.
ReplyDeleteOK, it's $3 for a two-year license. Maybe we should either raise it or drop it altogether.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/314277
ReplyDeleteAre the comments in this article accurate? I guess I don't understand why the council would find the mayor more qualified to find a solution to the alleged speeding issue than the police chief. Seems to me the proper way to go about this is to ask the police chief 1) Do we have a speeding problem in Monona? and 2) what do you think is the best way to deal with it? You could then ask the police chief for revenue neutral solutions, if any, and then for solutions that will require additonal funds. He's the professional - let's rely on his professional opinion. Further, there is no way the math works out on these tickets. Do we really want to take money that we could spend on items such as street repair, the library, and the rec department to "solve" a problem that maybe is only the minds of a few people? I live on a main drag in Monona and I don't find chronic speeding to be a problem. That is not where I want to see additonal funds spent.
"Kahl said he doesn't expect the salary and fines to be a complete wash. Rather, he said, he expects the officer would issue three or four tickets a day."
ReplyDeleteHowever, the police chief says 1 and hour to make it a wash.
Monona Doug, am I being too simple because the mayor is not making sense.
I hope to put a new post today about last night's budget meeting, but the new police position did not get much support from the council.
ReplyDeleteA way to handle the speeding is to give tickets on the inner streets instead of warnings except when they pull me over....and stop sitting at the bottom of hills by new houses.
ReplyDeleteStop that!
ReplyDeleteThey have run speed checks from the Maywood parking lot for years - not just since the Mayor built his house.
Huh, if I paid my fair dues, I'd increase the fees by almost 50%. I guess that's what I get for working for a bike company... :)
ReplyDeleteI'm in favor of eliminating them, since I couldn't find anything on the Monona website that said how to go about getting one. I'm not even sure why they have it in the first place.
Q: Why do we have bike licenses?
ReplyDeleteAnswer from the Monona Police Chief Walter Ostrenga:
"So when a bike is found we can return it promptly to the owner.
Or when someone suspicious has a bike, we can verify it belongs to that person.
Every month we probably collect 15 or more bikes. Most go unclaimed and end up being donated to the red bike guy in Madison."