Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 2
So with some of the other departments, | asked them also not to make the kind of sacrifices that we’ve
made in City Hall here but to exercise frugality and to come in, and this what | proposed in the budget,
come in at the cost of living. Note not below the cost of living but at the cost of living. | know the Fire and
Police Department have taken issue with this but those departments have gone up significantly more than
the cost of living for year after year for a whole number of years. So this year for one year given what we’re
facing, | asked for cost of living.
| think if the budget is passed as | proposed it, we would see about a 3.5 or 3.6 percent tax increase. Now
this is more than we would like no question about it. But give what the State has done, it seems about the
best we can do. We've offset a lot of what the State has done but certainly we can’t devastate quality
services. | think what citizens are looking for, what they want and deserve, is for us to balance the need for
quality services which | think we have, balance the need for fairly paid employees which | believe we have
with the needs to keep tax increases to at least as low as we can reasonably make them and | think 3.5
percent in this case, at least in my judgement, is about where the limit of what people can afford. So that’s
how | got to this budget and those are the circumstances that we’re all dealing with.
Now Madam President there is one issue that | know Attorney Bolton and CFO Griffin are going to raise
related to the Senate Bill 52 which was passed by the Legislature affecting the cap. They can give you the
details but they are going to propose that there be an increase in the budget to take into account the grants
that we get and an offsetting revenue amount to offset the grant amounts. This has no effect on the tax
rate because it’s grant money coming in and being recorded as revenue and also being recorded as
expenditures but they can explain in more detail the rationale behind this and I’m sure I'll expect that you
Madam President are going to at some point have them offer that explanation. So that is all that | have
Madam President and unless people have questions, thank you for the opportunity.
President Wilshire
You’re welcome. At this point I’m going to call for anyone to give public comment who signed up on items
expected to be acted upon this evening. The first speaker is Fred Teeboom. Just to set the stage here, it’s
a 3 minute comment period and we need your name and address for the record.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Fred Teeboom
My name is Fred Teeboom. | reside at 24 Cheyenne Drive. | like the new setup. | don’t see any portraits.
What happened to all the portraits? I’m missing the portraits.
I'd like to say the cap is back. SB52 that was just mentioned the cap is back. If you hold this Resolution til
August 20" | think, you’re going to have to meet the override conditions of the cap because the budget
exceeds the cost of living limits on the cap.
Now what I'd like to address is the R-21-142 first of all. In the back of R-21-142 there’s an analysis. The
analysis deals with the fact that the increase or addition to the budget opposed by the Mayor requires a 2/3
vote of the members of the Board. There’s a wishy washy statement — faulty City Attorney opinion — that
suggests that a court may find this provision, etc., etc. that’s about as wishy washy as you can get. The
fact is the opinion ignores the 22,000 (inaudible) laws which came following the mentions to case 2010
cited and that took care of the 2/3 vote. So 2/3 vote to override the budget in adding line items that the
Mayor did not proposed is perfectly legitimate. If there’s a question on this Mayor vote, then | suggest you
contact the Mayor and have the Mayor sue the city because it’s Charter provision.
The other thing you should have on your desk, | hope, Donna told me that she would send a copy of my
Memo that | dated June the 30"". First of all | mentioned in there that the Mayor had on pages | think 8 and
9 given the presentation about the comparison of the increase. He’s ignored the pension, FICA, and
Medicare but the fact is that we the taxpayers have to pay the bill for the pensions. So you can’t ignore
