Budget and Buffa - Some Weekend Reading
BUDGET PERUSING?
Well, neighbors, I know you're all busy with that copy of the budget you downloaded and are using that fine-toothed comb to cull through every single line item to find more "fat" to cut. Yeah, right!
TAKING A LITTLE BREAK
Myself, I'm taking a little break from all that tedious number stuff - I trust the Finance staff to do their jobs with the numbers and the remainder of the city management team to do what they've been doing for many months - using all their skills to approach this budget year conservatively, always looking for ways to save.
WILL THE COUNCIL DO IT'S HOMEWORK?
Next Tuesday we'll find out if our city council has done their part and spent time on the budget document. Or, as has many times been the case, have they decided to take the easy, lazy way out and simply instruct the staff to take out their cleavers and make across the board chops in the headcount. I know from personal experience over many years wrestling with budgets that it can be an exhausting experience. I'm sure some on the council dais will have a lot of difficulty with this process, especially this year, because they're working with such intellectual limitations.
RECREATIONAL READING FOR YOU
So, to get you through the weekend, I have a couple little items for you to read.
FIRST, A LITTLE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The first is an entry I wrote on this blog, in it's earlier iteration, just about this time of the year three years ago. Click HERE and you'll be taken to an archived blog page. Scroll down to the second entry dated June 21, 2006 and titled "Budgets and Boneheads". This will give you a little historical (hysterical?) perspective on this process from the recent past.
SECOND, A BUFFA BUFFET
Second, click HERE and you'll be taken to a very nice biographical profile of his ex-ness himself, former Costa Mesa Mayor and current Orange County Transportation Authority Chairman, Peter Buffa. Debbie Sklar at PublicCEO.com has, once again, provided a very nice profile of a Costa Mesa mover and shaker. You may recall her recent profile of City Manager Allan Roeder which I linked for you HERE.
HIS SUNDAY LEVITY DOESN'T TELL THE STORY
This profile of Buffa gives you real insight to his skills and experience. If your only reference for him is his weekly Sunday morning column in the Daily Pilot, then you would have no idea the depth and breadth of his experience in Orange County politics. Even though I occasionally disagree with him on some issues - the ill-conceived and now defunct CenterLine Light Rail boondoggle, for example - I admire and respect Peter's ability and his foresight. I think you'll really enjoy this profile.
ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND - GO LAKERS!
That's it for now, folks. I'll be away from my computer for the weekend, so any comments will probably just sit in the hopper, waiting for me to retrieve and approve them for publication later. In the words of Peter Buffa, I gotta go.
Well, neighbors, I know you're all busy with that copy of the budget you downloaded and are using that fine-toothed comb to cull through every single line item to find more "fat" to cut. Yeah, right!
TAKING A LITTLE BREAK
Myself, I'm taking a little break from all that tedious number stuff - I trust the Finance staff to do their jobs with the numbers and the remainder of the city management team to do what they've been doing for many months - using all their skills to approach this budget year conservatively, always looking for ways to save.
WILL THE COUNCIL DO IT'S HOMEWORK?
Next Tuesday we'll find out if our city council has done their part and spent time on the budget document. Or, as has many times been the case, have they decided to take the easy, lazy way out and simply instruct the staff to take out their cleavers and make across the board chops in the headcount. I know from personal experience over many years wrestling with budgets that it can be an exhausting experience. I'm sure some on the council dais will have a lot of difficulty with this process, especially this year, because they're working with such intellectual limitations.
RECREATIONAL READING FOR YOU
So, to get you through the weekend, I have a couple little items for you to read.
FIRST, A LITTLE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The first is an entry I wrote on this blog, in it's earlier iteration, just about this time of the year three years ago. Click HERE and you'll be taken to an archived blog page. Scroll down to the second entry dated June 21, 2006 and titled "Budgets and Boneheads". This will give you a little historical (hysterical?) perspective on this process from the recent past.
SECOND, A BUFFA BUFFET
Second, click HERE and you'll be taken to a very nice biographical profile of his ex-ness himself, former Costa Mesa Mayor and current Orange County Transportation Authority Chairman, Peter Buffa. Debbie Sklar at PublicCEO.com has, once again, provided a very nice profile of a Costa Mesa mover and shaker. You may recall her recent profile of City Manager Allan Roeder which I linked for you HERE.
HIS SUNDAY LEVITY DOESN'T TELL THE STORY
This profile of Buffa gives you real insight to his skills and experience. If your only reference for him is his weekly Sunday morning column in the Daily Pilot, then you would have no idea the depth and breadth of his experience in Orange County politics. Even though I occasionally disagree with him on some issues - the ill-conceived and now defunct CenterLine Light Rail boondoggle, for example - I admire and respect Peter's ability and his foresight. I think you'll really enjoy this profile.
ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND - GO LAKERS!
That's it for now, folks. I'll be away from my computer for the weekend, so any comments will probably just sit in the hopper, waiting for me to retrieve and approve them for publication later. In the words of Peter Buffa, I gotta go.
Labels: Budget Proposal, Buffa, Roeder
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 6/04/2009 06:50:00 PM
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