Budget Shortfall

By Jo Anne L. Mounce

The city of Lodi has a great future, and together we will find an answer to this difficult problem. And as my family has enjoyed for the past 72 years, Lodi and its citizen will continue to have quality public safety and city services for generations to come.

We each have a budget at home and we all know what happens when out our personal income is decreased. We have to slow down our spending or look for more work. As a result, things change in the refrigerator. We have to decide what can be eliminated and, sometimes, there has to be tough choices. We have to ask ourselves what we can live without.

As your city council person I will take a hard look at each line item, and ask each department head what he or she can live without. The city currently forecasts their payroll at the highest classification plan: all using "step E". Can we take a look at that form for budgeting and see if we can get a more realistic outlook?

Might we just require each department to cut their budget by 5%? Or maybe it is time for efficiency studies. I am not implying that our employees are doing anything wrong; however, have others cities found ways to provide quality city services while still compensating their people and saving monies too.

Maybe it is time to ask the utility company to buck up. Ask them to economize so that council can increase in-leiu transfers without placing additional burden on the ratepayers.

Another area to look for savings might be debt consolidation. Is there potential interest saving on our certificates of participation? And, of course, there is the grow cost of our contamination litigation.

With my many years of accounting experience, these are just some of the questions I will ask.

The city of Lodi has a great future, and together we will find an answer to this difficult problem. And as my family has enjoyed for the past 72 years, Lodi and its citizen will continue to have quality public safety and city services for generations to come.