This is the first of several articles that will be written by city department managers to help you get to know your city departments and their services. As interim city manager, it has been my pleasure to serve the City Council and the citizens during the few months between former City Manager, Steve Buck’s departure and the arrival of Austin Bleess on Oct. 29, 2012.
In watching the situation unfold with the NFL and the football officials strike, I couldn’t help but think of the comparison of the fan’s view of the football officials and the citizen’s view of city managers in general. Most don’t like the officiating and decisions of the football referees and wish they could simply let the game play on without the watchful eye of the officials. However, as fans of Green Bay can attest to, the game can change dramatically, and unfairly, when it does not have the professional referee team in place to officiate.
Now, I don’t want to oversimplify the job of the professional town and city manager in Maine, but the role is not too far from that of the referee. We work to ensure that a fair and equitable process is utilized which follows the rules that the City Council have approved. Most processes and policies are set by City Council, some are internal standard operating procedures and some are established in the City Charter.
This past year, the citizens adopted changes to the Caribou City Charter through a referendum vote. One of the more significant changes to the charter is the financial reporting and budgeting requirements section. This fall, management embarked on working to implement those changes pertaining to the 2013 budget process. The proposed budget document is now online on the city website, www.cariboumaine.org. This budget document is in its first year and it will hopefully improve over time as budget information and tracking improves. Each month, this document will be updated with 2012 expenditures to date and the projected year end expenditure.
As the Council reviews and modifies the 2013 budget, there will be changes made to the proposed 2013 budget. As changes occur these will be posted and the original budget will be taken off the city website. This is in an attempt to avoid confusion and to provide accurate and timely information. Readers of the budget documents should note that the budget on the website will have a date at the top of each page which will reflect the date on which the changes were made prior to posting. Please keep in mind that it is not a perfect document and is subject to human input error … mine.
One of the goals of the Charter Commission was to seek an improved budget report to enable clear and easy understanding of the full (gross) cost of municipal services along with the gross capital expenses to support and deliver those services. Included at a later date will be the gross city funding and revenues that offset the overall tax burden. In doing the compilation for the charter required reports, it became clear to me how the city operates and how they fund those operations.
Because Caribou is in the process of negotiating three union contracts, there is no increase to the salaries in the proposed 2013 budgets. All budgets were compiled using 2012 salary and benefit cost rates and calculated using a zero base. We have included a new Contingency Expense Budget to allow for a reserve to fund any negotiated salary increase and the correlated benefit increase costs. In addition, the Contingency includes an amount that should cover the increased health insurance costs.
The charter change included a process for public forums to be scheduled to enable a “conversation” between the department managers, the City Council and Caribou citizens regarding budgets and cost of operations. These forums started on Oct. 15 and 22 and will continue on Monday, Oct. 29th from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Council Chambers. We invite all to attend and to participate in the conversation. The budget is the working document that enables the services to be performed in Caribou throughout the year.
One internal process that will need to be developed as this budget schedule unfolds is the tracking (or capturing) of the changes to the Operating Expense and Capital Expense budgets. The city will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers. This will be one last formal opportunity for the public to have input to the 2013 budgets. The Council will provide input to the budget and request specific changes so that a final document can be ready for the budget adoption meeting that will be held Monday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. All these dates are specific to charter requirements for the public hearing and adoption and are set to the closest Monday that meets those specified deadlines.
I have enjoyed working for the city and look forward to the arrival of Mr. Bleess who will become Caribou’s city manager on Monday, Oct. 29th. He comes to the city from Winnebago, Minnesota and is excited to work with the Council, the departments and the citizens. I hope you all embrace him and his wife, Beth, as they make their home in Caribou.
I also have enjoyed working with the department managers and the staff. They are very dedicated to Caribou and they obviously enjoy serving and helping the citizens. The City Council have also had a very challenging year and this year, they held a retreat workshop with department managers to discuss operations, issues and concerns. After that meeting, my observation was that both employees and councilors work for the city because they care about Caribou and want to see the city be the best it can be for all residents. Not only is it important for the department managers and the City Council to communicate with each other, it is imperative for the citizens to communicate their needs, concerns and issues with the Council, the manager and department managers. Their goals have been and will remain to work in the best interest of the majority of the citizens and to take on tasks or issues before they become a crisis to solve.
Trust them and expect them to do their best. As citizens, we all need to carry a responsibility to be involved in our community’s ongoing improvements. As was stated in the children’s movie, The Lorax; “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing’s going to get better.” We need to be engaged and constructively involved.
