| Author
|
Post |
 
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Cathy Shafran
More: Bio, E-mail, News Team
FLINT (WJRT) -- (06/06/10) -- UPDATE-- Weekly garbage pickup and new jail space for inmates, could return to Flint.
This will only happen if Flint's city council people can win a potential budget battle with the mayor.
ABC12 has learned that the council, Monday, will propose more than a million dollars in cuts, that could bring back waste pick-up and jail space.
A special city council meeting has been called by the city council for Monday at 5:30 p.m.
Specifically on the agenda are some major amendments to the mayor's budget, which first includes some major cuts. The council's plan, according to Finance Chair Josh Freeman, is to cut half of the economic development budget and let that department operate on federal funds that it receives for administration.
The council's amendments also calls for cutting some $300,000 from the mayor's office, which would mean eliminating almost all the administrators in the mayor's office.
In exchange, Freeman says, the council would use the money for bringing back every week trash collection with every-other-week compost pick-up.
It would also include some $300,000 to lease jail space through the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.
Freeman spoke freely about his feelings on where Flint's budget is going. "We didn't feel, at this point, that the mayor needed a communications director when we could take it to house people. We didn't think it was a priority to have a neighborhood services person, when we could use the money to fund weekly trash pick-up. We didn't think it was necessary to have a clean cities coordinator, when we could use that money in the police department"
Freeman says he believes he has enough votes on the council to pass these amendments Monday. The mayor would have less than a week to veto them.
Freeman also believes he may have the two-third vote of the council to override a veto, if necessary.
ABC12 reporters attempted to contact the administration for comment, but has no response yet.
|
|
|
Mon Jun 07, 2010 8:43 am |
|
|
Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
|
Quietly considering the possibility that the council has finally grown a pair. Will wait & see if they have.
Personal opinion: What development of any kind will occur in a city widely perceived as a lawless war zone? |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
|
|
Mon Jun 07, 2010 8:59 am |
|
|
lacyw
F L I N T O I D
|
Damn! Go Josh!
At least someone has heard the citizens of the city. We have been talking about those same issues for months on this site.
Why spend so much of the city's money on economic development:
If they already get federal funding and
if businesses won't come because they feel unsafe.
I was also wondering if this meeting was open to the public?
If Walling is asking other parts of the city to make sacrifices, he can too! |
|
|
|
Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:04 am |
|
|
brianstarr
F L I N T O I D
|
| well its about time they started getting rid of some of the mayors flunkies now maybe trash pickup will get back on track |
|
|
|
Mon Jun 07, 2010 10:00 am |
|
|
Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
|
With these items on the agenda for the committee meeting Wednesday, it should be an interesting week.
Ballot Proposal/Office of the Ombudsman/City of Flint General Election Ballot/Aug.
3, 2010
Resolution resolving that the following ballot question be submitted to the electors
of the City of Flint at the Primary Election to be held on Aug. 3, 2010: Shall the Flint
City Charter be amended by deleting Sections 3501
through 3517,
which would
eliminate the Office of the Ombudsman for the City of Flint AND that the Flint City
Charter be amended by deleting Sections 3501
through 3517
of the Flint City
charter, which currently provides for the Office of Ombudsman and that the Office
of the Ombudsman shall be eliminated as soon as the Amendment deleting
Sections 3501
through 3517
is approved by the voters of the City of Flint.
100360
Ballot Proposal/Reduction of Flint City Council Wards From Nine to Seven/City of
Flint General Election Ballot/Aug. 3, 2010
Resolution resolving that the following ballot question be submitted to the electors
of the City of Flint at the Primary Election to be held on Aug. 3, 2010: Shall the Flint
City Charter be amended by restating and amending Sections 2201
through 2202,
which would reduce the number of Wards in the City of Flint from nine to
seven AND that the Flint City Charter be amended by restating and amending
Sections 2201
through 2202
of the Flint City charter, which currently provides for
nine Wards in the City of Flint and that the number of Wards in the City of Flint
shall be reduced from nine to seven as soon as the Amendment reducing the
number of Wards is approved by the voters of the City of Flint. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
|
|
Mon Jun 07, 2010 2:13 pm |
|
|
00SL2
F L I N T O I D
|
| By all means, put them both on the ballot! |
|
|
|
Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:11 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Education & Government News, Blogs, Photos & Videos
Flint City Council axes mayor's appointees, restores weekly trash pickup in budget
By Kristin Longley | Flint Journal
June 07, 2010, 8:46PM
Flint Journal file photoTrash lines the street along E. Eddington Avenue in Flint waiting for garbage collection.FLINT, Michigan — Say goodbye to several of the mayor's top brass and hello again to weekly trash pickup — if the Flint City Council gets its way, that is.
City council members tonight unanimously adopted a budget quite different from the proposed budget of Flint Mayor Dayne Walling.
The council axed at least four of the mayor's appointed officials and restored funding to bring back weekly garbage collection for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The council also cut the fire chief's position, which is currently vacant, and included funding to house more offenders in jail — even if it means renting jail space outside the county.
Even though the council added about $500,000 to the administration's recommended budget for the police department, it's still about $3 million short of what the police budget was at the beginning of this fiscal year.
Council members said they will continue to pursue more grant funding for public safety.
"The city of Flint is broke," Councilman Joshua Freeman said. "We're getting more and more broke by the day. We're in a bad way and these cuts reflect that."
The council could have a budget battle on its hands. The mayor has seven days to issue a veto, but the council likely would override that veto with a two-thirds majority vote.
City Administrator Gregory Eason tonight said he thanks the council on behalf of the mayor for its work on the budget, but said the mayor would be taking a hard look at their changes.
He said the administration is "disappointed" about the cuts to the mayor and administrator's staff.
The council cut five full-time appointee positions, but added $72,000 for "professional services," saying the mayor could use it to bring someone back on a contractual basis without benefits.
Some of the affected positions would include communications director, green services coordinator, neighborhood services director, constituent services director and director of governmental policy.
"We feel we have high-quality people working for us," Eason said. "It appears the council has not placed the same kind of value on their services."
Breaking from tradition, the council adopted a line-item budget to designate funding for each specific item in each department's budget. Historically, the council had adopted budgets on an overall departmental level.
"In order to put a little bit more control on expenditures it is a line-item resolution which gives us more control on how dollars are spent," said Freeman, chairman of the council's finance committee.
Eason declined to speak for the mayor, but said Walling would likely be examining the line-item budget and setting his own priorities.
"The city council can make recommendations but they have no say-so on how those dollars are spent," Eason said. "The decision is solely in the hands of the mayor."
While the council made changes to individual line items, the overall general fund amount is similar’s to the mayor’s recommendation. General fund expenditures were set at $57.1 million, about $9 million less than was adopted this time last year. |
|
|
|
Mon Jun 07, 2010 10:18 pm |
|
|
00SL2
F L I N T O I D
|
Reference: michiganlegislature.org
Act 2 of 1968 - UNIFORM BUDGETING AND ACCOUNTING ACT (141.421 - 141.440a) |
|
|
|
Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:13 pm |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Register
Profile
FlintTalk.com Forum Index
> Political Talk
