Dear Citizens,
Welcome to my first weblog. Hopefully, it will be one of many.
First of all, thank you for electing me to another 4-year term. It has always been an honor to serve the citizens of East Wenatchee and it will continue to be an honor.
I have started this website to provide an informal forum for citizens to stay updated on what is happening at City Hall and for citizens to provide their input on what concerns they have when it comes to City government and what direction they think the City should take over the next four years. I hope to write a new blog about once a month.
First of all, let me give you a brief "State of the City" report.
The City Council just passed the 2008 budget for East Wenatchee which anticipates total expenditures in the sum of approximately 7.4 million dollars. The budget is balanced, of course, but only anticipates a carryover of about $250,000 into 2009. Historically during my tenure as Mayor, however, our staff has managed to limit spending to a sum below budgeted amounts. I would say we have a solid financial position but need to work on lowering expenses while finding new revenue sources in 2008.
Those revenue sources should be developed by increasing the attractiveness of East Wenatchee to visitors, a stated goal of our city since 1995. It is for that reason that I am currently working to explore the possibility of obtaining outside funding to create a Sports Plex facility in our area which could host state youth sports tournaments, for the great economic benefit such events will provide to our merchants and, indirectly, to city government. I'll have more to say about that subject as plans hopefully develop. I would appreciate your comments on the future of the City.
One major idea I have been mulling over for some time is how to consolidate the various municipal services in East Wenatchee under one roof. As the City becomes more and more urban in nature, it makes sense to have the City manage sewer services, water services, and park services.
I believe this makes sense for the following reasons. First, consolidating the services under one roof will result in operational efficiencies. Rather than paying for the services, through taxes or fees, for a City Council, for a Water Board, a Sewer Board, and for a Parks Board, the taxpayers will only have to pay for the expenses of one governing board. Likewise, the process of billing and collecting fees for utility services could be streamlined. Likewise, instead of each entity maintaining a full fleet of vehicles and equipment (a lot of it duplicative, consolidation would reduce the expenditures on purchases of new equipment and on maintenance of that equipment.
Second, consolidating services under one roof will increase public participation and awareness of what is going on in the community. As it presently stands, a citizen faces a daunting task of staying abreast of what is going on in the community. For example, if a citizen is concerned about a particular issue, he or she may have to attend the meetings of four governing bodies.
Third, consolidating services will attract business to the community. For example, if a business owner wants to build a new office or store, he or she has to run to the City for a permit, run to the Water District for a permit, and run to the Sewer District for a permit. Rather than knowing exactly what he or she needs to do from A to Z to build the building, the business owner quickly finds he or she is pulled in different directions. In the end, the process moves slowly and data farms are built in Quincy instead of East Wenatchee.
Finally, consolidation would solve the problem created by the fact that the various governmental entities are not always on the same page when it comes to planning for and managing the significant growth occurring on our community. For example, the Water District has plans to allow growth outside the urban growth area which was jointly established by the City and Douglas County for the Greater East Wenatchee area. This has recently led to litigation between the City and the Water District. Regardless of which entity ultimately wins the litigation, the ultimate outcome will means that one of the entities will have wasted years of time and effort in developing a plan which no one will follow.
Having explained my reasoning to you, my question for you the citizens is twofold: 1) Do you think that consolidating service is an idea whose time has come?, and 2) Should the City request an advisory vote on this issue during the next election? I appreciate your comments and look forward to serving you for the next four years.
