Budget hearings aren’t popular evening events among Dearborn residents, judging from the number of people who regularly attended sessions at City Hall this year (except for the well-organized Save our Pools team).
Yet the decisions our elected officials made in approving the fiscal year 2011-12 budget Tuesday night will have ramifications for all of us in the coming weeks and months.
So the question becomes is there a better way for our elected officials to more effectively communicate with all of us to get our input and alert us to what is coming before it occurs?
Tom Tafelski
We called out the City Council earlier this week for not having enough public hearings to collect input from residents on the budget. Council President Tom Tafelski took umbrage with that statement and quickly contacted us to set the record straight, saying our figure of just six budget meetings this year (a figure provided to us by former Councilman George Darany who is now a State Representative) was grossly understated.
Tafelski provided documents to us showing the total number of budget meetings was actually 14 this year, up from 12 meetings in 2010 and eight in 2009. Six of those budget meetings for fiscal year 2011-12 took place before April 15, the date the mayor presented his budget proposal to council, according to Tafelski. Seven meetings took place after the April 15 date the budget was presented to Council. The final meeting (budget approval) took place June 7.
Having meetings for the sake of meetings isn’t something we advocate but it still feels thin, particularly given the budget task this year and the more difficult cuts coming in fiscal year 2012-13. The challenge remains how to engage residents earlier in the process.
In regards to our suggestion that city-issued Council cell phones should be terminated, Tafelski and Councilman Robert Abraham quickly contacted us to tell us that neither uses a city-issued cell phone.
Tafelski said just two council members currently have city-issued cell phones: Nancy Hubbard and Suzanne Sareini.
The remaining council members get reimbursed by the city for minutes used for city work on their personal phones, Tafelski said. Those payments come from each councilmember’s city-issued personal budget, which is $3,500 annually. Council members use that same budget for educational purposes, as well, such as attending classes sponsored by the Michigan Municipal League, Tafelski explained.
Even with the budget passed, more hard work remains. Dearborn is considering seeking a millage increase that could be as high as 3.5 mills. City Council will need to approve such a measure by July 8 in order for it to make it on the November ballot. Lots of questions remain on what the added revenue would be used for and how the millage question would be framed.
The key thing for all of us will be to inform our elected officials what we expect from a millage increase. Emailing each of them is a good way to start.
Dearborn City Council
Tom Tafelski: 313.943.2405 – ttafelski@ci.dearborn.mi.us
Suzanne Sareini: 313.943.2404 – ssareini@ci.dearborn.mi.us
Mark Shooshanian: 313.943.2406 – mshooshanian@ci.dearborn.mi.us
Robert A. Abraham: 313.943.2408 – rabraham@ci.dearborn.mi.us
Brian C. O’Donnell: 313.943.2407 – bodonnell@ci.dearborn.mi.us
Nancy A. Hubbard: 313.943.2403 – nhubbard@ci.dearborn.mi.us
David Bazzy: 313.943.32402 – dbazzy@ci.dearborn.mi.us
