What I witnessed yesterday evening at the City of Bay St Louis budget workshop gave both reason for hope and horror. Let’s start with the hope and not as a budgeting tool.
The City Council, at least 4 of ’em anyway, are providing the kind of financial oversight the taxpayers deserve in this time of fiscal crisis. A Water & Sewer bond payment the City can’t afford is due in less than a month, as is the City’s audit to the Single Audit Clearinghouse. Part time City Clerk David Kolf is officially missing in action, out on medical leave according to the Mayor and certainly une victime de la guerre. The City Council’s oversight is vital and that is where we get to the horror part.
It appears Mayor Fillingame’s financial plan to deal with the crisis is hope – hope that the rains stops so people will water their yards more and use more water, hope that unrealistically budgeted revenues will be realized, hope that no one notices the almost $1MM in salaries the Mayor is expending in the Water and Sewer fund, which fund City Council sources are indicating to Slabbed the Mayor has pushed salaries the general fund could no longer afford to pay. Even worse is he contradicts himself with his financial explanations. Frankly folks, I’m not sure if Hizzoner is that slick or that financially clueless but either way the results are proving disastrous.
Lest people think I am gratuitously bashing Les what we need is a real life example and it is encapsulated in one exchange between Hizzoner and Jennifer Lenain, a free lance writer for the Sun Herald. Jennifer was looking at the latest budget actual report and she evidently did some homework and nabbed the 2013-2014 approved budget from the City’s website. Slabbed covered the financial concepts behind Lenain’s question to the Mayor back in January such question as salient today as it was then.
To set things up the Mayor had said revenues would be “flat” year over year in several of the budget line items including sales tax. The council was questioning the Mayor on how several budgetary revenue line items would be realized in total give the revenue realizations through May and the Mayor defended his revenue estimates. I want to make sure everyone understand the Mayor said sales tax would be flat. What does the budget and revenue estimate Hizzoner was defending say?
So the numbers in the Mayor’s budget say he is expecting more sales tax in 2014 not the same or less. The Mayor’s budget says property tax collections are rising above previous years unrealistic budgets and yet those revenues too are basically flat on an actual year over year basis thus Lenain’s question regarding increasing revenue budget line items when actual collections have been far less. Hizzoner blew her question off by denying the City did any such thing. This is turn is why I have previously opined the Mayor’s word can’t be relied upon with regard to the City’s financial matters. He either does not understand the subject matter and refuses to acknowledge that fact or is a compulsive liar. Either way the results are the same.
Similarly, the financial analysis of the proposed Water and Sewer Bond refunding on how much cash flow would be saved was also amusing because the reality the bond refunding is costing far more in future cash flow that it will ever save over the short run. To his credit the bond attorney from Butler Snow that was present last night made sure the council understood this deal was not about saving money because it doesn’t. In fact, the utility in the numbers to me is that the cost of the previous financial mismanagement can be quantified and it looks to me like that cost is at least $300,000 (undiscounted), which represents the additional cost just to issue the new debt. The worst part is the cash flow deficiencies in the Water and Sewer Fund has been covered up by the administration so long the City Council practically has a gun to their heads to issue the refunding bonds and the 21 plus percent issuance costs they carry.
Tonight at 5:30 pm is the City Council meeting where some key decisions will be made. Stay tuned.
Doug,
The Mayor in Bay St. Louis really needs to assign the city’s Beautification Committee to start planting some Cherry Trees. It’s the only thing they lack to be a mini complete replica of D.C. They have all the lying , emotionally sick, absent employees, too many employees, cronies by the carload sucking off the taxpayers, etc, etc…. AND, nothing is going to “change (does that D.C. word ring a bell?) until Mr. I “hope” it quits raining, I “hope” the sales tax and FEMA, and every other assinine excuse he can think of is out of the city hall.
When the voters in Waveland “fired” their Mayor in 2009, the Board of Aldermen then fired the City Clerk and half of the not needed city employees. Were they popular for doing it? Hell no. But something had to be done and somebody had to do it. Well, the voters in Bay St. Louis missed their chance last summer, but the Council still has the opportunity to fire the City Clerk, and half the employees. Do we need a Permit Office that only collected $40,000 in fees last years that has 6 employees. One of them can’t even type.
By the time I sat through 3 hours of Fillingame’s offer of “rough drafts” to the Council, I was ready for a cold draft. You know, confrontation is not against the law. Fillingame was tight as a rubber band last night and his nerves were fraught. A body language expert could have a field day at one of those meetings.
That Council had better strike while the iron is hot and address the Elephant in the room which no one has done yet, and that is : ask themselves and everyone else, “How did we get to this point.” That’s the only way they’ll find their way out of the woods.
This time last year the Mayor knew the city was broke, and a few citizens knew it. Today more and more know it, and the press is finally catching on–4 News outlets were there last night. By this time next year, or sooner, the administration in the Bay may be getting a personal visit from the Secretary of State and Auditor’s office like Waveland did. That’s when the rubber will really meet the road.
You can run, Les, but you cannot hide.