Another great editorial by Mr. Mike Anthony of the SunCrest Call!
Please click on the header to be directed to the editorial that asks the simple question does the City know what "deficit" spending is?
If you ask this humble ward two resident, I would have to say no they do not! You see I requested via a FOIA form the bills, the vendors, and the payment receipts from July, 2008 to August, 2009, and got nothing!
That can't be you say? Well yes it can, you see Mr. Jim Eckrige didn't think it was "specific enough" in the form I asked for it in to provide any answers. Now this peaked my interest so I asked a couple of other's what I should do and they told me to ask for vendor numbers, payouts, check numbers, and specific bills! Now that's all fine and dandy but why take up the City Clerks time digging for all that when they knew (or should have known) what I wanted in the first place!
I then sent an email to ALL the Alderpersons asking why we were not following the Charter when it comes to spending $600,000.00 more than we have coming in, and got one answer (from Jim Eckrige again.! He told me we were not violating the Charter but rather using "UN-encumbered" funds to balance the budget (read cash reserves.)
Now we see this fine editorial from Mr. Anthony stating the same thing I did but in a different way (much more eloquently,) and we still don't have an answer from the City Administrator as to how he and the Board can square this with the chapter and verse of the Charter.
Is what they are doing legal? You bet it is, but it's still "smoke and mirrors," when it comes to the average "Joe six pack" in town. So, that said I have an explanation for you. If you remember the Popeye cartoon, there was a character named "Wimpy," and as he would say here, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger I can have today!"
Bottom line folk's, it's still our money, call your Alder person (email apparently doesn't work) and tell them how you feel about this travesty!
Tom Ford
NO. 665
If you ask this humble ward two resident, I would have to say no they do not! You see I requested via a FOIA form the bills, the vendors, and the payment receipts from July, 2008 to August, 2009, and got nothing!
That can't be you say? Well yes it can, you see Mr. Jim Eckrige didn't think it was "specific enough" in the form I asked for it in to provide any answers. Now this peaked my interest so I asked a couple of other's what I should do and they told me to ask for vendor numbers, payouts, check numbers, and specific bills! Now that's all fine and dandy but why take up the City Clerks time digging for all that when they knew (or should have known) what I wanted in the first place!
I then sent an email to ALL the Alderpersons asking why we were not following the Charter when it comes to spending $600,000.00 more than we have coming in, and got one answer (from Jim Eckrige again.! He told me we were not violating the Charter but rather using "UN-encumbered" funds to balance the budget (read cash reserves.)
Now we see this fine editorial from Mr. Anthony stating the same thing I did but in a different way (much more eloquently,) and we still don't have an answer from the City Administrator as to how he and the Board can square this with the chapter and verse of the Charter.
Is what they are doing legal? You bet it is, but it's still "smoke and mirrors," when it comes to the average "Joe six pack" in town. So, that said I have an explanation for you. If you remember the Popeye cartoon, there was a character named "Wimpy," and as he would say here, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger I can have today!"
Bottom line folk's, it's still our money, call your Alder person (email apparently doesn't work) and tell them how you feel about this travesty!
Tom Ford
NO. 665
posted by Crestwood Independent at 17:26
23 Comments:
What the city is doing is legal. We may not like it. But it's legal.
That being said, WHY won't Chief Financial Officer Douglas Brewer bear to admit that the city is in fact deficit spending? They're taking money out of cash reserves and using it for expenses. They're spending more money this year than they're bringing in. Like it or not, and apparently Mr. Brewer doesn't, that is what we in the normal world call deficit spending.
His catty explanation in the city's newsletter was a waste of time, ink and our tax dollars. He's thin skinned and it really shows.
Besides his sensitive nature, Mr. Brewer is a highly competent CFO and I trust him with Crestwood's finances.
But until he quits getting his shorts in a wad over a newspaper's accurate portrayal of deficit spending, Douglas Brewer is going to be a miserable young man.
Lighten up, Dougie!
Shorts waded up in a bunch, dont for get who hired him, it was our mayor.
Previous poster,
I'm glad the mayor wanted to hire Mr. Brewer. I think Douglas Brewer is an intelligent and highly qualified finance officer.
His problem is getting into a battle of semantics with a newspaper. Until he learns to just let some things go, he'll continue to put his foot in his mouth.
Good finance officers keep their money straight and their mouths shut. Mr. Brewer's little missive in the newsletter seems to have caused more trouble for the city than it's helped.
Mr. Brewer can deny it and write all he wants to. But the city is deficit spending.
Well kids one thing is for sure Mr. Douglas Brewer sure came to the wrong town if he can't stand the heat!
I wonder if after he uses the "UN-encumbered" funds and then finds out we need them for an emergency he will be the first in line at Royal Bank for more money?
And now a little test for the CFO:
Given the fact that were short some $600,000.00 in the budget, which of the following would best describe the use of "UN-encumbered funds?"
1. Accounting anomaly
2. Over spending the budget
3. Oh well they all (Cities) do it
4. Deficit spending
5. None of our business
We will play some thinking music Doug while you choose your answer!
Tom Ford
How do we increase "deficit spending?" Let me count the way's!
Here is one sure way to do it, keep a service that has been duplicated by St. Louis County!
I just got this in, and i believe this group should understand that the position of Animal control has become a luxury we can no longer afford (but you read it for yourself and tell me!)
"Subject: Animal Control
Importance: High
WE NEED ALL OF YOUR HELP!
As most of you know the City Administrator, Jim Eckrich has proposed to the aldermen closing Animal Control as a means of budget cutting. Mary and myself have been working fervently for this NOT to happen. Now we need help in getting the word out to the people of Crestwood. We NEED to hear the people of Crestwood’s voices join ours. Yeah, yeah we know how ‘loud’ we can be but we need to be a thousand times louder. September 10th Mayor Roy Robinson will have a Town Hall meeting at the Community Center. Animal Control and the Sappington House being the main focus. Mary, Joann, Louise, Donna (a great supporter of AC) and myself have met with the mayor several times over AC. Yesterday afternoon Mary & I met and discussed what needs to be done to get the public out and showing their support. He is very much in keeping Animal Control. We asked if we could start a petition and if so what kind of permit would be necessary. He told us by all means start a petition and we did not need a permit. Petition forms and flyers are ready to be picked up at my house by all who would like to join us. See you can get some good old fashioned exercise by walking too. We know it’s short notice and all of us have busy packed days and it’s a holiday week-end but we really can’t afford to lose Animal Control. I’ve attached the flyer (front & back) and petition form in case you want to print and start earlier. We do need to know what area of Crestwood you will be hitting. Call either Mary or I to let us know so we can mark it on our master ward map. Time is so short we need to make sure we don’t have several people petitioning on the same streets. I’m also working on cutting each ward out separately and blowing up to make streets and addresses readable."
Linda Watson Mary Wheat
Ladies, give it up, it's over unless you can pay ALL the bills in that division!
Tom Ford
By the way, if you would like to email Mr. Brewer with a question here is his email address.
dbrewer@ci.crestwood.mo.us
Tom Ford
Great week of work by the Mayors friends appointed to the Econ. Development Comm.. Lindbergh Caddy is closing on 9/18 and Crestwood is one of nine locations that are having their post office close by 1/2010.
Way to go Roy glad to see you are on top of events!
I am convinced that nobody in City Hall will ever do the right thing in the citizen's eyes. If Mr. Brewer was not "Deficit Spending" and our city began slashing public safety jobs, I am sure the town would cry out, "Why could we not afford them? We had XXX dollars in the cash reserves!"
Instead, he (or them depending on how you see it) is using the cash reserves to balance the budget in a manner that is legal. And yet, we are calling him to the carpet.
Our city is dying, my friends. bigger businesses continue to leave and smaller ones fill their spots at an ever declining rate. The mall is dead. It doesn't make one bit of difference having the artsy folks up there as none of it is creating the revenue stream needed to fix our financial woes.
Everyone, it seems, is so eager to mock or blame city government for this downturn. Yet, we are still paying substantially less taxes than our surrounding cities. Don't believe me? Look it up. Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Sunset Hills all pay a lot more than we do.
We will see our Police and Fire and other city employees either leave, or get their jobs cut if this continues. The mall and Watson Road corridor is in terrible shape. The question is this- do we sit back and allow our city to lose its identity, or do we step up and start paying (yes, out of our own pockets GASP!) to keep our beloved city going for a while?
I, for one, would hate to see our city fall apart because we were unwilling to take on a share of the load that the mall has been paying in our stead for so many years.
Please excuse my rant, but I am sick and tired of reading blogs about the discontent of Crestwood's City Hall...the blaming and complaining. It is getting us nowhere, and fast!
Signed,
Concerned and disgusted
Dear Concerned and Disgusted
While I believe most of what you state one problem remains.
There is no plan and no leadership.
The economic development commission takes no action and decides to meet as needed. A clear need was presented by you when describing the state of business at the mall and on watson road. No plan or leadership from the economic development commission.
The civil service board is equally disabled with the same meet as required mentality while they are busy taking instructions from the city administrator. I feel sorry for the employees of the city. If you want the pleasure of listening to their meetings I will post it here for you to review and arrive at your own conclusion.
I would contribute
additional funds to maintain the city but do not have any trust in the present administration that refuses to admit to deficit spending and be proactive.
AS long as the Mayor continues to use my tax money to buy the votes of narrowly focused Crestwood lobbyist (aka: Sappington House, animal control, Sappington House Manager etc.) he will receive no more money from me.
10:49 PM blogger: "Concerned and disgusted," well so are most of us my friend! All we ask is for open and honest government, and what we get is "closed door sessions, ETC!
If you have the funds to spend in this economic down turn I congratulate you as most of us do not! Yet never the less we see requests for "bridges to no-where," new trucks, and expenditures (animal control,) that are duplications of efforts!
The Bridge in White Cliff Park can be done for less than half the money with an approved "low water bridge," and The City knows it!
Now if your "disgusted" as you say you are, work to change this foolishness, tell your Alder person we need to CUT SPENDING, and forget reducing the cash reserves!
Tom Ford
We're getting off track here. We all know Crestwood is using cash reserves to balance the budget.
The issue is that Mr. Brewer flat out denies that the city is deficit spending. Spending more money than you're taking in IS deficit spending, no matter what the city and Mr. Brewer says.
Concerned and disgusted,
I agree with you that the art space project at the mall has been a failure and was more hype than help.
I don't have an issue with the city spending some cash reserves to get by. What I do have an issue with is that Mr. Douglas Brewer DENIES THAT THEY ARE DEFICIT SPENDING WHEN IN FACT THEY ARE.
I have a few questions maybe someone can answer for me.
1. How many city employees have been hired this year? What department?
2. How many city employees have left this year? What department?
3. What is the TOTAL COST of running our duplicate animal control department? (Including vehicle costs, insurance, salary, heat, lights, etc.) For a year.
4. What is the logic for keeping a sometimes animal control operation, and eliminating a third to a fourth of our Police Officers, and Fire Fighters?
THIS IS CRAZY! (Sorry, that last was not part of the question.)
John, please realize that "animal control" is a typical "touchy feely" item that His Honor can use to garner votes for his next run!
This City doesn't need fire or police protection as long as we have a sentry against "Ferrel cats" on guard (well at least some times.)
The ladies of the staunch volunteer corps have squawked to his honor and told him this must stay (forget the fact that we need other items,) so he has them waisting their time with petitions.I wonder if they know it's of no importance, and NON BINDING?
Since the ladies are ALL VOLUNTEERS and cost us nothing (except heat, lights, and phone,) why aren't they taking up the slack here and stepping in for gratis? Well the short answer is they want Ms. Sutton and the funds that come with her from the city budget.
At any rate the last known number reference cost was $45,000.00 plus for an animal control officer, monies better spent on gasoline or tires!
The days of perks and spending are over, we either start spending less, or instruct Mr. Brewer on the terminology of "deficit: spending, I say spend less!
Tom Ford
9:52 PM
Lindburg Cadillac is closing?
Dear John
The cost to the tax payers for the crestwood animal control position is $49855.76. This does include the cost for HVAC, maintenance, etc. at the building housing the animals or the cost for the vehicle provided.
Please remember the Crestwood citizens pay for this service at the county level.
SMN
Yup, before the end of this month, get your gas guzzler from a local dealer before all you can buy is the Obamamoblie.
SMN
Thanks for the info.
"the animals or the cost for the vehicle provided."
Should this say AND instead of or?
So we are paying almost $50,000 for a service that we are already paying for with the county!
And we are cutting our Police, and Fire Department because we are short of money?
THIS IS STUPID!!
Now, I do believe in 'majority rules', and if the majority of Crestwood voters legally votes FOR this, I guess we are stuck.
But, if the BOA, the Mayor, and the CA can be intimidated into keeping this unneeded, and duplicate service, by a small band of noisy, rude, fanatics, who don't care about the rest of the Crestwood residents and voters, then that is simply WRONG!
Dear John
Please remember that each small lobby group contains votes. The mayor certainly needs votes and so do few of the aldermen.
All politics is local. As demonstrated at the state and federal level these groups seem to think that our tax money should support their cause. I firmly believe that if the problem is noble and required the citizens will group together to solve it.
It is time for all the citizens in Crestwood to recognize our collective stewardship obligation for the future. In doing so we need to act soon because tiem is workinng against us. We must make choices that may be difficult and unpleasant today to avoid passing an even greater burden on to the future generation.
John, you are correct for changing the or to and. Thanks for catching the error.
SMN
SMN: There will be no future until we have a Mayor, and a BOA who will stand up for what is right, and in doing so tell the special interests the truth!
The Mayor pandering to the animal control volunteers is just disgusting on many fronts, not the least of which is the fact that animal control is rarely there!
Ask any Police officer you see if animal control is doing the job, and they will tell you that they are not!
We have a fully qualified animal control officer and staff in St. Louis County we already pay for, so it's a no brainer!
The fact that someone may have to travel to Clayton to retrieve their missing (read run loose) pet is the problem of that pet owner, not we citizens, we need the funds elsewhere.
I challenge the Mayor and the BOA to show the needed leadership on this subject and remove the position at the end of the year as they said they would!
Tom Ford
I agree with you Tom. I ill also have to review my typing before submitting. I noticed several typos.
SMN
If you think about it, do you really think that Mr. Brewer volunteered to write the article? Maybe he was directed by the mayor since the mayor surely could not have conveyed the financial workings of the city.
I do believe spending more money than is collected is deficit spending. The reserves were to be used for cash flow purposes.....
Wikipedia - When the expenditures of a government (its purchases of goods and services, plus its transfers (grants) to individuals and corporations) are greater than its tax revenues, it creates a deficit in the government budget; such a deficit is known as deficit spending.
Maybe the city should just continue to collect taxes and other revenues without providing any services at all. For one full year we the residents will pay and not receive one single service. That way the following year you won't have to worry about "deficit spending". After all which came first the chicken or the egg? Didn't our previous leaders provide services the first year the city was founded before the taxes had been collected? What happens in December when all the departments stay under budget? Will Mr. Anthony and Mr. Ford then decide to tell the readers they don't understand the cities cash flow and just look for a chance to jump on anyone in city hall.
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