The Council had a budget retreat this morning. This Council does pride itself on trying to understand and plan for the future and this session helped with that. The proposed cuts come in at about 4% of the budget which may not seem like much but keep in mind that this comes on top of large cuts last year.  The easy savings are long gone. These cuts will effect how the City looks and how it works.  Things that people are used to seeing and services you are used to having will be going away.  We’ll be doing less of the “have to haves” and very little of the “nice to haves”.  

Given the guidance the Council has issued, the size of the govnerment is simply not sustainable and we must continue cutting.

Another interesting part of the discussion centered around how we can more effectively communicate with the citizens.  I passed along some of the suggestions I’ve recieved here and we kicked around some other ideas.  I think an online component is important to our communication strategy and other Council members mentioned that we should hold meetings in some unconventional places – Churches, HOA meetings, etc. 

Honestly, it is kinda frustrating that we have to work so hard to get people involved – we hold at least a dozen meetings about the budget!  However, I feel (as do the other Council members) that we need to go the extra mile this year and try!