Rubber Boots Made For Walking And Talking

With rubber boots placed on the lectern, city fiscal watchdog John Marshall Lee Monday night barked out a number of observations to the City Council. From Lee:

Greetings to you on the longest day of this year! You may get to see a “rose” or “strawberry moon” this evening, an unusual event that happens every few decades. Unfortunately I continue to carry these “rose-colored rubber boots,” symbols of our being stuck in deficits through bad budgeting, excess expenditures and oversight failure. You have an oversight responsibility as a body. How are you doing with that task? Have any of you asked yourself that question? How did you answer?

Tonight the Agenda has items that call for money explicitly. In terms of transparency there are three price tags identified on the Agenda tonight. Two of them refer to a denial by the Budget and Appropriations Committee. A Summer Youth Initiative to be funded at $250,000 would move funds from a State Budget Contingency Account to Parks and Recreation in the same amount of $250,000. The matter will be presented to the entire Council tonight.

There are questions of the nature of the programs, the number of youth for whom programs will be available, the number of employment opportunities afforded with such funds, etc. Why was the matter not addressed in the budget session some weeks ago? Did the administration not realize that summer was coming this year? The most significant provider of summer programs, to some 2600 youth, is Lighthouse. Why are they not the automatic beneficiary of these funds to expand their summer offerings? If the funds are to go to outside not-for-profit organizations, who are they? Where will the programs be located in the City? What age groups are targeted? Where is the devilish detail about the objectives and oversight?

Of most concern to me is the larger picture. I am not talking about the end of one fiscal year and the start of another though that will occur ten days from now as FY 2015-16 ends and FY 2016-17 begins.
· Do you know I have been asking for a FINAL June 30, 2015 report at several City levels for months now? The best I can tell is that the City is willing to provide one next year for the FINAL June 30, 2016. After it closes, after adjustments are made in July and August and after it is turned over to external auditor and their report is issued in late December we can expect a Final Report. Such a report on the ‘MUNIS system’ takes only a few moments to prepare. We did not see those FINAL reports for 20 years until 2013 when several disturbing anomalies were revealed. Then 2014 was posted but not 2015. The open, accountable and transparent current administration feels it is unnecessary. I hope you disagree and will ask for one. Had one been prepared in March after the CAFR was issued mid-February, you would have had a much better handle on expense trends, simply stated, when you worked the budget. You were forced to work extra hard. What will be revealed for a year in which the last administration left all of us with bad news, in the red, on both balance sheet and operating budget?
· And with respect to monthly financial reports, the latest two months, March and April still show changes that ignored department codes, eliminated the monthly actual expenditure for April while providing it in March, and provided column headings in March but not in April. It makes review that much more difficult. Did you authorize or request such changes?
· Most important again in the big picture is their use of projection for more than 80% of the appropriation lines. In ten days each line will be 100% consumed! That’s a lie. That is miscommunication to your body, as watchdog. For example, if you look at your Other Personnel Services and Special Services lines where less than $115,000 has been spent through April and the City is telling you that over $278,000 will be 100% spent by June 30. I will bet that your two accounts will show a surplus of more than $110,000 when the dust settles, rather than being 100% spent. What you could do, would be to direct those funds with a vote of the CC where you wish. And if the monthly report was formatted to show all actual amounts not spent, instead of eliminating that column, you might have a better grasp of where expenses stand.

You have responsibility. You have real power. You need to own these red boots and do everything possible to reverse the fiscal damage done in Bridgeport that has reduced property values, unnecessarily increased certain budgets beyond a breaking point, and that has ultimately, by level funding education without explanation hurt the youth of this City. $250,000 for a last-minute summer program will not correct this error in priorities. See you on July 5 when the new tax notices will have been sent and fireworks begin. Time will tell.