No Free Lunch

I want to thank Vice Mayor Suzanne Mulvehill for being totally fiscally responsible last night when she voted down the motion to approve spending $500 for a table of 10 for The League of Cities Luncheon. Its Director is leaving after 12 years or so on the job. It would have been much cheaper to send him a goodbye card.

It really is expenses such as this that drive me up a wall. Although in the scheme of things particularly when we are talking about multi-millions in policing options, $500 sounds like a ridiculous amount about which to complain. But these costs continue to show up on our consent agenda: $500 here, $2,500 there, membership fees for the utility Director of $33,000, travel to Washington, D.C. for Commissioner Maxwell. And then there was Rene Varela's trip to the Mayor Conference in Washington, D.C...money badly and unwisely spent in the scheme of things. The City is planning a sit down dinner for City Board members at the Golf Course next month. Can we get anyone responsible in this city when it comes to themselves? The Finance Advisory Board should take the reins and say "no" to this expense...not now, perhaps in the future.

If we are really serious about our financial urgency with a $4.5 million shortfall predicted for this Budget year, then every single commissioner sitting on that dais had better get serious about our spending. I think they deserve a free lunch every day of the week but this is the wrong message at the wrong time.

Last night Commissioner Maxwell said earlier in the evening that we must stop all unnecessary spending. When it came to this item, he ended up saying that he would pay for his own ticket although he voted for the motion to approve. Let's hold him up to that offer. The free lunches must end.