Quote of the Day
From a local paper’s story regarding the lack of tickets being written by the city police:
Officer morale has a direct influence on conduct, according to Roberts, of the International Union of Police Associations.
Anytime morale on a department suffers, performance suffers,” he said. “When morale suffers, you usually look to command to see why.
Officers may be upset at the take home car policy but it’s up to Chief York to manage his department. Sounds like he’s having major issues with the rank and file and that’s never good for someone in senior management…
Friday’s Stuff Worth Reading
- The NY Times explains
the origins of the the word “boondoggle”.
Before it became a bad word, “boondoggle” was an innocent, humble craft. It was the Boy Scouts of America who claimed credit for coining the word, to refer to the plaited leather lanyards that they made and wore around their necks.
That all changed on April 3, 1935, at a hearing in New York City on how New Deal relief money was being spent. A Brooklyn crafts teacher reluctantly testified that he was paid to show the jobless how to make “boon doggles.” The outcry was swift. “$3,187,000 Relief is Spent to Teach Jobless to Play,” trumpeted a front-page headline the next day in The New York Times. “ ‘Boon Doggles’ Made.”
A new, more sinister meaning was born, and the word came to signify government make-work, later referring to wasteful government projects in general.
- Can Detroit make a comeback? I doubt it, but the article points to some contrary evidence. (H/T - Scott Spaulding)
- Phil Marx
lists several random thoughts.
18. The more I observe and hear from others of the behavior of FWPD, I am increasingly inclined to think they should change their motto from “To Serve and to Protect” to “To Abuse and to Neglect.” And I am getting very close to making up a large banner that says this, along with the official FWPD shield with a big “X” through it, and exercise my First Amendment rights by affixing it to the side of my house.
19. I am equally close to printing up a large sign that says “Rusty York is a Coward, Liar and a Fool.” and standing outside the FWPD headquarters and in front of the City County building to display it.
- Change Ft Wayne posts
their thoughts on The Harrison:
The city made a huge mistake of making a stipulation of spending a minimum, instead of a minimum amount of condos. Fort Wayne is owed an explanation of the costs that are going towards this project. 14.5M to develop empty slate retail and a handful of condos? Yea, and the Renaissance building is really worth the full asking price.
Speaking of which, I have a house that has been on the market for the last ten years. I’ve listed it for 160k, but I’ll sell it for 190k.
The Harrison Bait & Switch
So after all this time of floundering and bamboozlement the best idea the city and Barry Real Estate can come up with is to create more office space? In a downtown that is already littered with nothing but vacant office space that’s the best they can do - really?
Let me just say that is flat out unacceptable. We paid the first group of consultants to tell us how much we needed more residential downtown. Then we paid another consultant to tell us how great this project was going to be and how it would be the catalyst for residential expansion. Now we’re going to go off the board and develop the very thing that not even a cherry-picked city consultant would recommend - more office space.
Mr. Mayor, please make it go away; don’t be this foolish. We have given millions of dollars to these charlatans from Atlanta and we did so because there was a vision of this project finally being the piece that would bring people not only to visit but also live downtown. We must hold them to that vision.
Screw the $14.5 million number we’ve used to box ourself in. Focus on the end product and renegotiate the other parts of the contract to make up the difference. Having said that I have zero confidence in Barry Real Estate’s ability to get this done. They appear to merely be a fiction of the housing bubble and incapable of operating outside that unsustainable system. It’s probably past time to just cut our losses, sue them and put out a new RFP…
Wednesday’s Stuff Worth Reading
- Edward Harrison on why Obama needs to start being an asshole. I was just talking about this with Mike Sylvester yesterday. Regardless of your position on the policy you must admit that Obama has completely fumbled the health care issue. As Harrison says: “compromise is an integral part of leadership and governance. But, there is a time for compromise and a time to fight.”
- Japanese Wages hit 20 year low - I promised Sylvester I would post this. Just look how wages have fallen consistently for 20 years. Don’t think that can happen here? Think again partner…
- Man doesn’t understand the concept of sliding glass door and goes Charlie Brown on it - classic video.
Budget Hints Dropped During City Council
There was some unexpected budget discussion at tonight’s meeting when council president Tom Smith pressed city controller Pat Roller for some information on the administration’s upcoming 2010 budget submission. Roller did say that she felt very good about the budget and thought they would submit a budget that “everyone around the table would be proud of.”
She repeated her claim that the budget will have 1.5% pay raises for all employees across the board but she made another subtle comment that I think was very telling and requires some analysis. She mentioned that the “budget will be balanced” but would not commit to it being flat. Smith retorted with “it better be because balanced we don’t do deficit spending here.” She then made a comment about how difficult it’s been for her to balance the budget.
If you go back to my original post on city budget projections you’ll see that 2010 is not the most challenging year. Due to the cuts made last year, balancing the budget for 2010 should not be too terribly difficult. The problem years are going to be in 2011 and 2012 when assessed values begin to drop thus lowering property tax revenue.
So I think what you need to keep an eye on is whether or not the administration will submit an increase in the levy or try to keep the budget flat - they certainly won’t propose any cuts. Based on the way Roller danced around Smith’s questions I think they are going to push for an increase in the levy - better known as a property tax increase.
It would be a huge mistake to ignore the looming budget problems of 2011 and beyond by ignoring them in the short term. City council rightly looked ahead last year and made significant cuts to the budget in order to strengthen our position today - something the administration fought every step of the way.
They need to show the same financial discipline this year and cut even further. I believe the prudent decision would be to cut ~3.6 million in 2010 but of course we’ll know more when the actual revenue estimates come in.
I’m concerned that the administration’s budget will be unrealistic and fiscally irresponsible - I hope I’m wrong about that but after last year’s debacle and the comments I heard tonight I doubt it…
Renaissance Square Public Hearing & Other Notes From City Council
The discussion at tonight’s council meeting regarding the city purchasing Renaissance Square was quite lively and interesting - at least as interesting as local government can get. The first thing I noticed was that the city is now referring to the property as 200 E Berry and not Renaissance Square - no doubt in an effort to distance this project from the failed Renaissance Pointe gentrification project.
But the big news that came out of the meeting was that council will hold a courtesy public hearing next Tuesday before committee session. This means any and all citizens can weigh in before the vote and let council know how they feel about the project.
Just for the record councilmen Pape and (I believe) Hines Bender* voted against having a public hearing. Both felt this project had been discussed enough and they didn’t want to further delay the vote. Of course the public hearing and the vote will be held next week so there won’t be a delay which I guess means neither wanted to be bothered by actually having to listen to the public. As for the project details, and other discussion, well let me share them with you…
Thoughts on Dr Tom Challenging Souder
As I’m sure everybody already knows by now, former city councilman Dr Tom Hayhurst has announced his intention to challenge 3rd District congressman Mark “95 cents on the dollar” Souder. This is certainly welcome news but I think the political momentum was much greater two years ago. Unfortunately Democrat Mike Montagano was not able to seriously challenge Souder despite massive fundraising support from the national party.
Had the DCCC supported Hayhurst in 2006 it probably would’ve been a closer race and maybe he wouldn’t have sat out the 2008 race. Perhaps Hayhurst thinks they will offer more support this go around or that the lower turnout of a midterm election will benefit him.
Here’s what I wrote the day after the 2008 elections:
I agree that Souder is probably our Congressman for eternity. I suppose a strategic gerrymander could oust him but that’s not likely.
Anything could happen in the future but right now it’s hard to imagine a better scenario over a 4 year period for Democrats and yet Souder still won both races quite easily.
I wonder if any serious Democrat will ever bother to challenge him again?
Well Hayhurst is definitely a serious candidate so that answers that question. All the best to Dr Tom in his effort to send this career politician packing…
Stuff Worth Reading
- Denninger on
Goldman Sachs’ taxpayer subsidized profits and why they should be bankrupt:
No, the real objection of Taibbi and others (myself included) is that Goldman managed to steal $13 billion dollars of American Taxpayer money, without which they would not exist today. Having stolen that money through claims of imminent financial collapse made by their former head, Henry Paulson, at their urging, they now have speculated with that taxpayer money and kept the proceeds.
[...]
Nobody I am aware of cares if a firm is able to turn a legitimate profit through their actions in the market. We object not to profit, but to blatant chiseling of the taxpayer after a company or individual makes a bad bet due to their own incompetence or willful blindness, then demands that the taxpayer cover it, yet when their bets turn out well, they keep the money and hand it to their “associates.” - Simon Johnson on
America’s wasted energy and talent on modern finance:
Finance in its modern American form is not productive. It is not conducive to further sustained economic growth. The GDP accruing from these activities is illusory – most of finance is simply a tax on what is done by more productive members of society and a diversion of talent away from genuinely productivity-enhancing activities.
- Yves Smith on
President Obama’s growing political problems:
The health care fiasco is going to be a defining event for Obama, in a negative way. His inability to respond effectively to simply absurd distortions of his plan and of the record of public supported programs overseas (including that many are government funded but still privately run, for instance) may dispel the illusion that he is or can be an effective leader. His banking policy, which is vital to recovery, became hostage to Geithner and Summer’s deep loyalty to the industry, and his lack or interest in rocking any boats.
[...]
The confidence game worked when he was a new President, but nice talk and not much action is already wearing thin.
Councilman Smith is so right
Please read this article from the Saturday News-Sentinel.
Fort Wayne apparently is in a rush to purchase some real estate. In fact they are in such a hurry they plan on giving City Council just a couple of weeks to review the proposal. This is flat out absurd and it is gross mismanagement from the Allen County Government and the City of Fort Wayne Government.
Both organizations have known when the lease would run out since the lease was first signed; and rather than get together and plan for the future both sides are “flailing around” in a last minute attempt to figure out where both organizations will do business for the foreseeable future. It is 100% absurd that the two organizations have once again failed to get together and plan for an event that both sides knew would occur (and they knew when it would occur).
This is a complete circus…
Mike Sylvester
Invasion of the Editorial Body Snatchers
After I read the editorial from today’s local paper the only word that came to mind was - Que? It actually read like they care about the tax burden citizens are facing.
Council members who do not understand that the city’s benefits are an area ripe for examination are in sore need of a reality check. Many residents, including the taxpayers who pay for the salaries and benefits of city workers, do not enjoy the same level of benefits that city employees enjoy.
And more and more those same taxpayers are finding that they are paying more for any health care insurance offered through a private employer. And a larger number of taxpayers are facing unemployment.
True dat. They even went a step further, doing something I never thought I’d see, and criticized councilman Tim Pape:
Councilman Tim Pape, D-5th, argued that the city needs to maintain generous benefits to attract qualified employees to the city. More than once during the discussion he spoke about how the law firm where he works considers it a wise policy to compensate its employees with an attractive benefit package.
Interestingly, Pape does not get his insurance through his full-time employer. He chooses instead to accept the taxpayer-supported health insurance that is available to City Council members but not other part-time city employees.
I guess it’s always easier to bill the taxpayer huh councilman? And to top it off, the editorial concludes with something that sounds like it came straight from a budget hawk:
As the council prepares to consider the city’s 2010 budget, council members will need to find spending cuts in an already trim budget. City leaders must cut spending, and generous health care packages for city employees should be on the table along with everything else.
More of this please…
