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John Lynn, Monday night
I asked the new councilman to send me his intro speech, which I thought was quite impressive. He sent over what he calls his “statement of my understanding of the needs of our city.”
John Lynn, first council meeting, Jan. 11, 2010:
As I have followed the financial crisis that our city has been in for at least the last two years, I have looked at what I believe needs to be done to get our city back on a positive trend. The following is my opinion only and I ask your patience for a few moments.
We have repayment schedules for all external debts and we seem to be timely in those payments. However we do not have a repayment schedule for the Cost Allocation problem nor for our borrowing of funds from our utilities. Just this last month, we borrowed from these funds again to balance accounts that were negative. I know this has been done in past years as well and I believe that we need to know the total extent of what has been borrowed.
We do not have reserves set up for Building Maintenance, Road Maintenance or a general “rainy day” reserve that would help us in times of financial challenge.
Our Beginning Cash Balance in our city’s checking account is barely enough to keep us afloat financially, month to month, and needs to be raised to some higher level than the current $600,000 or so.
The economy does not seem to be recovering currently and from all I have read will be slow to recover for months and perhaps years to come.
Our city has been cutting expenses for the past two years including many jobs by layoff and other means. Because of the contracts we have signed with our labor unions, a retirement costs the city a great deal of money in severance issues, money we do not have reserved in any contingency fund.
Our city’s revenue sources include our General Property Tax, several special purpose taxes (Waterworks, Cable TV, Telephone, etc.) the portion of the Sales tax returned to the city, the Business and Occupation Tax, and the fees and charges paid to the city by businesses and developers. We also receive our portion of the tourism 2% and 3% tax which at this time goes to pay the Convention Center bonds, convention center payroll and provides dollars for advertising and these funds are also diminishing due to falling numbers of tourists.
Even holding the line on expenditures doesn’t help much as we face higher PUD utility fees, rising labor costs among our remaining city employees and a variety of other costs.
I wish I had all of the answers to these and many, many more challenges we face today but I certainly do not. As our year goes on, we will again be questioned on why we, the council, cannot fund the library, the interpretative center and begin rehiring people as needed. The answer is simple – we are broke.
I believe that our council, the seven of us, need to begin a series of retreats to study the issues, to look for criteria we might utilize to make appropriate decisions on reserves, debt repayments, and what our city should look like tomorrow. I believe we should have a facilitator to lead us through that process and that we need to form a council committee of three to gather the above issues and all of the others you have now and we will think of in the process. I believe that we need to meet at least once each month beginning this January so we will be prepared to make good decisions this year and in the coming years.
John Lynn
Member, City Council
jlynn@osgov.com
289 9338
I am totally with those of you who are not impressed with money-draining “retreats.” And Tom, I am totally with you about having plenty of residents with the experience and knowledge to facilitate/mediate. This town is lousy with ex-Boeing managers, though I’m not sure if that is really a very good reference. What is needed is proven leadership and a good attitude. So, yeah, I volunteer. You’ve got my email, if you can sell that idea.
Editor,
We need recognition of true beach wit. Another vote> Maybe Valentine’s Day.
We could invite a RAW Referee and make it an event at the Convention Center. Maybe hire some gladiators to make it interesting. Then we could afford to pay the referee.
Maybe so, Rafael, but there are plenty of experienced, knowledgeable folks in this town who (I’m betting) would be happy to “facilitate,” “mediate” or what-have-you on a volunteer basis.
Here is a quote from the 2-12-09 retreat minutes.
Others present: Jeff Myers mediator Chief of Police Hoquiam.
In other words he acted as an intermediary. A true facilitator is typically a professional, well paid for his/her services. Let’s keep the apples and oranges separate.
I believe that the last “retreat” facilitator was a volunteer (the Hoquiam police chief), but will check on that.
In any case, there is nothing stopping Lynn’s proposed process from having an unpaid facilitator.
Any volunteers?
My thoughts exactly…he sounded good until he got to the part about retreats and another high priced facilitator!
The mayor and council received many suggestions from citizens during the budget hearings and they ignored 95% of them. Now they want to hire more expert facilitators and have more expensive meetings to once again re-hash it? Give me a break!
That’s what we need- more expenses for retreats, facilitators, and lots of coffee and doughnuts and free meals for the mayor and council to search for the solution. The solution to the problem is easy–stop spending money you don’t have. Bring in more revenue from sources like those that were talked about in the EMS election–getting the EMS bills paid and getting our just compensation from the north fire districts. Get our just compensation from the State for patrolling their beaches. Has anyone thought of simple money saving solutions like lowering the heat and turning off the lights in the convention center and fire station and all city buildings for that matter, in all that unused time? Cut all travel expenses, period!
Retreats just add to the expense problem. If John Lynn wants to meet with his brethren, there is a a totally unused council room at city hall that can easily seat 20, (both council and interested citizens alike) and the price is right. We’ll even let him bring his own doughnuts.
Finally someone has seen the light and the realities on the ground here in Ocean Shores. I only hope these meetings of 3 be public. A long hard look at budgets is needed. Not just the annual review with general definitions of costs. We need to look all the way down to the actual costs and fees. If the fee does not cover the cost, we need to raise it. If we can find any revenue sources, we must avail ourselves of it. Services need to be paid for. Programs that involve citizens assisting the city need to be expanded. Teaming between the citizens and staff needs to become second nature. Oversight is a must on all departments and projects. Business, resident and city personnel must all work together to get the right answers for Ocean Shores. We need to start running the city by true commissions, boards and committees that set the policy and direction for staff. Staff are there to assist and support the committee. It should not be these entities rubber stamping staff or department heads. Only then will trust and efficiency be re-established in Ocean Shores.