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"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones." Machiavelli
Paving Their WayBy DIA, Section News
Here at DIA we like to evaluate things on a financial basis. We don't like paying high taxes. We don't like ever increasing water bills. We don't like to hear that they got all new golf carts at the golf course but we can't pave the roads of the city. We especially don't like hearing that the corporate profits for the convention center hotel will be guaranteed with our future tax dollars. We don't like hearing that "of course a convention center" will lose money but that doesn't matter. We don't like hearing that not one politician in Albany can think of a better way to spend $220 million of our tax dollars than on a money losing convention center. This all indicates to us that our politicians are not running the city like a business but instead like a project that can continually dip into their big friendly perpetual lenders....the taxpayers. This angers us. And then we get periodic glimpses into one of the main reasons we are in such bad shape. They don't know what they are doing. Or they don't care that they are bankrupting the city.
An audit of the Albany Water Department by the state Comproller: “The Albany Water Board and Finance Authority are more examples of very poorly operated public authorities,” Hevesi said. “The result is huge deficits and fast growing costs for Albany water ratepayers.”This audit showed that the Water Authority wasn't paying the city the money owed it. Where was the city's treasurer on this issue? Silent. Speaking of the city treasurer. What does it say about the financial management of your city when the city's comptroller has to sue the city's treasurer to actually get the information he needs to do his job? Doesn't exactly inspire confidence now, does it? Which brings us to today's news. Some common council members have been asking to see documentation on how the city chooses which streets need to be repaved. We find THERE IS NONE. "No written policy" Apparently the $1.9 million budget is spent based on who calls up and asks for their street to be paved. We are told it is just a coincidence that the deputy mayor's street was going to be paved this year. Or perhaps it isn't. Perhaps someone told him that all one had to do was to phone up and ask for your slice of the $1.9 million. I hadn't seen that policy posted on the city website. Imagine a place where someone can spend a $1.9 million budget with no policy on how to spend it, no analysis required on how to spend it to get the greatest return on investment, no anything that even vaguely resembles how someone would run a real business. Welcome to Albany. Perhaps you might want to think twice about voting for the incumbent next time. PS. Remember when it was reported that a city worker was paving the driveway of his house with city equipment and workers? And his neighbor phoned him in after she reported being "fined" for questioning this. Remember when Jennings and his sidekick Rabito promised they would seek justice? And remember when nothing happened? I guess when there is no written policy things like that can happen. And of course Jennings and Rabito never did a thing.
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All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 2005 The Management