Monday, April 12, 2010

Lots of stuff going on. Of course the Legislature is on their home stretch, and everyone is running around in a dither and millions are being thrown here and there and NOT thrown there and here. It looks like Juneau will get a significant chunk of change thrown into various projects as well as supporting schools.

The Juneau schools have caused me some concern as an Assembly person. In the past I have not been convinced that their money was managed well. We now have a new Superintendent (Glen Gelbrich) who I am impressed with and who I believe is committed to good financial management. And the current School Board President Mark Choate is similarly committed. I like that. However, their budget comes to us for approval and in a year when the city operating budget is cutting millions, accessing reserves, and not filling positions, I don’t see similar cutbacks by the School District. In FY 10 the school district added 22 positions and in FY11 they propose 11 more. This at a time of declining enrollment. But the schools get funding from a formula—the state gives a bunch and the municipality also gives a formula driven amount. Neither one has declined. And they continue to ask the city for more than their formula amount. We really do want to give our kids the best education possible and I support that. I just want to know that money is being managed efficiently. The Superintendent and Board President told us last Wednesday that they would probably come to us for permission to put one or two school bond issues on the fall ballot. That translates to a higher rate for property taxes. Normally, I would say that if the citizens vote to approve something, then that is the way it should be. But I am not always sure citizens connect the dots between “support for schools” and higher property taxes.

The full proposed budget is now online I encourage you to at least read the City Manager’s Budget Message and Executive Summary in the Overview section. The Assembly will be meeting as the Finance Committee every Wednesday evening for the next six weeks to work through this.

Tonight the Committee of the Whole meets to talk about whether to establish an Empowered Board to manage the swimming pools similarly to Eaglecrest’s management (I mentioned this last post). I still think this is a bad idea. Fragmenting administration is not the path to government efficiency.

Immediately following that meeting we convene the Assembly for a Special Joint Meeting with the Planning Commission to talk about their recommendations to us on Downtown Parking, Wireless Communication facilities, land use regulations and capital improvement projects. If you are interested in the Wireless tower issue, you should read the proposed ordinance.

During this month of many meetings and budget considerations, I will try and post a bit more frequently. At this Wednesday’s Finance meeting (5pm) we will look at the general departmental budgets with special presentations by the Fire Department, the Law Department.

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