Before I get to the big news about the cuts upcoming in city services, there is a court case going on right now about the candidates for Mayor and Commissioner at Large. You may have read about it. The courts have denied an emergency injunction to instruct the city to put the candidates' names on the ballots pending the outcome of further litigation. This does not mean that the case is over, far from it. This will unfold over the next month and I'll be writing further about it.
Service Cuts - The budget for next year has been presented in two workshops so far. The budget as presented presumed that labor costs would be reduced significantly by employee furloughs, whereby each employee would have an unpaid day per period. The FOP, the police union, has rejected this and I understand that the non police employee union has as well. So what happens now that the city is heading towards broke under the North Bay Village Trujillo tax?
Sanitation - Garbage pickup is being proposed for outsourcing to Waste Management Systems, under a three year contract. The estimated savings is $350,000. It means that the people picking up our garbage are no longer criminally checked by the city, we will have curbside pickup not side yard, and we will be bound to this contract for three years.
As part of the deal, the city will sell off the sanitation equipment so if we should find that this service is not to the citizens' liking, we will have large capital expenditures and rehire costs.
Police - Rather than accept using traffic light funds to prevent layoffs, the administration and the FOP are eager to lay off cops. At tonight's Citizen's Budget and Oversight Committee meeting, the CBOC well overstepped its boundaries and resolution intent by voting to support 4-1 to recommend that the ATS funds not be used to prevent police layoffs.
Dispatch - Gone.
This will all be presented next Tuesday at the commission meeting. It matters and it's the last chance to stop this nonsense.
By the way, if you have no plans for September 11, the Citizens for Full Disclosure is hosting a pot luck at the Bridgewater Condo. Here's the email. I was surprised to get it and won't be attending.
From: cfd_nbv@hotmail.com
Sent: 9/3/2010 12:00:11 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: BAYVIEW CONDO INVITES YOU
YOU ARE INVITED TO A
POT LUCK PARTY
SEPT. 11TH BETWEEN 5-8 PM
AT BAYVIEW CONDOMINIUM
AT 1625 KENNEDY CAUSEWAY
BRING YOUR OWN BEVERAGE
Kevin Vericker
September 8, 2010
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