Opinion: S. Tahoe council meeting another disappointment
By Kathryn Reed
Telling your boss how you feel, what you believe and how to do things differently is never easy.
I know. I’ve been fired for having a contrary opinion and refusing to change my ideology.
I know what it’s like to wonder how the mortgage is going to get paid. I know what it’s like to wonder how to get a job in a profession that just keeps cutting positions.
I admire the people who spoke at Thursday night’s special City Council meeting about the 2011-12 budget. It’s never easy to talk in public, and even harder to do so in such a contentious atmosphere and before people who can eliminate your job.
But shame on them for waiting until now to voice their concerns. And it’s even more shameful the council did not insist a session on the budget be conducted more than 16 days before the document is supposed to be the law of the land.
Yes, budgets are fluid and can be changed. But fundamentally they speak to the desires of the council.
No one still really knows what those five stands for or wants in this document. We know they don’t like making cuts. It would be a bit scary if they did get pleasure out of doing so. After all, we are talking about nearly two dozen people who could be without a job in a month.
No one wants our city’s 16.4 percent unemployment rate to grow.
But something or someone has to give.
Listening to the nearly 30 who spoke Sept. 15 I heard conflicting thoughts. On the one hand, employees-retirees expressed an overwhelming sentiment to preserve that sense of community they feel. And on the other hand, they seemed to expect others to preserve it; that by adopting the proposed budget, it would be lost.
Where is their sense of responsibility to the community beyond showing up to work every day? They are not talking at council meetings – I’m there to know. They are not writing letters or guest columns to/for Lake Tahoe News to share with others what is going on, their thoughts, desires and vision. They may be writing comments on LTN, but without using their name, is anyone really paying attention or caring?
Employees sounded a bit like victims last night. That’s too bad.
I’m a firm believer the person on the front line knows best what needs to change in an organization. Speak up. If management doesn’t listen, go to the council. If council doesn’t listen, go to the media to reach taxpayers. You may not get your way, but everyone deserves to be heard.
But as the cliche goes, if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. It will be interesting to see what solutions, if any, are forthcoming by the staff in the next week.
The council on Thursday sounded like any other elected body about to level the ax – we’re sorry, we have to do this.
Come on you five – we expected change, we expected leadership. Stop being so disappointing. Stop looking like you are led by staff and instead be the leaders. Remember, you are the boss of the city manager – not the other way around.
Nothing on Thursday indicated this is the budget you want. If it had been, you would have adopted it and ideally said why.
Management has done its job. Whether you agree with it, well, that’s another story. But they were tasked with closing the budget gap and did so. Kudos to them.
The council will likely adopt the budget Sept. 27 at the 6pm special meeting. Between now and then is when people better start coming up with solutions for the financial problems as well as speak up. And not just employees. That budget is for the whole city — every resident of this town. Whining taxpayers who don’t speak out are even worse than employees who don’t speak.
By postponing their actions until a later date, when the room likely will not be so full of disgruntled city employees, the city council showed its lack of business acumen by simply kicking the can further down the road.
If there really is a fiscal crisis as claimed, why aren’t solutions being discussed like relinquishing to the feds ownership, operation, and costs of the costly city airport, or implementing a ski lift ticket tax on the only business in town that is robust and growing, or declaring municipal bankruptcy and renegotiating city labor and pension contracts, or turning over all city operations to the county such as done in Tahoe City and Incline Village, or eliminating costly health and pension benefits for part time positions such as City Councilmember and City Treasurer, a position likely redundant as well.
As someone who has spoken at Council & elsewhere, written Op-Ed pieces about our state-of-affairs, and even put forth modest ideas for the very people who would benefit the most (the people who live here, what a concept!), Kae is right. . .
The powers-that-be seem always to take their lead mostly from people who either don’t live here, or are relatively new.
The latest larger-scale example was the Tahoe Summit, where the planned agenda heralded “kicking-the-can-down-the-road” 65 years !!. . . to a point where none on that stage will even be here – is that what is now meant as “Legacy”. . .
More (or much worse, even less) of the same ?
Is satisfying a budget (noting that they are in fact arbitrary creations) the only function of government – what about governing ? leading ? Paying any attention at all ?
Thanks Kae, for two years of enlightened look at what we’ve done . . .
I live on a small cul-de-sac in a councilmember’s neighborhood. Last year a home purchased at foreclosure was remodeled (a 16 hour a day job with no permit). Then it became a rental – the first visitors numbered over 20. The City was notified that the owners had not registered as a rental property and therefore the City was not collecting TOT tax. The City confirmed it was a short term rental for no more than 11 people. It was rented all season and further inquiries resulted in a response that “they would send another letter”. Why isn’t the City more aggressive regarding “no-brainer” tax revenue collections? Maybe becuz they are short-staffed?
WOW
Well said
Well done
I liked the “stop being so disapointing” part.
Now I’d like to see the communty say no to the outragious pay levels to excess middle management.
Eliminate the whole top and turn the working staff at the front lines over to the county.
Then gut the county mid level and fix the salaries. (cut management by 40%. Every one else 20. That would be fair)
You hear from these people that they would make more in private sector. Good – now is your chance to do it.
Or have you been blowin smoke up our ….
I know where my money is on that bet.
Good letter, Kae. Glad you’re there to speak up (and listen)for us. I live in the county and have no say in what the city does. But I do have to pay its sales taxes!
Very, very good points!! To the City staff that complain about the cuts, you should come up with specific alternatives!
I’m sure many of those alternatives would involve things such as tax hikes, like increasing the TOT. FYI, we’re in a budget mess because of the poor economy. That poor economy is partially due to the City’s tax burden. And raising the TOT means the backbone of our economy, tourists, will have less money to spend in our economy!
To the Council, you are not profiles in courage. But our City Govt. has a poor structure with no clear leader! That allows for everyone to pass the buck and point fingers elsewhere! A strong-mayor system wouldn’t solve our problems, but lead to someone taking some responsibility for them!
To the whiny taxpayer, well Yes I am one of them! But it would be easier to make specific suggestions if we had an easy to read budget. And I believe the City specifically structures things such as budgets and meetings to inhibit citizen input.
But here’s one specific suggestion-rescind those absurd 30% raises that were giving out to top mgt. a few years back and rammed through in a very underhanded way! Every top mgr. will still be making over 100k/yr., plus benefits! If a mgr. is not happy with that, there will be no problem finding someone capable (and ironically those raises didn’t get us capable mgt. anyway) to live on our town and fill that position!!
Blame Game. It was all Jinkens fault a few years ago and he took the heat for just about everything wrong then. And Weber too, and Birdwell, no Crawford, no it was Lovell’s fault, and the county’s, no no it’s Cole’s fault, that’s it. No redevelopment is to blame, that’s it. No, no, no, its we need new ideas, fresh blood that’s it. So now it’s the new guys fault, where’s he from? Oh he’s from Colorado so it must be Vail’s fault. Yeah, that’s it , it’s all because of them. Maybe it’s the employees making all the money, maybe its their fault? This council, that council, which council’s fault is this?
Remember Angora was all the fault of TRPA, no John he was to blame. STPUD is to blame for raising rates to give themselves raises (well that’s true) and the County is to blame for cutting services. The president is to blame for all this. Just whose fault is this anyway!
Somewhere buried in the blame game is, “it’s not my fault,” of course not.
How about “it” is nobody’s fault.
We’re in this economic mess like the entire world. Blaming anyone and everyone isn’t going to help.
Maybe those people working, can help those who aren’t. Spend your dollars at local businesses, buy a burger at a local small business, not the big chain. Buy your gas at a station owned by a local. Patron the local restaurants, help them out. Promote our local services to your customers. Need a haircut, a new car, your lawn mowed, some dinner, or a night out? Focus on not just buy American, buy South Lake Tahoe.
Those with jobs at the city, you could give up some wages and benefits to save another’s job. Face reality, there’s not enough money for the same number of people as before, so something has to give. If you all gave a little, there’s more to go around. Step up here, you’re calling for others to give up their salary, how about you all do? Its going to take more than one person, it’s going to take all of you and all of us.
If those with money donate that, and those with time, donate that, we’ll come together to solve some of these problems in our town.
Stop blaming and start accepting responsibility to do something. Give up some money to save your coworkers jobs rather than blaming someone else. The taxpayers don’t have any more money to give you people. give up something to help lift us out of this mess and maybe we’ll get there. Keep blaming everyone or anyone you’ll never notice your own faults.
Stop blaming and start doing. Give up a little of your money to help those in need, fill the food bank, donate to local charities, shop local, share your earnings if you’re working. Do more.
You have made some very valid points in your article Kae.
It is exactly the budget they want or it would have never been presented.
I live outside the city limits, but I pay for and use the pool 5-7 times a week. I was at the meeting the other night and have a question. In these economic times, tough times, why spend $400,000 on signs as shown in the budget? I’m guessing but waiting for better days to improve signage and keep 5 – 6 – 7? people employed seems far better. I know, I know, signs have been an issue for a long while…we can wait longer! I’ve never visited a city and felt I’d never go back because they don’t have nice signs! How tourists are treated, greeted and fed by happy people is far more important! I got the feeling the other night coming from the council, go ahead and talk, we know what we are going to do. Please put some validity in the numbers that showed up.
Agreed, businesses do not need more regulations or major expenses at this time. $140K could be better spent on infrastructure than up dating signs.
Poor sign quality and design add to perception that people have about a community. It’s not just signs, it’s signs plus all the dumpsters that should be behind closures add to it the grafitti, the lack of sidewalks etc. and I think you would agree it reflects poorly on the entire community.
Very true Carl, it is like the old saying about first impressions. The first impression people have of this town is a tacky one. Small visual improvements make for a huge difference. Window dressing yes but it’s a start.
Unfortunately the mindset has been oh it’s just a sign or oh it’s just a trash can that same mindset gets u what we have today, it’s time for a change and if some city program or any program can help bring about an improvement I am willing to try, the status quo is not acceptable.
Kay really love this part:
I’m a firm believer the person on the front line knows best what needs to change in an organization. Speak up. If management doesn’t listen, go to the council. If council doesn’t listen, go to the media to reach taxpayers. You may not get your way, but everyone deserves to be heard.
But as the cliche goes, if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. It will be interesting to see what solutions, if any, are forthcoming by the staff in the next week.
The council on Thursday sounded like any other elected body about to level the ax – we’re sorry, we have to do this.
Come on you five – we expected change, we expected leadership. Stop being so disappointing. Stop looking like you are led by staff and instead be the leaders. REMEMBER,YOU ARE THE BOSS OF THE CITY MANAGER – not the other way around.