Council slated to discuss budget Tuesday

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada City Council will be considering several financial issues when they meet at 7 tonight in the city council chambers of the Public Safety Building, 120 S. Ash St.

Topping the agenda will be the second reading of an ordinance approving the city's $16.6 million 2009 city budget.

Other financial matters include a public discussion of a proposed 50 cent increase in the cost for elderly taxi coupon and a $1 increase for the general public starting Jan. 1, 2009. They will also be considering an increase to the 2008 street construction budget by $73,668. This increase would cover: The $2,218 cost of adding four windows to the enclosed shelter house in Marmaduke Park; and a $10,000 increase to the airport budget to include a grant from the L.F. Richardson Foundation for furnishings for the terminal building.

The council will also consider the first reading of an ordinance to amend the 2008 budget taking $200,000 from the street maintenance budget and putting it in the street construction budget. The money was put in the street maintenance budget to purchase a street sweeper, which in now being paid for with different funds.

Other business the council will be considering includes: Extending the block grant contract for the airport until Dec. 31, setting hangar rental rates at the Municipal Airport, participating in the Tri-state Fire Recruitment Alliance, adding a new street light at 918 E. Walnut and designating the grove cypress trees at the former Nevada State Hospital as a "green space" to try and preserve them.

Comments

View 4 comments

Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.

Paragraph 3 is very misleading. The increase to the street construction fund will NOT cover the 4 windows at the enclosed shelter at Marmaduke Park nor the $10,000 grant to the airport budget for furnishings. These items are to be covered in separate readings and considerations.

-- Posted by callijo on Tue, Dec 16, 2008, at 9:38 AM
Citizens need to better understand the budget being amended and the 2009 proposed budget. I hope the council will openly discuss the details of the budget and the news media will give detail of those discussions so that the citizens have the information.

-- Posted by crossroads on Tue, Dec 16, 2008, at 1:52 PM
These meeting are open to the public. If you want to know about the discussion you should attend the meeting. The council has already had one open meeting about the budget, did you attend. Don't expect the media to be able to publish all discussion that takes place at council meetings there simply is not enough print space. I can't make it to all the meetings but I go when I can because we as citizens do need to know what is going on with our city. To my knowledge the council we have now is not hiding anything from anyone. If I have any quetions about what is happening I can contact any one of them and get an answer.

-- Posted by ccmom on Tue, Dec 16, 2008, at 3:26 PM
I agree that we as citizens should try to attend the council meetings, but the council should realize that there may be a lot of people that would like to attend but can't. If you work evening shifts, have small children, have children in after school activities, volunteer positions, etc., these all make it difficult to also squeeze in attending a council meeting. The council has a lot of resources at its fingertips that could be utilized to provide better communication with the citizens. Channel 3 does show taped council meetings, but why not have a city manager's report or a mayor's report videotaped and broadcast. The city's website could also include a message board where citizens could ask questions or taped council meetings and worksessions could be downloaded to view at one's leisure. The council could also have the Planning Commission and Park board meetings videotaped so these could also be shown. Lots of cities provide these to their citizens and some are even shown "live." Council perhaps needs to think outside the box and at least make it appear that they want to communicate with the citizens. I certainly don't expect the newspaper to publish all the discussion from a council meeting, but the coverage that we have been getting for some time has been somewhat lacking in content. It is certainly providing the who, what, and where of council proceedings, but it does seem to be lacking in providing the whys. I also believe the current council is trying to be transparent, but the perception still exists that they are not being totally open with the people. This perception probably comes from the arrogant behavior of the council from a couple of years ago and council will need to work hard to dispel those old feelings of distrust. They could start by being upfront with the severence package that was given to Bill McGuire. They could update the public as to why the 2006 and 2007 audits are not finished. They could also acknowledge that the public hearing for the budget could have been handled differently. How can the council expect any kind of intelligent, thoughtful public comments when the public doesn't even get access to the budget until the day of the public hearing? Has the council gone out of its way to help the public understand that the budget they were asked to comment on at the 1st reading has now basically been amended to include many, many changes following the worksession? I think we will soon have the makings of a very good council. I just hope that they will quickly realize that the people don't always have to come to them with questions, sometimes they need to first go to the people with explanations and answers.

-- Posted by bornandraisedhere on Wed, Dec 17, 2008, at 9:19 AM

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration:

If you already have an account, follow this link to login
Otherwise, follow this link to register