Excerpts from this week's Visions Newsletter:

Last week several representatives from City Council finally approached my Administration about resolving the budget "imbroglio." We agreed to look at how we can continue to move forward and had these talks taken place sooner, this matter never would have dragged on as it has.

As you know, I stated on June 10 that the budget Council approved on May 27 was unbalanced and invalid, as the timeline below will demonstrate. As a result and per the City Charter, my original proposed budget took effect. It is unknown why Council took six weeks to come to the table to discuss this matter.

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As a starting point, we must first identify the $6 million that has to be found to bring the budget into balance with the new tax rate that Council approved in April. After those amendments are adopted, discussions can take place on other items such as text amendments and a retiree Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).
 
Until last Thursday, the only communication between my office and Council had been their reliance on a predictable advisory legal opinion from their attorney and threats of lawsuits. One Councilman said, "It is very clear to me that if the Mayor can't come to terms and accept the Council's budget, we need to move forward with a lawsuit." Two weeks ago, another Council member said, "If we don't go to court, we'd essentially be agreeing with the Mayor."
 
Heaven forbid, agreeing with him, on anything?!

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Perhaps Council has now seen that a lawsuit would be a pure waste of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
 
This entire affair is a simple case of not turning in homework on time, because Council missed its deadline. As the timeline clearly demonstrates, Council had multiple chances to take corrective action, yet it never happened.


You can read the entire newsletter and view the timeline here.