All I want to do is make an informed vote. It should be something that the public expects. However, sometimes, it is so difficult. Once again, it involved the police department. I wanted to get some spreadsheets that have the last few years budgets, with actuals. I wanted to look at a detailed line item description of what we have budgeted and what we have spent our money on. Shouldn’t be that difficult right? Wrong.
First of all, I stopped making these requests personally, I have to send someone from the Council Office to do it, because once you make the request, it usually requires several follow ups and dogged determination and usually results in very little information.
Second, once the staff did try to get the information, this is the answer I finally got back from the Council Office staff:
I talked to Terri Genin, the Finance Manager for the Police Department. She said they don’t have a line-by-line itemization – no spreadsheet, nothing like that. I’m going to talk to the Comptroller’s Office, too, to see what they have to say, but I wanted to update you on what I know so far. Terri did say that back when he was first elected, Zach had a lot of questions about the Police budget, so he scheduled a 2-hour meeting with her and an assistant chief, and they went over the details of the budget with him. She offered to do the same for you, if you’d like. I don’t know which assistant chief it was back when they met with Zach, but now it’s Davenport. And, just to complicate things, Terri is leaving on Wednesday for a 2-week vacation. So, if you do decide you want to meet with her and Assistant Chief Davenport, the earliest time available would be the end of the month.I’ll get back to you with what I learn from the Comptroller.
Don’t have a line-by-line itemization? They have a freaking $50M budget and they don’t have a spreadsheet or report of what was budgeted for the last few years and how that lines up with what was spent? “Nothing like that”?
How the hell are they coming up with their budgets? Excuse me for my language, what what are they doing, pulling budgets out of their ass? If they can’t answer the most basic information about having a basic income and expense report with budget to actual information without a 2 hour meeting, maybe there is some room for some efficiencies and better management practices that could save alot of taxpayer money!
I’ve been concerned about basic lack of information in the police budget for some time. And I’ve tried getting information in the past, to no avail. But I honestly didn’t think it was this bad.
