City of Coral Gables Budget Shortfall

May 13, 2009 Leave a comment

The City of Coral Gables newsletter distributed today include the following:

The City of Coral Gables, like other local governments throughout Florida and the nation, is facing a decline in revenues due to the downturn in the economy. The latest financial information reveals approximately a $9 million general fund budget shortfall for the fiscal year that ends September 30, 2009. This shortfall is due to a number of factors, beginning with a decline in revenues totaling nearly $5 million. Added to this number is approximately a $2.5 million increase in expenditures as a result primarily of collective bargaining agreements with the general employees’ and firefighters’ unions and other operating costs. Also adding to the shortfall is approximately a $1.5 million appropriation from last fiscal year’s reserves to balance the budget. In addition, the City is projecting a similar shortfall as it enters the budget preparation process for next fiscal year which begins October 1, 2009 and that would need to be addressed prior to adopting a balanced budget. In a letter sent to all City employees on April 28th, City Manager Patrick Salerno announced a citywide freeze on hiring, capital and discretionary spending as initial steps taken to address the situation. Furthermore, 16 part-time temporary positions were recently eliminated. The City Manager has expressed his desire to minimize the number of positions that need to be reduced further from the City’s workforce. City administrators are analyzing other cost cutting measures and revenue enhancement strategies to address the current financial challenge. For additional information, contact the City of Coral Gables Office of Public Affairs at 305-460-5205.

Some interesting questions are 1) why the decline in revenues was not anticipated months ago by City authorities, as it was by the Obama Administration, Governor Crist or the Miami-Dade County Government; 2) why did the City negotiate employee salary increases when they couldn’t be paid for by the City under the most optimistic projections; and 3) who neglected budget control and supervision during the last few months and why didn’t the City Commission know that?
Why would the City Manager’s main objective be to avoid reducing employees? Is he expecting that the problems be quite short lived and the large numbers of staff will be needed during the next boom phase of the City?

Filed under Coral Gables

Coral Gables Transparency: Lessons from Washington

May 12, 2009 Leave a comment

The openness community is criticizing the Obama Administration for not using outside participation and involvement in the formulation of its promised openness policy.

“It seems pretty absurd that they’re supposed to be working on recommendations for transparency, participation and collaboration, yet they’re not using any of those three things as tools,” said Gary Bass of OMB Watch, a nonprofit group that advocates more open government. “There’s something wrong about talking about public access — without the public.” (Politico.com)

The City of Coral Gables can learn from this experience by promoting greater openness, citizen participation and involvement to get more input on the bigger issues. It is not enough to have open Commission meeting. Rather community forums on big issues should be organized to increase community participation and interest.

Filed under Coral Gables, Florida

Coral Gables: Where is the Accountability?

May 11, 2009 Leave a comment

After reading the 2008-2009 Budget of the City of Coral Gables and a definition of accountability in the budget, I came across this definition of accountability from the Government of Canada

Accountability–The obligation to demonstrate and take responsibility for performance in light of agreed expectations. There is a difference between responsibility and accountability: responsibility is the obligation to act; accountability is the obligation to answer for an action.

The 2008-2009 Budget of the City of Coral Gables (p. 17) defines Accountability as “The budget is a tool legalizing public expenditures and to account for and control the use of public resources.”

By this definition, the Coral Gables City Government officials have failed to capture the essentials of accountability as an obligation of good government, whereby, the government both “demonstrates” and “takes responsibility” to the community, and that this accountability is obligatory meaning there is no choice but to provide the information. The responsibility of management is to the City Commission and to its citizens, residents and businesses who finance the budget with their taxes and fees. The Coral Gables Government does not practice good governance by regularly making available current budget execution information to its citizens. This could be done with the existing information system and internet website of the City.

Filed under Community, Government

The Coral Gables Budget Condition

May 9, 2009 Leave a comment

Citing a recent editorial of the Coral Gables Gazette:

It’s no secret why Coral Gables is now a financial basket case. Too many employees making too much money. In the current fiscal year, the average cost to taxpayers per employee is a staggering $121,519. The city gives its 865 employees $62 million in wages and an additional $43 million in benefits, including a $24 million pension contribution. This is simply unsustainable for a municipality with revenues of $143 million and dropping.

Hence the only solution for Coral Gables it so rethink its staffing, organization and program reach, reducing staff and freezing salaries for the foreseeable future.

Filed under Coral Gables

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