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00SL2
F L I N T O I D
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Letter from Josh Freeman, voice of truth and common sense, to the Flint Journal, very well written!
mlive.com
Another View: Public safety is the No. 1 priority for the Flint City Council
Published: Sunday, January 09, 2011, 6:24 AM
Community Voice | Flint Journal Letters By Community Voice | Flint Journal Letters
By Joshua M. Freeman
I was excited to read the editorial in the Sunday, Dec. 26, Flint Journal, “Unite in Flint crime fight; start with push for jail space.” It seems that the editors at The Flint Journal have come to the conclusion that the city could reduce crime if we just had a place to house criminals, even on a temporary basis. The editorial states that the city should go so far as renting space from other municipalities, such as Midland, to house people, suggesting that “a day or two away from that action can be an eternity.”
“Unite now on this jail-space plan” the Journal implores.
I only have one question: Where have you been, Flint Journal?
When the Flint City Council developed and passed the current city budget back in June 2010, our No. 1 priority was public safety. We literally gutted departments to the bare bones in order to focus every dollar on ensuring that our public safety departments were staffed to the greatest extent that the city could afford.
During that budget process, there were talks aimed at finding a funding source to open the city jail, even on a temporary basis (operating on weekends only, for example), and about working cooperatively with the county to free up space at the Genesee County Jail so that the city could house more of these criminals. But those discussions led to the same end each time — with our limited resources, there simply was not enough money to fund either option.
A solution that the City Council considered and eventually funded was renting space from other municipalities to house these criminals. In discussion with Genesee County officials, we learned that some of these other locales were renting empty space in their jails for half the cost of what it would cost to house them here in our county. In some instances, the cost would be only $30 per day compared with upwards of $60 locally. It seemed like a no-brainer and a good alternative to what we could afford locally.
In addition, such a move would take these criminals out of their element. Having to find a way home from Midland, rather than downtown Flint, would be a much more daunting task for offenders who are causing problems for Flint.
So with the passage of the budget, done unanimously by the Flint City Council, we were able to earmark nearly $140,000 for housing criminals outside of Genesee County. At $30 per day, that worked out to nearly 4,700 days of incarceration. That may not seem like a lot, but compared to what we have now, it’s huge.
So it seems where The Flint Journal editorial board is going with this idea of jail space, the Flint City Council has already been — six months ago.
Unfortunately for the residents of Flint, the Walling administration has decided that this wasn’t enough money to make a difference and has refused to implement the program.
As it relates to the tax proposal that was presented to the City Council by the Mayor at our last meeting in December, there were several reasons given for not moving forward.
First, the proposal was vague. It stated that there would be 6 mills for public safety without specific language for what they would be used for. So conceivably, you could put 5 mills toward the fire department and only 1 mill toward the operation of the jail and it would still fit in the parameters of the proposal. City Council suggested prior to and during the meeting that the proposal be broken into pieces so that the residents would know exactly what they would be getting for their tax dollars.
For example, in Saginaw the voters were given a choice of what they wanted to vote on, proposal A, B and C that included varying levels of service. We should do the same thing here. Split the proposal into 2 mills for renewal of the community police, 2 mills for operation of the jail and 2 mills designated for fire. By doing this, the residents would know what each proposal would be designated for and could vote accordingly. Had the proposal been designed this way, I think that the council would have given it more consideration than what was presented.
Secondly, there seems to be a misconception in the community and by The Journal that by voting on a tax increase, there would be increased services, that we would hire more police, for example. I disagree. Our current budget is projected to be $4 to $5 million in deficit. The new revenue projected to be realized from the proposal that was submitted by the mayor would do nothing more than fill the current budget gap. Essentially, we would be maintaining the status quo. In reality, while we can project what would be realized this year, with declining property values we could be faced with a situation where the residents vote for a tax increase and the following year the city would be forced to again lay off public safety because the revenues have decreased. I think that is an important point that needs to be communicated to the residents prior to putting a measure on the ballot.
Thirdly, the city of Flint is facing a structural deficit that must be addressed now. The Walling administration and the unions must come to a settlement on contracts that offer concessions. Across every sector, employers and employees are facing tough decisions in order to maintain solvency. The city of Flint is no different. There is no doubt that our employees work hard for the compensation they get. But the reality is that if we continue down the road we are currently on, in the near future there won’t be enough revenue to do anything but pay legacy costs. Health care and pension costs are skyrocketing and are slowly driving the city to bankruptcy. No one wants to pay more for health care or pensions, but the alternative is more lay-offs and reduced services to the residents. We must live within the revenue we have, something that seems foreign in recent years at the city of Flint. Until we renegotiate contracts, passing a tax now is simply kicking the can down the road with no solution.
Lastly, there is real concern about the ability of Flint residents to pay increased property taxes. In case you haven’t noticed, the unemployment rate in our community is among the highest in the state. Couple that with the high number of retirees in the city on fixed income and you have a huge segment of the population that would be more negatively affected by a property tax increase. As an alternative, the City Council passed, unanimously, a resolution in support of looking to raise the city income tax. While still a huge burden on the residents, it was an alternative to asking those who are not working or retired to pay more.
So, Flint Journal, the Flint City Council is and has been united to address the issue of crime in this community and welcomes the commitment from the hometown newspaper to stand with us as we try to find alternative solutions to the problems we are facing.
— Joshua M. Freeman is the Flint city councilman representing the 4th Ward.
© 2011 MLive.com. All rights reserved.
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Source: http://www.mlive.com/opinion/flint/index.ssf/2011/01/another_view_public_safety_is.html |
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Sun Jan 09, 2011 12:46 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Josh has grown since his preious election. It is sad to see single council persons sometimes being the voice of reason and being out there by themselves.
Heller has no understanding of the issues, but that does not stop him from penning his misconceptions. |
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Sun Jan 09, 2011 2:05 pm |
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