All but three Council members voted responsibly on paving debt

Except for John Uible, Don Ellington, and Ed Houdeshell, Newark City Council turned in a responsible vote for Newark citizens when it decided not to borrow money to pave streets. Those same three were among the six council members who stuffed voters with the additional $10 tax to city residents' auto licenses for the purpose of paving city streets.

That tax was the brainchild of Mayor Diebold - along with the one about charging Newark citizens for rides to the hospital in city-owned equipment already paid for by taxes - who now wants to compound the costs to residents by borrowing money to pave streets.

That plan may not have been okayed by Council anyway, but an Advocate article by Amy Picard 7/17/08 perhaps sealed its fate by pointing to previous irresponsibility by city officials in paying off debt. Here's the link.

This issue of street paving has been on the front burner for many months. It seems we heard it in every argument about adding more fees/taxes to the cost of living in Newark.

Here it is, July 22nd and they still don't know where to get money for this, the most basic and consistent costs of keeping a city in order. The Advocate report - another good one by Amy - is here and it is recommended reading because certain of the Council members were shown to be truly responsible, as they were elected to be. Rick Henderson, Ryan Bubb, Shirley Stare, and David Rhodes all made good points in this report.

City mayors and Council members come and go, but debt to taxpayers lives on. Only the responsible among our elected officials seem to care, while the others continue to play the Game of Chicken with voters (will they remember what we did to them by the time I run for re-election?).

City council creates more with less

In a long overdue move, Newark City Council voted Tuesday to stop duplication of government services by agreeing to cooperate with, and become part of, a new Licking County Combined General Health District. It required some letting go of turf and power, a tough pill for city government.

But they did it. As new Councilman Ryan Bubb put it for the Advocate reporter, “I’d like the city to do more with less, and I believe we did that with the merging of the health departments. Simply put, there is less government without losing services."

Exactly, and hooray.

Voting in favor besides Bubb were Ellington, Marmie, Henderson, Rhodes, Uible, Kennedy, Houdeshell, and Floyd. That's all of them except Shirley Stare whose concern for city employees outweighed her concern for improved government services.

There has been uneasiness about distribution of power in makeup of the new county health board, as well as apprehension among city health department employees over who will get what and how much loss of turf and power the employee union might suffer when dust settles and jobs are divvied.

All of which is secondary to the overall significance - which is, as Bubb said, doing more with less government.

Council has made a good start. It's up to employees to put away selfish interests and make this thing work.

City council makes a good beginning in '08

City Council turned an important corner last night when it voted to restrict the perks of the city safety director. By a vote of 8-2 it struck from the new budget the provision that was to pay driving expenses between Newark and Grove City, in a city vehicle purchased by safety-levy tax money.

The expense money was written into the budget in such a way that Kathleen Barch could replenish it at will from other funds in the service department budget. In other words, an open check book.

Most interesting to me was who among council members would take issue with this during the council session, if anybody, and who would vote to remove it, if anybody, and who continue to be a good ol' boy to Ms. Barch, if anybody.

Here's the way it went on the score sheet and this is one of those "read this before the next election" issues:

David Rhodes, at-large councilman, moved to eliminate the perk, and every council member except Don Ellington and John Uible voted for doing so. Voting in favor were Bubb, Kennedy, Houdeshell, Stare, Henderson, Marmie, and Floyd. President of council, Marc Guthrie, had earlier expressed concern over the benefit.

Also encouraging is the fact that the Advocate reporter, Amy Picard, cornered the two who voted against the measure and made them explain themselves. Ellington justified his vote, in part, by trying to blame Mayor Diebold (he "should have discussed it with Barch"); Uible said, in part, that "perks such as transportation are necessary for the best talent."

Further, the mayor did not speak against the council decision and that's a very good thing.

From out here where citizens sit, the score card looks great for 08. Council started by turning a corner. It has done what's right for taxpayers, rather than spend more tax money on employee perks. And the Advocate nailed it with a good report.

Cheers to those trying to hold the line on city salaries

City Council voted Monday to increase salaries of elected and appointed officials by three percent, according to an Advocate report.

Congratulations to Doug Marmie, R-6, Bob Diebold, R-AL, and Rick Henderson, R-3 for casting votes against a new round of taxpayer burden.

Special thanks to Henderson who was the only council member to vote against raising the police chief's salary to $80,000 per year.

Council votes for a new round of employee raises

The words Newark citizens needed to hear from their government came from Rick Henderson during Monday's city council meeting: "I'm here to support the citizens and not the management." Hooray for Rick.

And hooray for Doug Marmie and Dave Rhodes who voted against jacking up the police chief's pay in an effort to prevent a new round of pay increases for city workers.

As explained by Kent Mallett in the Advocate's report Wednesday (5/30/07):

"Rhodes said an increase in the police chief's salary means an identical increase in the fire chief's salary because they always have been equal. Those raises then increase the disparity between the chiefs and their bosses, the safety director and the mayor, along with department directors."

The idea of paying more for the chief came about because the city is replacing Darrel Pennington, who retired May 4. Newark is being told, in effect, that city administrators couldn't find a new chief to work for the going rate, but the three nay-voting councilmen disagreed.

Mayor Bain claims higher pay is no problem because "the budget is stabilized." That stabilization came at the expense of higher fees and the double charging citizens for emergency squad services. He can call it "stabilizing" if he wants. Taxpayers might have more nasty names.

Whatever, the rest of city council - including mayoral candidate Bob Diebold - agreed with the Mayor and the Safety Director and voted for the new round of employee raises. And in a few years, when the EMS bonanza is swallowed by ever-greater employee demands and political payoffs by council and administrators, your city will be scrounging for new taxes and higher fees.

Damn you, city treasurer, for wanting efficient government

Newark is talking outsourcing of jobs in the tax department in order to save money. The employee union is whining as would be expected.

What is not expected are the objections to a money-saving plan from Marc Guthrie, council president, and Bob Diebold, councilman at large and mayoral candidate.

Diebold, I'm convinced, will make a great successor to Mayor Bain because he thinks in fragments. Here's his line of thought on this matter as quoted by the Advocate:

“I want to see all the information,” Diebold said. “I’m leery because you always hear the up side and you learn the down side the hard way. Originally, I thought it was going to save $500,000. Now it’s $280,000. What about honest and fair labor negotiations? There’s a value to that. Do they trust us?”

Yes. No. Maybe. Huh?

Guthrie is easier to understand. He's openly threatening the city treasurer for trying to save money:

“If we can't collect our own taxes and adequately pursue delinquents, it raises a question as to why we need the position of city treasurer,” Guthrie said. “Everything seems to be done in the name of cost savings, with little or no regard for the human factor and community impact."

When did it get to be so painful to SAVE tax money? Council surely has no trouble in finding ways to spend it - mostly, I think, on salaries and bennies for the union members working in the Safety Department. It's long past time - and many millions of dollars past time - when city government should have stopped sucking up to unions.

I would be the last to criticize the work in the Tax Department - though I dislike sending money to them - because generally they have been polite and helpful.

The reason I dislike sending money to the city is because most of it goes into the pockets of over-paid employees. So it's time to change that, but gee whiz - damn anybody who tries.

I say that Guthrie and Diebold are dead wrong, whether they are posturing for the sake of employee good will (meaning votes) or if they are really serious. They need to get a grip.

And I say hooray for Bob Lehman, the city treasurer, for trying to bring a bit of efficiency to government for a change, and hooray to David Rhodes, Rick Henderson, Don Ellington and Doug Marmie for listening.