A Quickie Look at the Columbus 2014 Budget

Some people may think I'm anti Police Department when I'm actually not.  I do get frustrated at the hard line Winter Parking rules and believe that there should be warnings given in the early part of winter instead of tickets.  We are all in this together.  I hope the police department becomes a part of the community as opposed to a department people resent. 

But all in all the officers do a fine job.

Looking at the budget for ALL departments I thought it would be good to compare with previous years.  Just seeing numbers for one year is really useless information if you have nothing to compare too.  These numbers are not 100% accurate but the best I can come up with.  They are in the ballpark though.

	2011	2012	2013	2014
Total	$3,581,056	$3,685,446	$3,563,409	$3,568,735
Gen Gov	$863,698	$856,738	$908,745	$809,327
Police Dept	$1,174,903	$1,191,551	$1,124,509	$1,165,230
Fire Dept	$195,187	$194,920	$201,789	$211,667
Public Safety	$185,560	$286,228	$290,795	$308,443
Public Works	$913,321	$911,363	$829,658	$823,902
Senior Center	$106,710	$105,956	$95,545	$88,895
Recreation	$80,936	$68,741	$69,177	$70,220

 Looks like a lot of numbers but let's go a little deeper.

This is the percent of the Columbus budget each Department has been given or asked for since 2011 with the last column the percent increase/decrease from 2013 to 2014

	2011	2012	2013	2014	Pct +/- 2013
Gen Gov	24.1%	23.2%	25.5%	22.7%	-10.9%
Police Dept	32.8%	32.3%	31.6%	32.7%	3.6%
Fire Dept	5.5%	5.3%	5.7%	5.9%	4.9%
Public Safety	5.2%	7.8%	8.2%	8.6%	6.1%
Public Works	25.5%	24.7%	23.3%	23.1%	-0.7%
Senior Center	3.0%	2.9%	2.7%	2.5%	-7.0%
Recreation	2.3%	1.9%	1.9%	2.0%	1.5%

What stands out to me is that the Senior Center, which I believe is an important function of any town and it is really taking a yearly hit.  It's like we do not value our Seniors.

The Fire Department has been slowing increasing and I feel this is a good thing.  They have a LOT of old equipment.  They are the one department where being proactive instead of reactive is a valid argument. 

Public Safety is Emergency Government, Ambulance and Street Lighting.  They had a big jump from 2011 to 2012 because the Ambulance service cost $100,000 more (for some reason - I have not had a chance to ask anybody yet).  I believe this years increase is because of additional lighting going towards Enerpac. Otherwise unknown.

General Government looks to be salaries of all our people.

The Police Department is asking for 3.9% more but they took a 2% cut last year. So if people complain that they are asking for more what they are really doing is penalizing them for not spending all their money in 2013. 

Another chart - this one takes an average of the last three year budgets and looks to see if this years budget is more or less then that departments three year average.

above/below average Gen Gov -7.7% Police Dept 0.1% Fire Dept 7.3% Public Safty 6.9% Public Works -6.9% Senior Center -13.5% Recreation  -3.7%

What this tells me is that once again The Senior Center is the one that is taking the most cuts along with Public Works while the under budgeted Fire Department has been gaining ground but still lower then most towns.  The Police Department has not really gone overboard with requests as some would say.  Although most do feel they are over budgeted.


One thing to note.  While reading the Columbus Police Department budget report in the summery it says they are asking for a $47,000 increase over last year.  

Looking at numbers, LAST year was $67,000 less then the year before.  I know this goes against the grain of many people but the CPD is only asking 0.1% MORE then the average of 2011-2013.

I strongly disagree with the need for personal cameras and fleet cameras so there could be a savign there of $20,000.

Aldermen Adams had a proposal - he stated "these cuts to the proposed budget will allow the PD and personnel to operate as they have previously. Overall PD operations would be expected to provide the same level of service and public safety as the current budget year."

I got out my abacus and started crunching numbers as if I was the Chief. How many 8 hour shifts do I believe the police department needs in a week.  Quick - off the top of your head   

Factoring in vacation and sick times I came up with about 45 shifts a week.  We need 9.34 officers if you do not want to have overtime.  Now for most of last year, I'm told, "we" operated with six officers with plenty of over time.  If this is true well done team. (Again - the CC needs to know about overtime hours).  Did I hear they want 11? 13? officers?  That is ludicrous!

Therefore I agree with Adams (truth in advertising - he is a good friend) in theory about the need for cutbacks but this is not one area I believe we can do it.

I believe the Chief reached a little too far with the cameras.  

The question is - where does money to fix our crumbling infrastructure??   Excellent question.  The answer is not an easy one, if it was there would be a fix.

There are things we can do but none are quick fixes.  Quick fixes are the reason we are in this situation to begin with. Short term profits to make quick fixes while gaining long term liability.

I'm very optimistic about Columbus and it's growth IF we have smart growth. Growth that does not create long term liability (loans from new roads and incentives to business to come here which do not pay off in the long run).

We need to make Columbus a place people WANT to come to, a friendly, clean town.

Thanks M for the link - this is a very very good article about a city that revitalized it's downtown

Wal-Mart (insert any big box store): An economic cancer on our cities

Stay tuned to the CDA meeting - a group of us travel to Madison for a presentation by strong towns.org . an eye opener on what is happening to our small towns.

and EXCELLENT pod cast  and part of what me and members of the CDA attended is below 0 fascinating