The Audit report came out a couple weeks ago. There were no bombshells or amazing revelations in it. But there were some suggestions where the city can save money and be more efficient.
Be careful for what you wish for though. One of the recommendations was fixing the water meters, which currently do not measure all the water being used. So if they fix it they could have an increase in revenue, but that also means your water bill will go up because you are not currently paying for all the water you are using.
When they were deciding on whether to do this audit, there was some discussion on whether or not they would actually do what it said. At that time Mell Kuhn suggested the city commit to do whatever the audit said. Other commissioners agreed that the city should do what the audit says, but they didnt want to tie their own hands just in case there were some bad ideas.
But What I hope for is that this report will not suffer the same fate as other reports. Remember the 20-20 surveys of a few years ago, that has some great information and is gathering dust as usual. Then there was the 77 corridor study. And more studies.
So I hope the city will take action on this one, and actually do something with it. Serious consideration should be given to the recommendations. Long term views need to be taken, not just knee jerk emotional reactions that feel good at the moment. As they consider the recommendations, they should also be thinking about what the city needs to be 20 years, 30 years from now, and let that weigh heavily on any decisions.
In light of that, the company that did the audit is offereing to come back and work with the city on implementing ideas, and finding ways to actually do things. Of course, they are not offering to do this for free. It will cost the city another 8 grand or so, but if it helps them save 80 grand, it will be worth it. I think they should do it. They have already spent 30 grand on the study, and we do not want the study to suffer the same fate as other studies have suffered.
You do have to spend money to save money sometimes. Strange how that works, but ... it does. Its like spending $100 on more insulation for your house so you can spend 500 less on energy bills. The city needs to be forward thinking here. Should be interesting to see what happens.
The report is on the city's website
Here are some links
http://arkcity.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=3040http://arkcity.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=3040
OK, i'll bite. let's hope they go forward. problem with our system is....one commission can have great ideas & plans and then with one election all can be washed away. i'm thinking...how many 1000's of $$ did we spend in a city manager selection process a few years ago. and then only to have the new recruit dumped. wonder what would have happened if he had been allowed to stay? after all, he was not a nobody, had been thoroughly vetted, and was the #1 selection.
ReplyDeleteThat new recruit didn't get "dumped" he quit for a better job!
ReplyDeleteIf you believe that, I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you. eh?
ReplyDeleteI think it was quitting before he got fired. He wanted a wave of improvements, and the newest members of the commission wanted to keep things the way they were. The new city manager was young enough he needed to protect his resume so left before anything embarrassing happened to the commission. It apparently was a smart thing because within a year the new mayor drew state wide, and then national media attention with his antics.
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