Coral Gables Budget: Public Service Department

August 2, 2010 Leave a comment

Do you know what this Department does?  I was never sure.  It has two big jobs–waste collection and landscape services.  Waste collection includes “residential garbage collection twice weekly and trash collection from the street once a week”.  The landscape services cover “landscape maintenance programs for City properties, including street, sawle areas, selected parks, parkways, and parking lots”.  This also includes forestry management.

Public Service staff have been reduced from 40 to 29 in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 and from 29 to an estimated 24 in 2009-2010 to 2010-2011.  In two years the number of staff have been reduced 40%  for mainly the lowest paid staff.  Salaries and benefits are being reduced by 28% in two years and services contracted from outside of the Department increased by 24% in the two years.

Hence the total budget of the Public Service Department declined a modest 14% in two years, but much more than the overall city operating budget that declined just 6% over a two year period.

Filed under Budget, Coral Gables, Finance, Government

Everglades on UNESCO Danger List

July 31, 2010 Leave a comment

It is relevant that the US has requested that the Everglades be placed on the list.  This is evidence that perhaps international assurances are needed to get the Everglade restoration project going.

At a meeting in Brazil, …the Everglades had been added to the List of World Heritage in Danger at the request of the US government because of “serious and continuing degradation of its aquatic ecosystem”.

…

Agricultural and urban development were the main reasons for the decrease in water flow and increase in pollution levels, Unesco said.

It is the second time the Everglades, home to 20 endangered species, have been added. The wetlands were first classified as at risk between 1993 and 2007 after being devastated by Hurricane Andrew.

via BBC News – Everglades and Madagascar forests on Unesco danger list.

Filed under Environment, Florida

Coral Gables Budget: Public Works

July 30, 2010 Leave a comment

A few notes on the Public Works Department’s budget based on observations on the current budget estimate.

Public Work’s total budget outlays have risen during the most recent budget periods 07/08/09/10 from $17,0 million to 18.9 million in 2010-2011.  Staff numbers have been reduced from 74 to a proposed 63 in this budget.  Salaries and benefits have declined in this period from 7.9 million to 6.9 million but, as noted, overall costs have risen.  The city is contracting out some professional services (such as architectural services after the elimination of the Architectural Division in 2009-2010 budget) needed by Public Works.  It makes payments for waste water services from Miami-Dade and has increased costs for operating equipment for stormwater management and sewer services, among others.

Although staff has been reduced in Public Works, overall costs have not been decreased that much because of the cost of payments to Miami-Dade and equipment costs.  Also, this personnel services reduction is minimal since overall capital expenditures of the city have been significantly reduced in the new budget year.  There seems to be opportunities for further saving in the Public Works Department given that the work program for capital expenditures is declining.

Filed under Budget, Coral Gables, Employees and Unions

Dispersants and Oil in the Gulf: Serious Environmental Impacts

July 30, 2010 Leave a comment

There are indications that the massive use of dispersants may have significant ecological effects.

There seems to be no doubt that history will record that the use of dispersants was good for BP, making it harder to tell how much oil was spilled, and reducing the short-term visible impact. But what’s less clear is whether it will turn out to have been good for the Gulf.

In part due to the1.8 million gallons of dispersant that BP used, a lot of the estimated 200 million or more gallons of oil that spewed out of the blown well remains under the surface of the Gulf in plumes of tiny toxic droplets. And it’s short- and long-term effects could be profound.

Fish, shrimp and crab larvae, which float around in the open seas, are considered the most likely to die on account of exposure to the subsea oil plumes. There are fears, for instance, that an entire year’s worth of bluefin tuna larvae may have perished.

But this latest discovery suggests that it’s not just larvae at risk from the subsurface droplets. It’s also the animals that feed on them.

The are many scientists that are worried that the dispersants will have lethal effects on the sea life, but this is not yet proven.  Probably only many years from now will we know the extent of the impacts on the ecology of the Gulf.

Filed under Environment, Florida

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