Barry Allen’s Comments on Glendale Finances in the 05-11-08 Vanguard Weekly News

Balancing the Books

Mismanagement of the City’s financial resources may overshadow the instant success of the Americana. The City needs someone like Rick Caruso at the helm to set the course and get things done. The City has not done well on defending unnecessary lawsuits making it even worse when the “dumb jury”is blamed. Department heads are very upset when they know how little work is done by the firefighters yet they command so much more money than people with greater responsibilities. Then there is the fiscal fiasco that Weaver, Quintero and Starbird sing their praises of the former acting director. I have heard that he has been telling Management about the problems. Maybe he should have gone to the Council and the public during Staff and Council comments and blown the whistle. Our financial reserves are under the Charter requirement of 31% at about 29%.

Unfortunately the public, for the most part, appears to be unknowing about the financial condition of the City. Probably the public is in the same boat as the elected officials that aren’t questioning their staff about how this happened and why it happened. Vanguardians can get public documents however it takes between 10 and 24 days. Often the records are unresponsive as noted previously. The 16 City Departments operate in an autonomous vacuum. The GFD operates its own website; it sends a $1,000,000 apparatus to put up a flag when a call to Public Works or GWP would get a “Cherry Picker” to do the job. The tree fiasco was another such incident when different departments were involved and no one was going to own up to the problem. An outside database consultant at $240,000 per year who comes all the way from Minnesota each week. Bruce Philpott, a member of the public, has brought forth a program that can save $15,000,000 per year! This savings without degradation of service is up to the Council. It only takes three votes. We need to bring fiscal accountability to Glendale. Refuse collection fees are going up. Should the City consider using an outside contractor in the same fashion the City contracts consultants? We need to show the Council and Management we are watching by showing up at budget study sessions and asking hard questions. It is time to stop letting “George Do It” by all of us getting involved. Just read the CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) and review the budget study session materials. You will be incensed as to how this Council has not paid attention to the millions of dollars. A few changes that can be made to save money include Fire Department Battalion Chiefs not receiving overtime as they are supervisors; no shift pay differential for fire department employees that work 40 hour weeks, and assign personnel the way Neighborhood Services does to staggered 40 hour weeks e.g. Wed-Sun, Thurs-Mon.