Board of Aldermen Page 10
June 28, 2016
no choice. We could have voted it down and gone to arbitration and have it spit right back at us with the same
net financially but with a very demotivated workforce. It would have been a net loose, although | am
sympathetic to the notion that in the future we should be very careful about negotiating contracts with “me too”
clauses. | think the Budget Review Committee did a very reasonable job reviewing everything and | would like
to thank the department heads who really stepped up to the plate. | think overall the city is run relatively
efficiently and where there may be possible savings that can be had | think they are outside the scope or the
control of the Board of Aldermen. | would recommend to my colleagues that unless you have a very specific
idea about how you would change the budget after all of those review periods and what you might do after the
careful consideration that we made, | would urge you to vote for the budget even if it is reluctantly.
Alderman Lopez
| rent an apartment and a lot of people in my Ward do as well and we are not at all immune to tax increases
because our rent goes up as well and | know that a lot of the people in my Ward that are on fixed incomes rely
heavily on quality city services being offered. We can’t allow the quality of our services to degrade because we
are not paying people competitively. | did attend the Budget Review Committee meetings and | did learn a lot
about how these decisions have to be made and weighted. | am in favor of the budget as it was presented. |
am always mindful of the situation that our residents are facing when on a fixed income and how our taxes
impact them.
Alderman LeBrun
| echo many of the statements made by Alderman Schoneman. | too am on social security and | have not
seen an increase in the past three years except for | believe a 1% the year before last. | also paid my tax bill
recently and | do not get the services that many people get. | pay for my services and | pay my taxes so other
people can get services. | will not vote for this budget. | had not voted for the past state budget nor have |
voted for the past county budget. Until we begin to reign in government and make government more workable
and smaller in size | cannot vote for any of these budgets.
Alderman Siegel
By “reigning in government,” do you have a suggestion by what that specifically means tangibly and what cuts
and changes you would make? | have paid my taxes and | am on well water and a septic system and all of my
children have graduated from the school system. So as far as services that cost everybody a lot of money, |
am not using many of them however, it is unfortunate that | have to pay the bill too and | feel the pain. It’s a lot
easier to say no without explanation than it is to say no but here’s what | would change.
Alderman Clemons
In response to Alderman Siegel | would eliminate the spending cap and bring in a real budget that we could
look at without regard to that and see what our real needs are. It could be that we would end up spending less
than we do now but more likely it would be a little bit more but | think it would be fair.
Alderman Siegel
| would say to Alderman Clemons that is beyond the scope and power of the Board of Aldermen and therefore
is not a viable option.
Alderman Schoneman
The issue | don’t think is trying to find services or things that we can cut. Services have stayed essentially flat;
they are no worse than they were last year. There is an increase in taxes and there is an increase in the
budget. The issue is where that increase seems to be going; it seems to be going towards salaries and
pensions. We can’t come in here and say we are going to cut the salaries because they are contracts that
