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Time for atonement |
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
By Rick Wood
a-tone-ment
1. satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury; amends. (Random House Webster’s College Dictionary)
$5.6 million. That’s the amount the Town of Mammoth Lakes has overspent this year. This is a direct, indisputable result of inadequate, overly-optimistic forecasting by Town staff who do not have the right to gamble with our money. Without independent fiscal oversight, this Council was duped by its own staff, who, in the words of Kirk Stapp, “didn’t even see it coming.”
Three weeks ago, I sounded the alarm after hearing a public presentation admitting that the Town is $5.6 million in the hole. After attending three meetings on this, I have the following observations.
Rob Clark. Hands-down, the best politician in the room. The stated deficit was a moving target: $6.5M, $4.4M, $1.4M, or $5.6M. Depending on what is hidden, the number changes each time. First he admitted error, then passionately defended the forecasting model — and the forecaster — by claiming that his staff forecasts conservatively, even after making a $5.6 million mistake. His suggested fix: save money through attrition. That’s it? I submit that it is not enough.
Kirk Stapp. Without question, the most responsible watchdog over the Town’s finances, first publicly agreed with “90 percent” of my proposed solutions, but then after two weeks of reflection, i.e., circling the wagons, called my suggestions “egregious.” He has rejected my suggestion for independent oversight by claiming that it is the Council’s responsibility to oversee its own finances. I agree, except that this Council missed a $5.6 million wrong assumption.
John Eastman. Again, without comparison, the steadiest Council member with valuable independent perspective. I continue to admire him. However, he asked Rob Clark whether or not is was true that the Town has $13 million in the bank. Rob dutifully responded that indeed it does. I submit that it does not, because it is the Town’s committed funds which were used to satisfy the $5.6 million deficit. In other words, we now have $7.4 million in the bank, not $13 million, a reduction of 43 percent in one year. Further, the Council has never had a policy discussion on whether $3.2 million from the Village parking structure account should be used to satisfy the budget shortfall.
Mayor Skip Harvey. His view, stated publicly, is that because his business numbers are up, everyone else’s must be, and there is no need to worry. Again, that’s it? Where are the proposed solutions? The head of the Town’s political leadership is not entitled to blindly accept staff’s unsupportable assumptions and defend the status quo. This community should expect more.
Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Sugimura. First, meeting, she said nothing. Second meeting, she implied that my concern was a “knee-jerk reaction” to a problem — not a crisis — and that perhaps we are talking ourselves into a recession. Third meeting, she said nothing. What is remarkable to me is that the person who has been a consistent champion of “process” has failed to endorse a proposal that indeed there be a process of oversight of the Town’s finances and budget forecasting. It was stated repeatedly at the last meeting by members of the public who spoke that the Council is not to be trusted with our money. Council should listen.
Neil McCarroll. To his credit, he is listening. I gotta hand it to him — he is smart enough to distance himself from staff by calling for independent oversight, and asking where we will be next year based on optimistic assumption supported by nothing but hope. Now is the time for him to press his advantage by proposing bold, new solutions to this problem. He has opined that I will look silly if the Ritz-Carlton pulls a building permit this year. I hope so. Until then, the Town is not entitled to spend money that it does not have.
I have no doubt that the Council and Town staff are well-intentioned. However, good intentions are not enough without political will and effective leadership. This Town must atone for its wrong and resulting injury by making some hard decisions about how it forecasts and who is minding the store. We deserve better solutions than those being offered.
Rick Wood is former mayor of the Town of Mammoth Lakes.
"Town Square" is a timely, issue-oriented guest opinion column. Length limit: 1,000 words. Original ideas receive priority over responses to previous columns. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent policies and opinions of the staff or owners of the Mammoth Times. Reader response is encouraged. –MT
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 March 2008 )
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