Board of Aldermen 06-11-2019 Page 16
| think that we need to be very careful to make sure we keep the big picture in front of us because at the
end of the day when businesses and families decide to locate here, they are looking at the big picture.
Everyone has their own priority, just like every division head has within the City. So thinking about what
our tax rate it and is it something that is manageable, knowing “manageable” means different things to
different people. And yet trying to provide services that our constituents are happy with. | would tell you
that probably DPW could use a few more people too especially when you look at overtime in the winter
with plowing. And | know lots of people who say, “Why don’t they have more plows on the road” and “Why
aren't they out more often”. And it’s like, we’ve got a finite set of people and they do have to sleep. So |
think we could look across the City and look at where we need additional resources in terms of bodies.
But | do think we need to look at some of the areas that we’ve mentioned this year and aren’t able to
address and just make sure that we look at those first next year and see where the priorities are and
balance out how we are moving forward. Thank you.
Alderman Clemons
Thank you | just want to | guess respond to a couple of things and | understand that | don’t want to make
anybody think that | don’t understand that we have inspectors in the Fire Department and that yes, they
address the business’ needs, of course they do. But they are overworked. They are overworked. Do you
know what it’s like to work in a place that is overworked, where you are overworked? It is not a good
environment. We can argue back and forth all day, | personally believe what the Chief told me, both of
them, they were here, it was in a public session. These were the needs that they addressed. | have
always said that | would never be religious to an arbitrary number as far as where we can go with the
budget. | used to say that about the spending cap. You know, we’d come up with as former Alderman
Teeboom likes to say “We’d come up with a number, what’s the number we have to keep under”. Saying
it is 3% is really no different than that, it’s the same thing, it is just a different number. | personally don’t
look at budgets that way.
When | sit on the Budget Committee and | look at different things, | look at needs. | understand that we
need to be prudent. | think this budget is prudent. | think these amendments are prudent because they
don’t go fixing the spending cap problems overnight, they don’t. It is taking it one step at a time. But it is
taking it just a little bit further so we can address the fact that we are a growing City. But again, | am going
to support the amendment obviously and should the amendment not pass, | might as well explain this
now, | am going to vote “no” for the budget, because again, | can’t vote for a budget that doesn’t address
all of the needs that | feel are important or doesn’t fully fund all of our departments the way they should be
funded. So just want to put that out there.
Alderman Klee
| just want to make one comment, we are an aging City and we are trying to find young people to come in,
young people buy smaller homes. Those were the ones that had the biggest assessment so they are
going to hit the highest taxes. Our elderly many of them are on fixed income, | can tell you I’m on a fixed
income. So every dollar counts, every percentage counts. And | agree with you, 3% just seems like an
arbitrary number. But! think it is something that the public feels more comfortable with. They would
probably prefer the 1.6% and be the end with the health care. But that is kind of how they are feeling,
because they are looking at their pocketbooks. But | think keeping it under 3% is good faith to our
residents and yes it is an arbitrary number but it’s something.
Alderman Lopez
So one of my earliest memories of confusion and then later understanding was actually Alderman
Clemons voting against the budget because of the spending cap and he explained that he would stick to
his principles and he felt that the spending cap was an arbitrary number. | think the one of the most
important points made in that discussion when we had it, was that as Aldermen it is our job to do this. To
have the discussion back and forth, to figure out budget items and what appropriate needs can be met and
which ones need to be looked at and approached strategically.
