AND THEY JUST KEPT KICKING THAT CAN DOWN THE ROAD

Ohio Sate Auditor Dave Yost declared Maple Heights in fiscal watch; yet, no one can explain the true underlying causes that led to Maple Heights being placed in fiscal watch.  What I hear over and over again from some members of Maple Heights city council is, it made cuts.  Simply slashing (cutting here and there) with no insight as to what really caused the financial problems (because this isn't a recent new problem), or what these cuts might do long term, is not prudent.  There must be a clear, well thought out, financially sound, community viable/vibrant plan for the short term and long term.

 

 

Stated in the Neighborhood News, April 23, 2014  (Judith Goldworth).

"The city must submit a financial recovery plan to the state auditor's office by early June identifying ways to eliminate the fiscal watch conditions.

If the city fails to submit a feasible financial recovery plan within that time, Maple Heights will be placed in a state of fiscal emergency and a supervisory commission would be asked to review the city's finances."

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Let's take a trip down Detroit memory lane.  Although Detroit was and is in far far worse financial circumstances, some similarities are there.

 

"How Detroit went broke: The answers may surprise you - and don't blame Coleman Young",  Nathan Bomey and John Gallagher/Detroit Free Press Business Writers

 

An excerpt:

 

"Detroit is broke, but it didn’t have to be. An in-depth Free Press analysis of the city’s financial history back to the 1950s shows that its elected officials and others charged with managing its finances repeatedly failed — or refused — to make the tough economic and political decisions that might have saved the city from financial ruin."

"“Detroit got into a trap of doing a lot of borrowing for cash flow purposes and then trying to figure out how to push costs (out) as much as possible,” said Bettie Buss, a former city budget staffer who spent years analyzing city finances for the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council of Michigan. “That was the whole culture — how do we get what we want and not pay for it until tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow?”

 

Read entire article


Now listen to Finance Director Irene Crowell (and remember she's only been director for a couple of months)






Question:

Did and does anyone audit the city's 10 departments?  I mean a real in-depth audit. 

[My worry is that even if Maple Heights public officials did an audit, they still wouldn't be able to come up with creative cost efficient ways of managing those departments or streamlining/

modernizing department personnel/responsibilities/activities. 

 

Maple Heights city government: 

• needs to circulate more money within the community
• come up with plans to help people keep their homes, and ways to attract new neighborhood conscious homeowners (both are huge problems for Maple Heights)
• needs more smart, solution oriented, resource conscious, business intelligent,  tech savvy people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s
• needs to downsize the police department, and make a major shift toward more local auxiliary police ( who will actually live in the community in which they serve), who will engage in neighborhood policing
• needs more age and racial diversity in all departments 
• needs to change the type of outdated city government it currently has, and 
• Maple Heights taxpayers/residents need to become more engaged in their city; and desperately need to become more financially literate. 

 

 



You (residents/council) need to be able to look back in order to go forward (to make an analysis) so you don't make the same mistakes.  That means you need access to public records and information which unfortunately [obtaining records/information] seems to be a problem for Maple Heights government.  You also need to post public records online.

 

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And yes,  the statement made by a Maple Heights resident regarding the cost of the [Maple Heights]  swimming  pool was a fair statement (watch 20 minutes into video).  Maple Heights was/is losing population, and people were/are still losing their homes and jobs.  Was the swimming pool repair a wise decision?

Related:

"State places Maple Hts. on fiscal watch; Needs plan to keep it from fiscal emergency" This edition of the Neighborhood News will only be available until next Tuesday, April 29, 2014; thereafter, watch council and committee meeting videos @  http://www.youtube.com/user/MapleHeightsNews/videos

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