Here
is an article about Lorie Tinfow, our new City Manager, and one of the
projects she accomplished in Walnut Creek. This project was an attempt
to educate the Public and Citizens about revenue and expenses to
provide greater transparency of City Government. At some point I
personally hope to accomplish this while I am on city Council in
Pacifica using Lorie's experience to get the job done.
Submitted by Mike O'Neill
24 comments:
Mike, over the last 4 to 6 years the electorate has learned a lot about city finances, where revenues come from and how they are spent. The biggest myth still out there is the myth that all property txes and all sales taxes stay local. Other than that Pacifica has a pretty good idea of public finance thanks in large part to the large population of puplically employed residents at local schools, colleges, other municipalities as well as county, state and federal institutions.
If you want to educate folks you might want to focus on our own public sector like Lorie and help them understand if the economy is not doing well neither are the folks who generate wealth like blue collar trades people, who are not paid anywhere near as much as a comparible public employee.
The bottom line is the public sector needs a lesson... or a spanking... in real world working conditions.
BTW you owe me a sit down.
Todd nobody "owes" you a sit-down. You're a periah in this town, fighting any attempt at moving forward.
Most of our budget comes from taxes and you alone are holding up over 250K a year by trying to stop Holiday Inn from adding more rooms.
Thanks for this mike.
I hope she has success here too negotiating concessions on health care and pension contributions as well as wages.
Pariah? Nah. Bray's more the thorn in the side type.
1030 She's not here to cut payroll. She's here to improve communications between council and the public so that council has a better image in the community and less trouble moving its various initiatives forward in such a fractured town. A little of that won't hurt.
The defeat of Measure V might not have happened if there was just some little sign that the City was tightening its belt along with the rest of its citizens. If police and fire had cut their wages 5% as did the Millbrae employees, there might have been some sympathy and support from the voters when Measure V hit the ballot.
As it stands now, Pacifica is operated almost like a feudal system with all the serfs (that would be us) working to support the nobility.
3:14pm. The City Council will never imprive its image as long as their only solution to a problem is to keep proposing additional fees and taxes against its citizens.
324 Time will tell. Tinfoil is coming from a real, functioning, prosperous city. One that isn't crippled by our hippie DNA or the CCC. Let's hope she learned more along the way than just how to protect the boss.
She only came to Pacifica because Walnut Creek, wanted her out, and no one else wanted her with her scandal.
This is just a fluff piece!
Several senior staff left just as and right after a report was issued by an outside investigator brought in by the city attorney (now former)to review the handling by city staff of a volatile issue with a complex timeline. The report was highly critical of city staff. The city manager is still on the job. Did the expendables take the hit? Like that's never happened before.
It's easy to be left holding the bag in that environment.
I think Council was wowed by her credentials. Justifiably so. Of course, as we've recently seen with those UUT consultants, this Council, or its steering committee, is easily wowed. Could be a good hire or it could work out like Neiman Marcus landing in a rundown trailer park.
Brownshirtanon laments, "Todd nobody "owes" you a sit-down."
Mike ONiell knows what he owes.
453 there was a scandal in Walnut Creek, but that scandal did not stick to Lorie Tinfow.
We discussed this on the blog city council meeting, 9/9/13 article. My comment of 9/6/13, 745 AM links the Walnut Creek investigative report.
The link is your homework 453. Do some research before making false comments. You may be anonymous, but others are not.
3:14 PM, The people have spoken 2-1. They want wages, pensions and bennies reduced.
7:30 tinfoil with held evidence in a police investigation.
Get with it, and quit making excuses for this broke city.
If Mike O'Neill sits down with Beat, he should be voted off council.
Bray, and his gang of no, bankrupted the city!
757, no you have not done your homework, you have not presented proof of wrong doing, and you are engaging in the worst kind of smear "name calling".
From the same city council meeting, 9/9/13 article link, 9/6/13, 7:45 am. See the Pacifica Patch article: "Four of her colleagues were suspended over the suspected reporting failures, but a new report concluded that THEY ACTED APPROPRIATELY to protect minors by firing the employee with sexual allegations against him, according a Mercury News article. TINFOW WAS ALSO EXONERATED FROM THE CASE as the report revealed it was the city manager and human resources director who impeded the internal investigation by evading questions. In fact, IT WAS TINFOW WHO INFORMED THE CITY MANAGER about the inappropriate texting by an employee to a minor, the report says."
You need to adjust your tinfoil cap. You are picking up some mixed signal!
757, get it straight. They said they BELIEVED she MAY HAVE with held information. She was not found guilty of any wrong doing. We are luck to have her.
Thanks for clearing that up for them Kathy.
Brownshirtanon frets with great fear, "If Mike O'Neill sits down with Beat, he should be voted off council."
I'm flattered all the brownshirtanons fear my powers of persuasion so deeply. However if you were able to grow a spine then a spinal cord could grow and that could lead to you having a mind of your own Brownshirtie-anons.
Todd,
Don't flatter yourself, you are as fearful as Curtis.
Looks like Tinfow has taken a little career-stumble and landed in the political loony bin of the Bay Area. We usually draw the guys at the end of their careers. She has every reason to want to make her time here a brilliant success so she can return to the world of the sane. She's got the background and skill to do it and that's a good thing.
"She has every reason to want to make her time here a brilliant success.." 125
Moving from Assistant General Manager to General Manager of a city should be a reasonable, earned step-up. As you say, "she's got the background and skill to do it and that's a good thing." Hopefully her accountable tenure with us will be a "good thing" for her, and a "good thing" for this city.
But the city needs a lot more than public relations with the community. We've been subjected to that (hence brainwashed) for years. What is needed is the results of a sustainable, balance economy-- a functional economy, (more jobs, more progress) without the pile-on of more fees and taxes. Other cities can do it, so can we even with a 40% city. (Remember 60% of what was the city is open space, NIMBIES won and we're dealing with the aftermath).
Hopefully a better economy (which means planning and development) will give us all something less to quarrel and scrap about. Kumbaya, NIMBIES and those of us who are more pragmatic. (The link is nothing but the song from The Seekers, 3:30 minute you tube).
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