It has been really painful to watch the Park Board budget process so far. I say this not to get on anybody's case or question anybody's motivation.
The basic premise is completely wrong. It reminds me of an old joke. On a dark night a man is obviously looking for something under a streetlight- someone stops to ask him what he is looking for. He says he dropped his wallet further down the street. The passer by asks then why aren't you looking there? To which he replies- The light is better here. I think that is what is happening at the Park Board, where the basic premise is - Given no information about what is working or why or whether the overall mission and goals are being met- what would you tweak? It is like everyone is looking under the hood of a car and talking about how to make the engine run better but no one is looking at whether the car has any tires. If you want to drive somewhere you need a comprehensive plan- you need to look at the whole car. The problem is also that the budget is completely reactive and not proactive. So there is a 5 year backlog of stump grinding and a complete failure to budget strategically in the context of a long-term plan. So we have 5 years worth of infected stumps where the bark has not been removed and blame the weather for the problem and then outsource good union jobs and have no capacity in house to remove any stumps. I'll use buckthorn as an example. As much as I hate buckthorn, the discussion about whether buckthorn removal is a priority is really irrelevant. The real question is do we have an urban forestry plan for non boulevard trees? The answer to that is no. So we fund things without a plan. Even worse we let the bureaucracy run the strategy. I found this out last night- the reason we have $0 dollars in the forestry budget for buckthorn removal is that the bureaucracy has labeled it a shrub and therefore not something we need crews with chainsaws for. So we had to fundraise $ 8000 for a forestry crew to remove buckthorn in an area in Seward ( Oct. 15, '05) that was supposed to have a completed forestry plan many years ago. ( But still does not even thought the MPRB has received outside funding to do so). And the reason that the Park Board has not removed these 28ft trees? because they are shrubs?? The reason this is so painful to watch is that this is a discussion of what to fund with no discussion of why- or how best to do this strategically. There is also has not been any evaluation of how effective any line item expenditure has been. Thanks, Scott Vreeland Seward REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
