And, isn’t it ironic that the most vocal and hardheaded proponents of spending ten to twelve million dollars on recreation, now equally vocally and hardheadedly argues against spending money on safety. And the loudest and most vocal of these people are doctors. And to hear these doctors talk about fiscal responsibility is laughable since they are members of the Rec Center Committee and they are just about to ask the taxpayers to subsidize the running of the rec center to the tune of 50%. 

And, didn’t the Mayor want us to spend 8-10 million dollars on the Crandon beautification recently. It’s disturbing that recreation and beautification have become more important that safety! 

Of course, if you listen to some Council members, it is clear that they want to raise taxes now. To them, I’d like to suggest that they study the month-old FIU survey that showed that 86% of those surveyed do not want a tax increase under any circumstances. Work within the budget, and if that means reining in spending and start cutting, so be it. We have overpaid directors and assistants on the payroll we don’t need. And why not hire ONE attorney as in-house counsel with a reasonable contract – that would save us a bundle. 

Watching the recent Goals and Objective meeting, I was not surprised to see people asking for this, that and the other. Well, we need to tuck away those wishes for a while, and consider them at some time in the future when we have money. Anyway, according to Professor Moreno of the FIU, what we have in front of us is detailing, what kind of trees and so forth. The Council should cut, plan and budget accordingly but make sure our fire trucks are fully manned immediately. 

Of course, the Council didn’t vote that way. The majority (4 to 3) wanted to postpone fully manning our fire trucks until July 2004. It’s a shame.

February 20, 2005 - Yielding time, if it is good enough for Congress, it is good enough for us.

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