Thursday, July 16, 2009

IMPORTANT MEETING TONIGHT

It's going to be an exciting place to be tonight at the City Council meeting. The council will vote on the 1 million allocation from EDIT to pay for the hiring and training of 10 new police officers.

Additionally there will be an appropriation request from CM Gahan of $75,000 to compensate the recent flood victims. Although some people may say this will just open the door for everyone to request funds for future flooding and other problems, I think this is a special circumstance. There is a major problem with our storm water run-off and it needs to be fixed immediately.

Going back to the police officers, I had said in a previous posting that I was unsure how I would vote if I had the opportunity to do so. After careful consideration I would have to vote in the negative. Yes, we certainly need new police officers but at this time we have several highly paid officers who have yet to retire. When they do so, we will have the additional funds to pay for the salary and training of new officers. I know CM Messer sees an immediate need and he is on the "front lines" but we only have so much money and we have to use it wisely.