Lawrence taxpayers - hold up on
that champagne celebration
Robert O'Koniewski
On June 18th the Lawrence City Council
approved the citys $240.5 million
fiscal year 2009 budget, a full twelve
days ahead of the July 1st start of the
budget year, and a full two and one-half
months ahead of what we saw last
year. By all accounts, the last
time this happened was six years
ago.
The impetus for this sudden rush to
actually meet the July 1st deadline
imposed by state law: harsh words from
the state Department of Revenue last
November and this February, submitted to
the city in sharp rebuke of the various
fiscal shenanigans and political
gamesmanship our elected and appointed
municipal officials have engaged in over
the last several years.
While elected officials were more
interested in embarrassing each other,
hurling insults, and throwing tantrums,
our financial situation sank deeper and
deeper into an abyss of red ink,
inappropriate expenditures, and
incompetent administration. The end
result as we entered the FY 2009 budget
talks: a city in such a fiscal mess that
there had been quiet talk of the R
word in the halls of 200 Common Street
and the State House: Receivership.
But while the mayor, city councilors, and
municipal employees after the vote could
be seen high-fiving and hugging and
engaging in the usual self-congratulatory
actions well-known amongst politicians,
what was lost in the clearly
uncomfortable euphoria was the status of
our citys taxpayers and the
services (or lack thereof) we expect, but
sometimes do not receive, for the dollars
we send to city hall every year.
The mayor and councils rush to meet
a July 1st deadline was admirable in that
it demonstrated that if they put their
minds to it they could actually cooperate
long enough to accomplish something. But
throughout the 50 or so hours of public
budget meetings one got the sense that we
were moving quickly to meet a deadline
simply to meet a deadline. It is as
if you hired a painter on Monday and told
him you wanted your house done by
Wednesday. Did you just want the
house painted in a slap-dash manner just
to get it done with no care as to how the
final product looked, or did you really
expect it to look like a professionally
done job?
Councilors and the Sullivan
administration did a fine job dissecting
the numbers to the penny, but sometimes
what is needed is a big picture
view of where we are heading as a city.
For example, instead of trying to gut the
police departments personnel, as
was attempted, perhaps the council should
hold the police chiefs feet to the
fire to fully explain how personnel are
used throughout the city on all shifts to
provide the necessary coverage that each
neighborhood deserves regardless of
location or political clout of its
neighborhood association. An explanation
of resource utilization is well within
the councils purview.
Now that the budget is passed and ready
to be implemented on July 1, perhaps the
mayor and the city council can focus on
delivering the services we deserve as
taxpayers and residents. As our
taxes rise we seem to be receiving less
and less. The quality of life issues that
are fundamental to our community seem to
deteriorate exponentially as time moves
forward. Our streets, sidewalks, parks,
and overall cleanliness of our city need
tremendous attention.
Now would be the time to address why our
city receives a sewer assessment from the
Greater Lawrence Sanitary District that
is, in fact, 50% higher than what we send
into the system. Why should poor ol
Lawrence continue to subsidize the sewer
charges for Andover and North Andover,
two of the richest communities in the
state?
Now would be the time to restructure the
manner in which services are delivered
and personnel are utilized within city
hall. Offices are closed at particular
times of the day and even when the lone
administrator in an office goes on
vacation. This is unacceptable. Offices
should be manned at every moment of the
work day. The public that is footing the
bill should not be inconvenienced because
supervisors lack basic management skills
and common sense.
Now would be the time to commence a full
review of all potential non-tax revenue
sources for our city. The mayor brags
about the rehab of Veterans Stadium, and
he deserves the credit for getting the
job done when no one else would. But it
is not enough to just rebuild a crumbling
edifice dedicated to those who have made
the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation.
Perhaps it is time to get a private
vendor under contract to better promote
the venue and grab needed sponsorship
dollars.
Now would be the time to commence the
development of the next capital
improvement program for the city. Our
needs are extreme and run to all corners
of our community. It is great that Mount
Vernon got a new multi-million dollar
park system. But there are neighborhoods
that lack fundamental park services and
the result is idle youths with no sport
or recreational outlets.
Now would be the time to develop a
state-of-art web site. Ours is one of the
worst there is. While communities around
us like Methuen, Andover, and North
Andover receive awards and recognition
for their municipal web sites, ours
continues to be lacking. The web site is
the Internet gateway for
virtual visitors to our community. It
does not require much money to modernize
our site, and it would pay for itself
immediately.
Its great our budget is on time,
for a change. Now the devil is in the
details, as our elected officials begin
to administer the document they put
together. It will be interesting to see
how this plays out. Will the taxpayers
begin to see enhanced services and tax
relief as efficiencies are implemented,
or will we be handed the status quo or
worse, something that is simply
unacceptable?
Will the leadership be there to take us
in a direction of competence and
accomplishment, or will we see our
services continue to devolve into a
higher level of deterioration?
These will be the real challenges of this
on-time budget. And it is on
each of us to be part of the overall
solution.
Robert OKoniewski is a member of
the Lawrence Zoning Board and can be
reached at bobokesq@hotmail.com
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