No Property Tax Increase, City Must Put Financial House in Order

Lincoln badly needs to establish a positive vision for the future supported by a broad public consensus. I am prepared to lead Lincoln in shaping that vision.
To support it, a strong public-private alliance must be forged with citizen support.

However, citizen confidence in City Hall is at an extremely low point. Lincoln city government must first put its own financial house in order, before we can ask the public to embrace a big vision. City Hall leadership has failed over a period of years to take effective action with respect to certain fundamental processes and practices. As result, citizens lack the faith we need to move the community forward. The restoration of confidence requires the following in the year 2007:

1. No Property Tax Rate Increases. The 2007/2008 city budget must be balanced with no property tax rate increases. We cannot ask citizens to pay more for a city government that has a broken budget process.
2. Duct tape budget balancing must end. The city budget is structurally imbalanced. In none of the next five years do projected revenues cover projected expenditures. This chronic problem must be immediately corrected to stabilize the budget process and end the spectacle of annual multi-million dollar deficits. City Hall leadership has failed to come to grips with the problem. City employees and taxpayers deserve budgets that are funded in a more consistent, businesslike manner.
3. A regular performance audit capability must be established within city government. There is presently none. It should allow both the mayor and the city council to work together in calling for a performance audit. The performance audit, like our financial audits, would be done by a private firm in the business of doing government performance audits.
4. The City bidding process must be free of controversy. The process must get a painstaking review by the Mayor to preclude further management snafus such as in the fire truck and Verizon situations. We need to get it right the first time and restore credibility.
5. Fiscal Leadership must be re-established at the top. Team goals must be established and employees held accountable. The city enjoys the services of a dedicated, well educated, skilled, and experienced body of civil servants. The city’s overall budget priorities must reflect the Mayor’s priorities, not those of Department heads. They deserve clear goals up front so that direction-changing decisions are not forthcoming late in the process, as in the recent Wal-Mart episode.
6. Finally, an advisory committee should be established for the Public Works Department. The activities of the department are varied enough and important enough that it would benefit from more regular contact with its constituencies. The ideas and concerns of the Advisory Committee will be reported by its presiding officer directly to the mayor as needed. Snow removal would be an excellent area to review immediately.

These six objectives will be accomplished in 2007. Meanwhile, the vision formation process should proceed so that we can turn to the future with all deliberative speed.