A call for transparency, but questionable priorities

A call for transparency,

but questionable priorities

To the editor:
    In his cover letter to the City Council for the proposed 2011, City of Presque Isle budget, City Manager, Jim Bennett, expresses the “hope” that his “staff has provided [the council] the necessary information to deliver the desired services without increasing taxes.” He calls for “transparency of local government,” and makes the entire budget proposal available for public perusal in the library and at city hall. The online document, however, omits a section entitled “Outside Requests.” Among these are groups such as Chamber of Commerce, Red Cross, and LEAD. 

    Within the proposed budget, which seeks to meet the “challenges” of decreased revenue and increased expenditures, are recommendations to cut positions from the essential services of fire and police protection, to shift responsibilities around so fewer people do more work, and to eliminate replacing outdated computers and other equipment essential for the functions of city hall and the library, to name a few. No informed citizen doubts these hard choices must be made. None of us envy the responsibility to carry out those changes and decisions.
    What an informed citizen should question, however, is the willingness of the city manager and the council to hand over $4,500 of our tax dollars to LEAD, “Leaders Encouraging Aroostook Development.”
    The budget refuses to replace a 5-year-old computer for $2,000, or provide fire proof files for $2,500: items that do indeed serve all of our taxpayers. Yet it proposes to give the same amount of money to a self-appointed, self-aggrandizing group so that they can retain the consultant, John Melrose, to lobby for the Presque Isle bypass, a project that has divided our community, and one that is not clearly supported by the majority of taxpayers. The north-south highway studies, the venues for and avenues of access to decision makers are readily available and open to everyone, including the city council, should they wish to avail themselves of them.
    Mr. Bennett asserts, “It is impossible, given the financial pressures facing the community, to continue to do business the same way and not impact the taxpayers financially.” Upon closely reading the entire proposed budget, the informed citizen questions the sincerity of this statement.
    We are in a fiscal world where we do have to nickel and dime every line. Yet the budget carries a whiff of the same old special interests gobbling our tax money, while ordinary government workers struggle to do their jobs deprived of essential resources in the name of “savings.”
    If we really do want to change the way governments operate, especially at the local level, we all need to participate. One way is by attending council meetings and holding those elected to represent us accountable for their decisions. Monday, Nov. 1, citizens will have a chance to do that at the public budget meeting.