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46 comments:
this is the budget adoption meeting.
The agenda is deliberately set up to be unreadable, with 257 pages.
It needs a very precise table of contents so readers can quickly scroll to items of interest.
Cutesy language is used: beach blvd property consultant to be hired. I am guessing this means the old sewer plant.
This agenda diminishes the public's right to become informed.
.
Oh goody another consultant to tell us what to do with the WWTP? Sure why not it's only money.
At a glance the revenue looks a little wishful given what we're hearing from outside and the cuts just don't look deep enough with DPW the only dept taking over 10% hit and of course the City Attorney dept taking huge hit with her job outsourced.
But then why is the city attorneys exec assistant still in the budget? Salary and benies over $100, ooo? How busy can they be? Can't wait to hear the explanation. Sneaky way to keep an extra person at city hall? Watch the smoke and mirrors come out. Of course it's only a $100,000. That makes barely a ripple at city hall.
A friend called who read the whole thing. Apparently there are double digit benefit increases for senior staff, council, finance and human resources. So Council, Steve and Ann are getting some sort of double digit benefit increases... but I haven't read the thing at all so my friend could be reading the info wrong.
Anybody give a damn enough to confirm or deny the benie increases?
About hidden benefit increases: go to council monday night and ask.
Or call the Mayor saturday....
Anon (825), why don't you find-out what YOU are talking about first. Try the city council meeting Agenda item Summary Report, or the proposed City budget posted on the City website. Then, report back to us. You know before "everyone" calls "the Mayor", or voices an opinion at City Council (and, where you cannot longer hide behind being Anonymous).
So here's the info:
Personnel Benefits
Department: City Council +17.13%
City Manager +5.23%
Human Resources +42.47%
Finance +23.11%
P. B. & R. +5.08%
Wastewater Pl. +18.47%
The sewer workers are also getting a 5% salary raise - check your property tax bills as to where that's coming from.
(Source: City of Pacifica)
Austerity? What bullshit that is.
Benefit increases revealed and not from Todd Bray.
So anon 8:44Pm kindly provide us with a page number in the agenda so we can all read this info.
Then we can all call the mayor sat. to inquire why this data, if true, was buried in a 257 documents...
The anons rule--we seek the truth!
Pages are not numbered but the good stuff is buried about 150 pages in. Expenditures recapped by department with a page for each department. Happy scrolling!
increases revealed, sort of.
Pages are not numbered and no index exists, so Council makes it real hard to find data.
But when you pull up the PDF file for the agenda, a page counter appears in the tool bar above the page window next to where you see the size of the doc presented ( 100%, etc)
page 98: council, 17% increase in benefits
finance P 102
HR P 101
city manager P 99
Have not found all depts nor read it all. They are all around these page numbers. Happy hunting.
If someone finds better page locations pls post.
Interesting. Some good news I guess because the total personnel expenditures by department are down for each dept except for HR. Of course they would all be even lower if those benefit numbers hadn't gone up. Is this increase because benefits are cashed out and become income instead of being taken? Anybody know? City attorney department still budgeting for a clerk! How come?
Council doesn't put these reports/agendas together, senior staff does. These agendas/reports should be sent out when they are released to council don't you think?
I wonder what the justification is for these benie increases, has anyone got that far in? It could be simply a benie COLA increase. I'm just too flipping tired to get into the reading this time around.
When your desire is to conceal, you don't explain the "justification" for benefit increases.
The individual department breakdowns are where you'll find the increase/decrease figures.
There are some real BS anomalies there as well.
Council get the reports the same day you do and this information has been out for months with multiple hearings. Anons rule nothing.
No increases in benefits people. Cafeteria cash is reported as income if taken but when budgeted it starts as part of benefits. So from the end of one year to the beginning if the year it shows as an increase. Look at total compensation. I think there are probably only two council members who really understand the budget and obviously none of you
I believe that very explanation and the total comp view was mentioned by an anon yesterday but thanks for sharing so graciously. Any insight on why the city attorney's department still carries one FT employee after the departure of Ms. Quick?
I am going to hazard a guess as to why the City of Pacifica would keep a full time clerk in the city attorney's office. The first is it cost less to have a law clerk who has worked in the department for years locating needed documents then a $250.00- $400.00 an hour outside attorney. Secondly it would be unwise to lose all of the institutional memory from the Department. Knowing what has happened in the past can keep you from paying for the reinvention of the wheel.
Maybe, but FT is unneccessary. Given the volume of work that was farmed out before, a FT clerk was probably never needed but no city attorney is going to settle for a PT staff of one. The outside attorney has her own staff and will maintain her own records.
This FT position is padding for city hall.
No matter how much work was farmed out in the past or will be in the future the City of Pacifica must keep complete records of all legal actions. The City attorney's Clerk is the person responsible for keeping all that in order and making sure that any outside Attorney or Attorneys are not working in the dark. efficiency has a cost and inefficiency has a far higher cost.
I don't believe we can shut down the legal department completely. The outside attorney will have their own staff, billed out at $100 plus an hour. Makes much more sense to have some historical perspective from that department available.
Makes sense but PT would cover it just fine.
PT = physical theraphy?
"No increases in benefits people. Cafeteria cash is reported as income if taken but when budgeted it starts as part of benefits. So from the end of one year to the beginning if the year it shows as an increase. Look at total compensation."
WTF does that mean?
Look at the city's staff report and get your head out of your A@@.
Anon 9:40 - my head is just fine - yours well I wonder. The staff report is clear. Cafeteria cash starts the year as a benefit but when it is taken by the employee it becomes income, so each year it looks like an increase but it is not. Sorry you can't seems to understand simple Government Accounting Standards that require the budget be reported as is. Guess it might take some learnin' on your part.
Not only does the Attorney's Clerk handle the legal flow but she also manages a number of specific contracts and covers the city managers front desk. I hear she is looking at a job elsewhere and I would say she is smart since none of you people are even slightly grateful for the efforts the staff put in on your behalf.
Oh, and as for the consultants, they will be all you have after all the staff are laid off. What are we losing this time? 10, 15 or more? Eventually you will see there is no one to run the city. A city that has a median (not mean) increase of $92,000 plus dollars according to a reach county report on sustainable cities. You all cry poor. Really? Sounds like most employees are making an average income. Of course, if you all have time to sit around and blog, maybe you're not working.
I think a tiny but vocal minority may really blame gov't employees for this monumental mess but the majority of people know the employees are not the cause. Most city workers do the job they are paid to do and are very conscientious and go above and beyond the job description on a daily basis. But just as in the private sector, no one is immune from down-sizing. Cuts have to be made, some services outsourced and others consolidated. With no additional revenue expected for years, we have some hard choices ahead. This is just the beginning. Local government is being re-invented.
Blame people like Digre, Vreeland, DeJarnett, Pacificans for Sustainable Development, John Curtis, Nancy Hall, Robin Runneals, Todd Bray, Mary Keitelman, and a few dozen other enviro-fanatics who drive every business they can out of town.
The difference between the author of the list above and those people on the list is that the people listed get involved and do something. They show up at meeting, they organize, the get elected and get others elected. They are effective. They do more than site in front of a computer making long lists of those they hate. If you don't like the way they are get involved, someone elected. Hate lists, and there have been many, will do nothing but make you feel superior and strong and to look like an invisible-insect-batting loony to everyone else.
Broke Bunny just shows what a lame-ass loser he is.
"those people on the list is that the people listed get involved and do something."
Yep they have Anonymous-- they're the progress terminators.
City budget "WTF does that mean?"
Anon 6/12, 9:40pm, although I'm not fond of your shorthand English, given the follow-up snipes from "educating anonymous", your understanding of the city's underlying financial structural gap issues is probably more sound.
Hence, "educating anonymous" consider: "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton).
"Oh, and as for the consultants, they will be all you have after all the staff are laid off. What are we losing this time? 10, 15 or more? Eventually you will see there is no one to run the city." (Anon 6/12, 10:56pm).
Compare to your comment "lame Anon (959)". THE CITY IS THE LOSER; WE THE RESIDENTS OF THE CITY ARE ALL THE LOSERS (a direct consequence the "no growth" policies of city leadership). To the extent you have contributed to this no progress default, congratulation you deserve a city destruction Razzie Award.
Pacificans for Sustainable Development was created to prevent development.
They've succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
"Pacificans for Sustainable Development was created to prevent development.
They've succeeded beyond their wildest dreams."
City council is crying over the city budget tonight, worse next year. NO VREELAND there. DeJarnatt and Digre have a complete disconnect regarding how this happened and their important voting and support role in city financial failure.
Actually, Pete took responsibility and apologized for understating the problem for years
Build more trails and they will come!!!!
"Actually Pete took responsibility and apologized for understating the problem for years."
Nice catch Anon (6/13, 11:17pm), but actually WEAK on the part of Pete. In one brief sentence Pete acknowledged he understands (his part in city council intentional failure, of which he payed a major role). He mentioned the 40 city jobs lost (on his watch). He also mentioned currently talking to the land conservatory and David Pine about Sharp Park golf course (without further clarification). Don't you wonder what that was about, and his position on this issue? (Or is it that we already know).
Pete's track record includes 1) "saving Mori Point", 2) working against quarry development 2x, 3) involvement or support in ending the Swenson agreement to build Palmetto, 4) support or involvement against North Pacifica LLC residential development (a 7 year lawsuit based upon an invalidating clause added after city council approval). Pete did support fixing the highway 1 bottleneck, but that takes some city money, and city money does not happen without generating city tax revenue, which means 1) through development, or 2) through taxes and fees. Grants and neglect will not "save Pacifica." But, then maybe some of you, including Pete, don't care-- kind of looks like that from my view.
Run Away, Run Away
The Great city of Vreelandia is foundering. Leadership have turned on themselves. The Great Vreelander himself has fled the city, unable to face the chaos created in his wake. After years of carefully calculated conniving, the great megalopolis of Vreelandia, the metropolis that has always prided itself on smoke and mirrors, has realized that where there is smoke, there is fire. Or rather, where there is spending, there must be earning. Great and Wonderful Wizard Sue is contemplating Pythagorean Theory and the phenomena of plate tectonics, striving to understand to what Digre Vreelandia is sinking into the ocean. After all, she is a teacher! Court Ogre Pete, when told the people were starving in the streets and the hordes were burning books, said " They should do as I have, take Da Jar, you nuts, and hang out on the corner and beg. Hope some fool will throw a couple of ducats in".
The Great and Loving, Queen Mary of Ann is beside herself in woe and sadness. Almost lost is her spirit, nigh, heart, aching in the realization that she has assumed the throne perhaps too late. Stoically by her side, Prince Len of Stone, attempts to care for the poor only to be thwarted by that great ogre Pete of Perdition.
Will the Great Vreeland return? Can Wizard Sue once and for all calculate the correct Digre of the abyss, and more importantly, convey the enlightenment in such a way that the peasants, in their ignorance of all things Sue, can understand. Can the Ugly Ogre survive his own miserableness or will spontaneous combustion consume his dark soul. Will sweet Queen Mary of Ann be able to save Vreelandia from itself. And what of Prince Len of Stone? Will he find it within himself the strength to bring the scoundrel Vreelander to justice.
Only the god's of Vreelandia know the future. We poor peons are forced to live the nightmare and suffer the inequities of the indulgences of the elite.
I suppose you could add the Open Space Committee to Broke Bunny's list.
Yo Sinai..pssstt what about the Pacifica Redevelopment agency..What have they redeveloped????
Dejarnett needs to go. He is the big target, next election, in my opinion.
I bet DeJarnatt won't run again. Who is going to run? Get your candidates ready.
Don't bet on it but get 'em ready anyway. Chamber seems to be putting some people in the limelight.
I vote for the Great Gazoo for council!
Gazoo's got what it takes. Damned fine American!
If you think Pacifica City Council is bad, has anyone ever watched other city leaders? I'm not saying no one goes, on PCC, just that some heavy sheet is happening in bay area cities where local leaders are damned determine to run their city into the ground. Oakland is a perfect example. They demand local business gets all the business, but there are no skilled workers around. Therefore , with this strategy thinking nothing ever gets done and the poorest suffer. Big government worker pensions, they cant afford, hold precedent over private business creating new jobs with a cheaper labor price. Instead, they have rasied taxes on everyone and crime, murder, fraud is rampant and blacks flee to safer neighborhoods and good schools. Less people , less tax revenue, governments financial burdens are getting ready to explode. God Help Us All.
"...bay area cities where local leaders are damned determine to run their city into the ground."
Anon (1214), depends upon what you're talking about. In contrast to "other" bay area city councils (peninsula and east bay), over 8+ years Pacifica city council majority has promoted only dressed-up "no growth" as their core economic plan.
Then again Pacificans, "god helps 'them' who help themselves." And, consider the wisdom in "need a friend, get a dog". For the good of the city, the change message is keep your friends in the loop, and ultimately work to "vote them-out". "Vote them out" refers specifically to 8+ year accountable city council members: DeJarnatt, Digre, Vreeland.
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