I've decided to throw my hat in the ring for Council for a bunch of reasons, which I will write more about as the campaign progresses. One big reason is planning with a capital P! I went to a few of the public budget meetings and was able to make several remarkable observations.
First, it's almost July. And we are working on a budget for 2024. Maybe that's not a big deal? No one seemed to mind - is anyone asking the question though? Should the budget be done earlier?
In the discussions, the Council was going through item by item from each department and talking about levels of pay increases for individuals, resources that are needed for, for example, the Engineering Department to do its job. All good discussions and right to try to make sure that our town government functions at full capacity.
I don't really understand, however, why there is no 3 or 5 year fiscal plan? Why is every year the budget late? Why are there no revenue and expense projections to form a baseline budget that clearly describes and defines the majority of annual spend? Why is there no plan for filling gaps in personnel? Why is there no plan for replacing old vehicles?
Second, I found myself asking over and over: Why is there no plan? Why does every budget season feel like an exercise in emergency triage? Does it have to feel that way?
I am a proactive person and I believe that positive, proactive process sets us up for success. If our town maintained a baseline plan, perhaps budgeting would be easier and could be completed on time. If we had a plan, perhaps we could evaluate where we need to dedicate resources so that we can improve life in town in a systematic way.
Is there a plan for a satellite library to serve folks who used to depend on the downtown library? There should be. In my opinion we sorely need a branch library. And we definitely need a plan if we are going to have a branch library.
Perhaps if we had a solid fiscal plan we could better anticipate issues like expiration of the garbage collection contract and affirmatively decide is we need to dedicate more resources to that issue, or if we could spend a little less and focus our energy on something else. Point is, I don't see proactive management of our fiscal responsibilities. As a consequence, I think we stunt growth and progress in areas that we should prioritize.
For example, during discussion of open positions in the Engineering Department, a Council member observed that "perhaps we can do something this year [on hiring one person], and then next year we can just figure it out."
That's exactly the problem. There is no plan to fill gaps. When I am on the Council I will be asking for plans and projections and for specific ways that leadership is making sure that our town works as it should.
For example, loss of our tree canopy is a topic that comes up often as I am talking to folks in town. In 2023 there was no money (zero!) allocated for tree planting by our Department of Public Works or our Forrester. If we had a plan and understood funds that could be made available to priority projects year over year, we could perhaps have allocated some funds to tree planting while waiting for a new tree protection ordinance to be passed.
One reason I am running is that we need proactive leadership on our Council so that our government works as it should.
Happy to hear comments or discussion about this. Please share with friends and neighbors in town so we can get the word out about this campaign! Thank you and as always, feel free to email me at Redwine4westorange@gmail.com.
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