
Welcome to the first blog ever created to encourage responsible government in Liberty, Missouri. Liberty Forward was founded in 2007 to promote both fiscal responsibility in city government and the idea that government spending should be transparent and information should be easy for citizens to obtain and understand. Liberty Forward is your watchdog. IF YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES YOU DON'T FEEL YOU ARE GETTING RESPONSE ON LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FOLLOW UP ON THEM FOR YOU!
By Lisa Essig
What is a city to do that has so many needs and so little money when it receives a windfall in the form of a class action lawsuit settlement? Anyone who drives the streets of Liberty knows we have needs. More than we can attend to, an understandable quandary for city council for sure.
With dwindling cash reserves and a forecast that the city will be unable to meet bond obligations without either cutting promised projects or raising taxes would it be more prudent to save the telecom settlement money? That is the question one councilman (Nick King) continues to ask.
The funds in question are $1.385 million, most of which was not accounted for in the 2008 budget.
Early in the year Councilman Jenness proposed that we spend 100% of those funds on our ailing roads. A prudent use of the funds at the time of the proposal. It is true we can probably not spend enough on roads right now.
Some on the council feel it would be most prudent that we save the entire settlement to shore up the "financial management challenge" using the words of city staff who in a June 6th study session prefers not to use the word "crisis". Both councilman King and Brenton referred to the city's situation as a potential financial crisis. Equally as many members are ready to spend it all now.
Others on the council wonder why it has to be an all or nothing proposition? A compromise settlement seems to make sense, save back enough to raise our cash position while meeting the most immediate needs with some spending. We will refer to the plan as "Pave and Save".
City staff has a spending proposal currently in front of the council that would spread the money out over a variety of projects. The outline is as follows:
$200,000-Improve the projected 2007 ending fund balance to 12.1%
What should be gleaned from this? It has been customary to maintain a cash position of 15% of the general fund budget, and this figure has been dwindling since 2005. We can only assume without adding cash from this settlement we are at or below 10%. This only brings our cash position to 12.1% as of 12/31/07 and does not guarantee we will remain there throughout 2008.
$86,000-Secure replacement of IT equipment
$200,000-Implement Sewer / Water Main backup storm water mitigation program
$150,000-Traffic Calming and crosswalk repairs Kansas St. / downtown
$150,000-Storm and sanitary sewer repairs Kansas St. / Franklin St.
$426,000-Additional Street Overlay Funding
$25,000-Street Condition Update
After being directed by council in a study session to consider a scenario that would set aside more of the settlement they brought back a proposal that took all of the proposed spending cut from road overlay. (Scenario #2)Liberty Forward's Plan: SCENARIO #3 as follows:
1. Add $426,000 to Street Overlay budget as proposed.
2. Prioritize the remaining items in the 2009 budget. And consider them within their own budgets on a case by case basis. If other budgeted 2008 spending falls short or comes in lower, use those savings to purchase these new items.
3. Save the balance $811,000 through the discussion of the 2010 tax extension discussion and the 2009 budget discussions. Remember in 2009 and for years to come we cannot meet bond obligations without raising taxes or cutting other projects. As part of their tax extension plan staff is proposing we cut or delay capital projects that have been in the works for many years. Discussions regarding prioritizing those cuts should include these new projects being recommended as new expenditures for the telecom settlement money.
We would consider the roads an emergency need. Consider only other proposed items also classified as emergency needs. Unless we have missed something we have not heard that any of these items proposed would be classified in such a fashion. Remember none of these items made the cut in the 2008 budget.
It seems as though we need to take care of our streets and at the same time start shoring up the holes in the boat where we are leaking so that we can have the much needed discussions about the city's financial management challenge we so desperately need to have.
This plan significantly adds to the street overlay, holds back money that helps protect our city's dwindling cash position, and it provides incentive to look for ways to save money in the existing 2008 budget in a way that we can bring in some of these additional very worthy projects.
Editorial - Jeff Moore
Last night I attended the citizens meeting led by Mr. Jim Moores and Mr. William Walker with respect to the petition drive for a state audit of the
All persons in attendance were respectful, calm, yet determined to complete the task at hand - obtain the necessary number of signatures required by state law to call in the state auditor. This is grass roots democracy at its best just as our forefathers must have had in mind for all local government when they founded our great country.
Just as the group had completed the process of making sure all the polls were covered on Tuesday, Representative
The School Board Had Called A Special Meeting For Tonight April 7th at
In addition, he announced that all 3 of the elected officials that represent the district Luann Ridgeway, Doug Ervin, and
If either the school board votes unanimously for the audit or the Governor calls for the audit the petition drive would be unnecessary.
It is important for the citizens to attend this meeting tonight. The following statement can be found on the agenda for tonight's meeting:
The board of education will meet to discuss and take action on the request for a State Audit.
It is important to note that this vote must be unanimous in nature and everyone on the board must be in attendance.
This is a critical vote that is the very first step in the healing process.
We at Liberty Forward urge you to please attend this very important meeting tonight.
What drives Liberty Forward?
If you wish to simply explain Liberty Forward’s platform of Fiscal Accountability you have to look no further than the basic needs our city has. Yes we need more Police on the streets, yes we need to a see a road crew now and then, and we certainly don’t need sewage or storm water in our basements.
The simple answer is to throw new money at these problems. The sensible but difficult answer is to figure out why these needs have not been met? City revenue growth has kept pace with the population growth. We find it very difficult to blame the population growth on the other side of the highway for wearing down our infrastructure or draining our emergency services. This argument works for the schools but not the city.
It is a simplistic solution to think we can grow our way out of this without adopting better fiscal policies. We agree that sales tax growth is needed; however there are no guarantees, and further deterioration of our streets and further increases in the load on our police department is not acceptable.
We commend the Police Department as the city department that does the most with the least. We see professional, hard working, and visible officers, in our opinion the best in the business. If we could get as much out of the rest of the city departments as the Police department gets out of their budget we would not be in the predicament we are in now.
As April approaches we fully expect city cash reserves to be lower than expected or predicted. The time has come to tighten our belts at city hall. However as we tighten our belts it is time that a larger piece of the pie be spent on basic services such as Police, Streets, and Storm Drainage.
Liberty Forward makes the pledge to continue to be the watchdog on city spending.
Moving Liberty Forward requires public safety, clean neighborhoods, and good streets.
Liberty Forward pledges to participate in the solution, however that does not always mean going along with status quo.
On Tuesday February 26th, Mayor Bob Steinkamp delivered his state of the city address. In this address it is clear that he feels the city must "develop" its way into the future. And to accomplish the development we need to spend and to spend we need to borrow and to borrow we need lots of leverage so we can borrow big, only then can we develop enough to save the day.
His speech failed to give the state of the city's cash position which is roughly 1/2 of what it was in 2005. In his speech, the mayor acknowledges that prior administrations committed the city to projects inconsistent with voter intent, what he doesn't make clear is the impact of those decisions on the city's fiscal health. Underfunded mandates, like Fountain Bluff, though there are others, has created a serious cash flow problem for the city. He fails to acknowledge that poor spending habits have continued on through his administration.
"As is the case throughout this country, and as it should be, there are citizens within our community that scrutinize all things government. Groups in this community have spent considerable time and effort looking into the decisions and actions of past administrations. Like some of the residents, I have voiced concerns over decisions related to Fountain Bluff and other aggressive projections and questionable strategies of former administrations. With the benefit of 3 years in this position, it is my belief (mayor Steinkamp) that practices of the prior administration followed an overly broad interpretation of what voters might expect from the use of those tax revenues....."
IN THE COMING DAYS LIBERTY FORWARD WILL POST THE ENTIRE SPEECH TRANSCRIPT FOR YOU TO READ.
Liberty Forward has spent both time and money to uncover these practices the mayor mentions in this speech, and the facts are undeniable as the mayor is acknowledging them publicly now, however televised council meetings and mayoral forums does not equal behavior change.
Growth is only one aspect of the solution. Fiscal accountability is the component to the solution no bureaucrat or long time elected officials wants to address. A citizens oversight committee is a start, but the jury is still out. Currently the proposal limits the citizen oversight to special purpose sales tax revenues (those underfunded mandates from the prior administrations) and does not allow for a budget review as it pertains to those taxes. Four councilpersons agree, that by excluding the budget from the oversight process there is little substance to the process.It becomes little more than an election tactic to pass the tax extension.
The mayor goes on to urge citizens that we must renew the 1/2 cent sales tax for a *minimum* of 20 years. Are you kidding me? You just acknowledged how poorly it has been used but turn around and ask to extend the tax for a period of twice as long as the past? Why should the citizens trust you especially with no clear cut solution to the spending problem city staff has?
It is becoming clearer and clearer that the only solution to the fiscal problems is a State Performance Audit. To our knowledge the city has never had a full performance audit. A performance audit is quite different from the process audits the city obtains annually. These annual audits do not address the appropriateness of spending patterns nor inquire about things like city staff credit card usage, personal cell phones, or contracts with former employees.
In the coming weeks Liberty Forward will begin to bring forth what occurred in the City of Springfield Missouri and its recent performance audit. In addition we will bring forth the case for a Performance Audit along with the petition process that is necessary to get the audit started.
Liberty Forward would consider supporting a tax extension in excess of 10 years IF the ballot language calls for a State Performance Audit in 2009.
Come on! What do you have to hide? An unbiased outside look at the city’s operations over the last 10 years is exactly what we need. This is the tool that will allow us to finally stop gathering old data and move forward. We urge
Let us know what you think? Would you support a Performance Audit by signing a petition? Go to the “Links” section of our website and click on “Vote Today on a City Audit!” and tell us what you think.
In the mayor's speech he says: "We need to act now. We can no longer afford to sit around and wait." We could not agree with him more.
For the record, we think the mayor is a good man.
Stay tuned.......