The African American Aldermanic Caucus on The St. Louis Board of Aldermen sent a letter on Friday to Alderman Stephen Conway, who chairs the important Ways & Means Committee.
The 12 undersigned black aldermen express dissatisfaction with how Conway is handling the process of coming up wth $45 million in cuts from the City budget.
The caucus wants to have three more meetings on the propopsed cuts, including one in the evening when more citizens can attend - and a process of questioning individually each department head.
The letter is an encouraging show of collective action and concern for constituents.
PDF
Posts
2 comments:
Department Heads are appointed by the Mayor. They may not provide any information that's new or different than what's already in the document submitted by the Mayor, especially since they provided some of those line items. Some Department Heads are very intelligent and competent managers. Others range from the "let's slap something together" philosophy to simple "yes" men. Some budget items are complex, and may take time to review and consider. Aldermen interviewing Department Heads and holding public hearings may or may not reveal solutions. Still, transparency and debate in government are good things.
The Mayor's blog about the City's budget is posted at http://www.mayorslay.com/desk/display.asp?deskID=1421. From there or directly at http://mayorslay.com/data/upload/ADDRESSING%20CITY%20OF%20ST.%20LOUIS%20BUDGET%20ISSUES.pdf are some of the budget items up for discussion. The City's most recent Annual Report (expenditures) is posted at http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/comptroller/cafr08.html. The City's most recent budget is posted at http://stlouis.missouri.org/government/budget.htm.
Post a Comment