Karen - do you have any more information on the playground updates for Autumn Ash and Lindenwood? Does the public get any say in what kind of equipment is installed?
The slide I saw just says playground equipment replacement. They do a couple of parks each year I think. You could contact city staff and ask for more info. We have a new Parks and Open Space Manager, Dennis Warrington. dennis.warrington@lafayetteco.gov 720-641-7045 Check in with him!
The city has hired a consultant to help develop a strategic plan for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access(IDEA). I’ve read the RFP, and it is not, in my professional opinion (I have spent years writing and responding to RFPs - I know whereof I speak) adequate to get a meaningful product. It basically is telling the consultant to tell the city what IDEA is and what the city wants to accomplish. It leaves the definitions of those terms to the consultant. I’m confident that the report is 80% written, and they still haven’t started. I’ve been a consultant. I know how this works.
Two things that are crucial and are either missing or too vague to be useful. 1. What the city wants to accomplish and 2. The definitions to which the city wants the plan to conform. Those things are important.
In the mean time, our sidewalks are in terrible shape and many of our streets are verging on unsafe due to deterioration of the pavement.
FYI, a few citizens went on Monday's City Council Bus Tour of City Capital Needs. Staff is evaluating anticipated capital needs for 8 major projects. The estimated total cost for these projects is approximately $75, 000, 000.00. These projects will need to be addressed by the City Council in the future to determine priorities, funding scenarios, etc. Just a heads up that the City Council will have some difficult decisions to make on future city budgets.
Karen, thanks again for your doing this work. Itʻs important.
The city claims that insourcing our attorney will save money through efficiencies. If I had a nickel for every time a government has said that, I could afford to buy a house in Colorado.
I think one of the things we should understand every year is what the City Council has decided that we no longer need to do. My guess is that the council will never find anything that we no longer need.
Staff is not saying that bringing the city attorney in house will save money. They are saying it will be a fairly even swap money wise. But we will get more people for the same money and the attorney will be right there in the building and not working for other cities at the same time.
I am trying to think of something in the past that was decided we no longer need to do. Will let you know if I think of anything!
Karen, There is an empirical "law," Parkinsonʻs Law (named after a British Sociologist, Cyril Northcote Parkinson) that says, "Bureaucracies grow at the rate of 4% per year independent of any requirement." It was originally developed based on an analysis of the British Royal Navy, comparing fleet size to the size of the Admiralty (the RN shore establishment) over a period of five hundred years. It has subsequently been found to be roughly correct for almost all bureaucracies, public and private. The difference between the two is that private sector bureaucracies get regularly trimmed or the private sector organization goes away as too expensive. Public sector organizations find that they can always "require" more revenue (aka taxes).
Let me be clear, this isnʻt because public employees/bureaucrats are evil, or malicious or self serving -- they arenʻt, but they are human beings, and human beings want to do good things (in general, we reserve judgment on some career politicians). They almost always find that there are more "good things" that they see can be done if they only had the resources. Iʻve seen it in DC and Iʻve seen it here in Lafayette.
The last president to actually cut the Federal budget (and the bureaucracy) was Calvin Coolidge. I donʻt have any memories of Silent Cal -- it was that long ago.
My bottom line - governments are capable of cutting contractors/vendors but very rarely government employees. Parkinsonʻs Law seems to prevail -- always. Sorry for the cynicism, but the data are hard to argue with.
When Gary Klaphake was our city administrator he was reticent to add new employees because he never wanted to be in a position where financial issues would require letting people go. He would also move employees around to new positions sometimes to the detriment of the city in my opinion. People in jobs they were not qualified to hold is not a good thing. But we did have a lot of longtime staff at city hall. Now many of those longtime employees have retired and I've watched as the number of new positions have risen dramatically.
Karen, alot of moving parts here and it's unclear just how well the actual costs are understood. In a number of areas the actual expenses had not yet been updated.
In some areas we have pursued new sources oof revenue. Any concerns here from your view... ???
This is the first draft of the budget. Staff brings it forward at this time in order to give council a look and ask if they want to make any changes. No point in staff doing major work on something if council says no. So there could be more details for you when it comes back for first reading.
My concerns are more about future capital projects. Stay tuned for my next report ;-)
Karen - do you have any more information on the playground updates for Autumn Ash and Lindenwood? Does the public get any say in what kind of equipment is installed?
The slide I saw just says playground equipment replacement. They do a couple of parks each year I think. You could contact city staff and ask for more info. We have a new Parks and Open Space Manager, Dennis Warrington. dennis.warrington@lafayetteco.gov 720-641-7045 Check in with him!
Karen,
The city has hired a consultant to help develop a strategic plan for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access(IDEA). I’ve read the RFP, and it is not, in my professional opinion (I have spent years writing and responding to RFPs - I know whereof I speak) adequate to get a meaningful product. It basically is telling the consultant to tell the city what IDEA is and what the city wants to accomplish. It leaves the definitions of those terms to the consultant. I’m confident that the report is 80% written, and they still haven’t started. I’ve been a consultant. I know how this works.
Two things that are crucial and are either missing or too vague to be useful. 1. What the city wants to accomplish and 2. The definitions to which the city wants the plan to conform. Those things are important.
In the mean time, our sidewalks are in terrible shape and many of our streets are verging on unsafe due to deterioration of the pavement.
Them’s my thoughts.
Stay tuned for a report on those streets!
Can't wait for your next report to hit the airwaves 😁
:-).
FYI, a few citizens went on Monday's City Council Bus Tour of City Capital Needs. Staff is evaluating anticipated capital needs for 8 major projects. The estimated total cost for these projects is approximately $75, 000, 000.00. These projects will need to be addressed by the City Council in the future to determine priorities, funding scenarios, etc. Just a heads up that the City Council will have some difficult decisions to make on future city budgets.
That's my next report Ron!
Karen, thanks again for your doing this work. Itʻs important.
The city claims that insourcing our attorney will save money through efficiencies. If I had a nickel for every time a government has said that, I could afford to buy a house in Colorado.
I think one of the things we should understand every year is what the City Council has decided that we no longer need to do. My guess is that the council will never find anything that we no longer need.
Glad you find it useful Guy!
Staff is not saying that bringing the city attorney in house will save money. They are saying it will be a fairly even swap money wise. But we will get more people for the same money and the attorney will be right there in the building and not working for other cities at the same time.
I am trying to think of something in the past that was decided we no longer need to do. Will let you know if I think of anything!
Karen, There is an empirical "law," Parkinsonʻs Law (named after a British Sociologist, Cyril Northcote Parkinson) that says, "Bureaucracies grow at the rate of 4% per year independent of any requirement." It was originally developed based on an analysis of the British Royal Navy, comparing fleet size to the size of the Admiralty (the RN shore establishment) over a period of five hundred years. It has subsequently been found to be roughly correct for almost all bureaucracies, public and private. The difference between the two is that private sector bureaucracies get regularly trimmed or the private sector organization goes away as too expensive. Public sector organizations find that they can always "require" more revenue (aka taxes).
Let me be clear, this isnʻt because public employees/bureaucrats are evil, or malicious or self serving -- they arenʻt, but they are human beings, and human beings want to do good things (in general, we reserve judgment on some career politicians). They almost always find that there are more "good things" that they see can be done if they only had the resources. Iʻve seen it in DC and Iʻve seen it here in Lafayette.
The last president to actually cut the Federal budget (and the bureaucracy) was Calvin Coolidge. I donʻt have any memories of Silent Cal -- it was that long ago.
My bottom line - governments are capable of cutting contractors/vendors but very rarely government employees. Parkinsonʻs Law seems to prevail -- always. Sorry for the cynicism, but the data are hard to argue with.
When Gary Klaphake was our city administrator he was reticent to add new employees because he never wanted to be in a position where financial issues would require letting people go. He would also move employees around to new positions sometimes to the detriment of the city in my opinion. People in jobs they were not qualified to hold is not a good thing. But we did have a lot of longtime staff at city hall. Now many of those longtime employees have retired and I've watched as the number of new positions have risen dramatically.
Karen, alot of moving parts here and it's unclear just how well the actual costs are understood. In a number of areas the actual expenses had not yet been updated.
In some areas we have pursued new sources oof revenue. Any concerns here from your view... ???
This is the first draft of the budget. Staff brings it forward at this time in order to give council a look and ask if they want to make any changes. No point in staff doing major work on something if council says no. So there could be more details for you when it comes back for first reading.
My concerns are more about future capital projects. Stay tuned for my next report ;-)