By including the public earlier in the budget process and making more opportunities available for public input in the months prior to the final budget hearings, Mayor Nancy Shaver tells Historic City News the process couldn’t have gone more smoothly.
The Fiscal Year 2015-2016 final millage rate of the City of St. Augustine is approved at 7.500 mills; representing a 5.53 percent increase in the rolled-back rate.
City Comptroller, Mark Litzinger, remarked that the 40-minute start-to-finish public hearings, resolution and voting processes “set a record” for time spent reaching a final approval.
Eight separate public hearings each had two or three public speakers, there were no commissioner debates, and each was approved 5-0 by the mayor and commissioners.
Public speakers Ed Slavin and B.J. Kalaidi contributed ideas relevant to achieving our financial goals for the coming year, priorities and reprioritization on infrastructure, particularly flooding, as well as a critical look at waste on free water services for city employees and city bonuses that Kalaidi says are still Christmas Bonuses, whether you call them that or not. Slavin’s remarks repeated calls for a whistle-blower ordinance, a return to a public office on the ground floor of city hall, possibly staffed with volunteers on the various neighborhood committees. Slavin also suggests an ombudsman for employees as well as members of the public so that grievances get to the attention of people who are empowered to resolve small problems before they escalate, and to insure free and open access to public records. None of the public comments resulted in generating any commissioner comments or had an effect on budget items that had already been introduced.
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