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Mayor Robb Kahl recently delivered his proposed budget to the city council. You can find a link to it here: Proposed 2009 Budget.
The major changes are summarized on pages 4-5 (PDF pages 7-8). The Mayor proposes to hire a new police officer dedicated to speed enforcement on local streets (not primarily on Broadway or Monona Drive). The police officer's position would be funded with a budgeted $77,000 increase in fines (a projected 61% increase). It will be interesting to hear just how many speeding tickets that equates to - most of which will be issued to Monona residents.
The Senior Commission recommended and the Mayor proposed modest, but important increases for senior services and home chore services (a little over $2800 increase). (Page 147 et seq. PDF page 150 et seq.)
The big bump comes from debt service - an increase of about $310,000 on the levy. Debt service is peaking in 2009 and has risen due to our increased commitment to renewing our aging infrastructure, such as roads and a ladder truck for the fire department.
The total city levy would rise $421,938 or 8.63%, which is more than any of us would like. About 74% of the increase is from the $310,000 debt service increase for prior borrowing to fund capital projects. Nearly all of the remaining increase is for ambulance service (almost $82,000 increase). Last year we were able to use an ambulance fund surplus, most of which is unavailable this year. Debt service and the ambulance service account for $392,000 of the proposed increases.
All of these figures are subject to change through council action, but that's where we are starting. I urge the citizens of Monona to provide input to their alders and mayor at our budget meetings or through phone calls, letters, email - or posting to this blog.
Monday, November 03, 2008
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More police and more fines? Who is requesting this...is it the same folks who requested the malformation of Winnequah Rd. to control traffic for lake front folks?...maybe speed bumps, indents/ourdents/ on Broadway and Monona Drive would help.
ReplyDeleteBravo to Mayor Kahl for funding the speeding enforcement officer. That is exactly the kind of issue that we need to take head on in Monona.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about that cop thing. The goal is to get people to slow down, right? What happens if it works? Then where is the money going to come from for that officer? Also, if the officer knows their salary is funded by tickets, isn't there an incentive to be overly agressive? Is this normally what happens with ticket revenues - are they appropriated directly to personnel wages and benefits of the enforcement agency which is writing those tickets? Don't we have safety issues caused by speeding and tailgating on Monona Drive and the Beltline? That's where the personal injury accidents are, aren't they? Why aren't we concentrating on that?
ReplyDeleteWow! People are actually commenting on the dry old budget. Hurrah!
ReplyDeleteMF, I had some of the same thoughts. What if it works? I have asked more information, but wonder if getting $77K in new ticket revenue is feasible. For the past 4 years, fine revenue has been between $110K and $115K, so $77K would be about a 70% increase.
And while $77K might pay for rookie cop, it won't pay for a veteran. We just a new officer two years ago and the federal funding for that is dwindling toward zero.
We already participate in special enforcement efforts on the Beltline. And as anyone who drives lower Winnequah knows, the PD spends a lot of time doing speed checks there.
Guilfoil, what exactly are you talking about in regards to 'malformation of Winnequah Road?' I am one of those 'lake front folks' on Winnequah and am extremely concerned about traffic patterns (speeding mostly) on my road. However, it is not of concern for myself, but because of all of the bicycle/ pedestrian traffic. Someone is going to get hit by a high school student speeding down the road and it will be soon.
ReplyDeleteI called the police to express concern earlier this year. They set up a speed trap for a couple of days and that was it. Contrast this with Monona Drive. I leave very early for work and see a speed trap there about 1/3 of the time. I think the populace would be much better served with controlling traffic on Winnequah.
While I'm at it, I'd also like to mention that my vehicle, while parked on my driveway, has been broken into 2 times (in my 2 years of living here). My next door neighbors have been broken into even more. Each and every time, we've called the police. Nothing ever comes out of it.
Just this morning, I saw an Acura up on blocks on Monona Drive with all it's wheels removed. I'm thinking that this happened without permission of the owner.
So, how about the police concentrate on stuff more important than speeding tickets?
PS: I like the new logo, Am I the only one?
ReplyDeleteNo, you are not the only one who likes the proposed new logo, but we are getting more and adamant negative feedback.
ReplyDelete-Like the new logo-
ReplyDeleteAny chance Jake can get more support, he is doing such great things and I can not imagine the stuff he could do if his staffing level would increase. Further, didn't the rec dept loose a ft position a few years back (Wagner)?
Further, he only has .5 or .75 administrative assistant?
HP
oh, I forgot one thing.
ReplyDeleteCan we please get money for goose mitagation? A good collie would work wonders and she could be the city mascot...or Jake's assistant..if we are really broke.
HP
HP-
ReplyDeleteI would have to second your request. The goose poop problem is overwhelming.
Wasn't this hotly debated by the Parks Board last winter? I thought that there was a plan in place. Why the ongoing problems? Did we spend money on whatever the solution was?
Thanks
Goose droppings. The Parks Board and council adopted a goose deterrence plan early this year. Because it did not seem like anything had been done, I asked for a staff report. The report from the PW Director at our October 20 meeting was that almost none of the plan had been implemented. His excuse was that the council had not appropriated specific funding so nothing was done (the PW Foreman did have a trained border collie so a visit, but the costs for that were very high).
ReplyDeleteI made my displeasure fairly apparent at the meeting. My job as an alder is to set policy and not to manage or administrate.
A little math here. First assumption is that the majority of people driving on Monona residential streets live in Monona. The population of Monona is about 8,000, and let's say that 7,000 are drivers. This link http://www.countyofdane.com/clrkcort/prepare/citations.aspx breaks down the avg. speeding ticket revenue stream in Madison. Couldn't find any Monona-specifc info. If you look at this, it appears that only about $40 per ticket might be available to fund the cop. That means we would have to write 1,925 tickets, which means we'd have to ticket about 28% of Monona's drivers to raise $77K. I wonder how 1 out of 4 Monona residents will feel about this. Now I know my numbers may be way off, but even if they are and let's say we would need to ticket 1 in 10 drivers. Hmmm. Me thinks people would slow waaay down and the revenue source would dry up real quick. Perhaps we'd have to start enforcing the overnight parking rule at Frostwoods Beach park. ;)
ReplyDelete"I made my displeasure fairly apparent at the meeting. My job as an alder is to set policy and not to manage or administrate."
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking! I do appreciate it and do not give up. The problem (as you know) is that all of those parks become nearly unusable in the Fall.
and one more thing....if we need to find money for the Recreation program for more programs and/or goose mitigation-I would strongly support cutting one of our three detectives.
I just do not get that, it not like we are overrun with crimes that require detectives. (rather my perception is that we are not)
Dude, McFarland has one and as I recall his caseload is nearly double or more our caseload.
I might be out in left-field here.
UNLESS, you are we expecting a whole slew of chickens stealing and even worse and invasion-low down-egg sucking dogs? If we are keep all three and hire another 'cause I just know this thing is taking off.
many many thanks.
so, how do we get who ever's job it is to manage and administrate to actually do it?
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty sad. It seems like there isn't much accountability happening up there at city hall.
What are the consequences for this person? I can tell you that at my job, it wouldn't be pretty.
If we are trying to attract and retain families, I would have to say that parks belong at the top of the maintenance list.
What is your next move?
Mutual Friend, your numbers are pretty accurate. The city gets about $48 per ticket so we would need to write over 1600 additional tickets.
ReplyDelete"so, how do we get who ever's job it is to manage and administrate to actually do it?"
ReplyDeleteThe mayor and administrator do the managing and administering. (And this item may have been discussed by them since our last meeting, I don't know.)
I was serious about the detective business and serious about my excitement for the positives things Jake is doing at the rec dept..
ReplyDeleteHP
"I was serious about the ..."
ReplyDeleteBut you called me 'dude'.
Reading this budget-and I have some questions.
ReplyDeleteDoes Applied from Fund Balance mean what I think it means?
HP
I don't know, what do you think it means?
ReplyDeleteOK, OK, that is basically the city's emergency reserve. We adopted a policy to keep it between 15% and 20% in order to get good bond ratings. It worked and we can sell our bonds with lower interest rates.