The CIP resolution that the Council passed at our last meeting has been covered in the press and has generated some interest – I've had a few folks call and ask about it.  For those that missed it, the resolution creates a process by which the Schools and the City will embark on a joint CIP planning process.  It's a shade unusual: mostly school boards and City Councils squabble over money and control, not work collaboratively on big ticket problems.  Some view the entire affair with some suspicion, thinking that the Council doesn't trust the schools or that we're tyring to "run the schools".

To those that believe the Council is somehow scheming to gain control of the Schools I ask the following: how much time do you think we have?  Get real.  I can't speak for the other Council members but I'll tell you what I believe:  I wouldn't have voted to pass such a beast if I didn't trust the Schools to be involved in the process.  Is the school CIP a little less "firm" than the City's?  Possibly, but I also have confidence that they'll get it sorted and we'll go from there.  Another crucial point is that this process potentially allows the Schools unprecedented involvement in the City CIP process. 

What that means in plain language is that a scenario exists where the community as a whole (which is what this is all about) decides that an improvement in school infrastructure is more important than a City project, the City project could get delayed.  The reverse or some combination could also be true.  The point is that everyone is in the room and we can make the best decision possible.

See, In a traditional CIP process, the schools would get their share of the tax dollars to run the schools and if they don't have enough money to do what they want, well, that's tough beans.  While I agree with those that point out that the schools per capita cost is high, I also believe that we're just too small a jurisdiciton to do this kind of planning at this very important point in our collective history to take the tradtional approach.  We have hard decisions to make and they can't be made in "silos". 

On the City side, the Finance Committee will be the designated body to start this work.  The schools have elected for a committee of the whole.  I'm not sure any of that is a big deal as we'll probably start out with a few meetings on each side and then some joint meetings.  Eventually both bodies will get together and sort out a final decision.

In any event, the staff will have a fair amount of work to do in analyzing revenues, debt capacity, debt retirement schedules, etc, etc.  We need to figure out what money we have, what we're going to do and how to pay for it….and we need to move with some alacrity.  The clock is ticking.