At 12:34 PM +0000 4/5/06, dfsavgny wrote:
>...Rita constantly questions the bills. IN the past months there has
>been approvals of thousands of dollars for office furniture. You ask
>but can't find out exactly what or how much was bought. Once there
>was an expense of over $600 for a chair. Who approves this crap? I
>have a more expensive chair but I am paying for it. You want that
>type of stuff, go out into the private sector and earn it.
It's really a stupid idea -- yes stupid -- for Rita, Jim Keady and even Ed
Johnson -- or anyone else for that matter -- to ask about bills on the bill
list at the council meeting where they are to be voted on. There is no way that
the finance department can have all the back-up documents for any question that
might come up on the list. It should not be a surprise to anyone that there are
no specific answers at the Council meeting.
Do these presumably well-intentioned citizens (Council included) deserve a
detailed explanation of bills? Ab-so-f-ing-lutely!
Here's what I do, and what anyone can do. Sometime around 3pm on the Friday
before the Wednesday Council meeting, the bill list is printed in the finance
department. It becomes a public document and anyone can visit City Hall and
have a look at it or get a copy of it. I've been told you can even get a copy
off the city's web site later that same day. (You can get a copy on Monday or
Tuesday or Wednesday or next week if you want to.) Take it home... review it
to your heart's content. Then contact the finance department -- in person, by
phone or by e-mail -- and ask for the detailed back-up information about any
and all bills you have a question about. I've never heard from a single person
yet who said that they couldn't get detailed information on any and all bills
when they inquired at the finance department.
OK... so let's say you still have a question or complaint about a particular
chair that's on the bill list and you don't like the answer you got at the
finance department... THEN you bring it to the attention of the Council at the
Council meeting and complain. Complain about what you learned about the cell
phone charges.... or the web site hosting charges for that matter. Do something
about.
But if all one does is come to the Council meeting expecting a detailed answer
on a specific bill on the bill list -- and you know from years of not getting
detailed information at the Council meeting -- then I have to conclude that one
is just asking about bills to be a grand-stander. Or in the case of the people
who come out once every four years and then retreat back into their hiding
places, a candidate for City Council.
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