City Budget Issues
Contributed by: mjs
I really believe that the garbage user fee is just a symptom of a much larger problem in our city government.
I watch council meetings and from time to time observe elected council members ask probing questions to city staff.
From my position as a viewer, I am occasionally appalled by the condescending responses given.
Mr. Kinny, Mr. Patek, Mr. Stephany have been observed feeding pabulum to council members to appease them.
TOUGH questions need defined concrete answers not flip politically crafted rhetoric.
Council members such as Bryan Bain are educated capable elected officials that should DEMAND city staff provide complete information. City staff should be held to a high level of accountability. The City Manager should be taken to task to insure his subordinates do not dismiss council members for asking questions.
We have a new council make-up soon to occur. I believe it’s time to shake up the administration and let them know that many citizens in Oshkosh are upset about the current path our City is taking.
#1 – We need to have a complete audit of all city department positions, Department heads as well as line employees.
#2 – We need to determine whether we are staffed at appropriate levels in each area.
#3 – We need to verify that our pay and benefit structure is within reasonable averages. We are not a city that can afford above average wages and benefits. Oshkosh is a modest conservative, blue collar community. We can not afford elite city services on the modest wages of the average Oshkosh resident.
#4 – The union arbitration issue must be addressed. We may need a professional negotiator if our current city negotiator is unable to be successful.
#5 – Private sector wages, benefits and jobs in general are on a decline. Oshkosh and the greater Fox Valley have been hit extremely hard these past few years. Manufacturing jobs, union and non-union are being eliminated at an astounding rate. I am sad to see this occurring, but city government needs to understand that as the private sector goes, so goes the public sector.
#6 – We need to change the way we approach our residential street improvements. I applaud the group of councilors that suggest that secondary residential streets be resurfaced using concrete curb and gutter, but asphalt is used as the driving surface. I believe as most of our older streets need costly sewer and utility replacement, using the concrete/asphalt approach is the only way we can accommodate more miles of street repairs on a timely basis.
#7 – We need to drive more retail growth in Oshkosh. Oshkosh continues to loose out retail opportunities to our neighbors to the north and south. I think that the current drivers attempting to secure new retail ventures in Oshkosh are clearly unsuccessful. We need to make a change. Let CHAMCO take the lead in an effort to attract retail AND manufacturing ventures for Oshkosh.
To summarize:
We need to keep general city services on the tax roll. Only highly unique services should have user fees. We need to address and most likely reduce city staffing, wages and benefits. We need to improve our streets. We need to attract jobs that provide family supporting wages. We need to drastically improve retail opportunities.
Thank you for your consideration.
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: DP on Thursday, April 13 2006 @ 08:27 PM MDT
Great post! I agree on all points.
P.S. It was very disturbing last year to watch our prime negotiator side step a question from one of the council members. When asked about how much employees pay for health care, he sang and danced for so long that the initial question was forgotton. By the way, I believe that city employees not pay 5% of their health care (up from 4%).
City Budget Issues
Authored by: Jim B. on Friday, April 14 2006 @ 09:12 AM MDT
Could be the post of the year! How could we get the council and administration to address these point by point?
Jim B.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: mjs on Saturday, April 15 2006 @ 09:32 PM MDT
Thanks Jim,
I appreciate your supportive comments...But rather than comment to
me, please take a moment and write our council members and voice
your opinion to them.
Our council member need to hear from everyone that agrees with me
on this issue.
sbrabendermattox@ci.oshkosh.wi.us
ftower@ci.oshkosh.wi.us
btower@ci.oshkosh.wi.us
bbain@ci.oshkosh.wi.us
mscheuermann@ci.oshkosh.wi.us
Bill Castle and Paul Esslinger do not have e-mail, so please call or
write them via postal mail.
Bill Castle
(920) 426-7309
1125 Hazel Street
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Paul Esslinger
(920) 426-9750
2350 High Oak Drive
Oshkosh, WI 54902
City Budget Issues
Authored by: got it on Sunday, April 16 2006 @ 07:15 AM MDT
This topic is a smidge on the 'ad nauseum' side. While admirable, it really does nothing more than re-hash the arguments that have been made time and time again in the last several weeks on this blogsite.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: mjs on Sunday, April 16 2006 @ 09:32 AM MDT
Got It, I appreciate your candor.
My point is to insure each Oshkosh taxpayer that truely believes as I
do that our city government must adjust spending to allign with
taxpayer ability to support city services, must do so at this time.
We have a new council being seated this week. Please engage the
system and call, e-mail or postal mail your councilor to express your
view on where we are, and where you feel we should be headed.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: oshwi324 on Monday, April 17 2006 @ 08:26 AM MDT
In The Northwestern, 4-17-06:
"The council asked Wollangk....to complete an "internal productivity audit" of city operations by the end of June.
"The latter will rely on contracting with an outside conpany or consultant to guage city worker duties, measure productivity, and, possibly, recommend a reorganization of some kind."
City Budget Issues
Authored by: mjs on Monday, April 17 2006 @ 09:44 AM MDT
OshWi342 writes....
In The Northwestern, 4-17-06:
"The council asked Wollangk....to complete an "internal productivity audit" of city operations by the end of June.
"The latter will rely on contracting with an outside conpany or consultant to guage city worker duties, measure productivity, and, possibly, recommend a reorganization of some kind."
I thank the council for listening.
This will be a great first step.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: Zoff B. on Monday, April 17 2006 @ 02:34 PM MDT
msj has some great points and while I'm glad that the City c
ouncil has requested an audit of all departments, I'm a bit cynical that anything will come of it.
I believe that many of these problems are a "side-effect" of the city-manager form of government.
Who has a "vision" for the future of Oshkosh?
Who would propose "tough" and "radical" solutions to some of our problems.
Our Mayor is a glorified councilperson with no real power. Our city mangager's primary job seems to be keeping his job. We lived thorugh 20+ years of Bill Frueh dynasty, now we are in year 9 of the Wollagnk dynasty. Our city managers aren't hired, they are annointed.
I always hear how bad off Oshkosh would be if not for the great advantages of the city-manger form of government. Maybe we are in the predicament we are in now BECAUSE of it. In a city with an elected Mayor who runs things, if you think he's dong a bad job you have to vote out ONE PERSON, the mayor. If I think Dick Wollangk is doing a bad job, I have too vote out FOUR councilmembers and replace them with FOUR candidates who support that thinking.
WHAT is the chance that will EVER happen?
Does electing a mayor with so much power have any risks?? Sure it does, but anything with a high reward factor has risks as well. As long as we have the "play it safe/keep my job" city-manager form of government, Oshkosh will continue to toil in mediocrity.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: oshwi324 on Monday, April 17 2006 @ 04:24 PM MDT
Interesting comments, Zoff. But this has been tried before. Several times. And it lost each and every time. The citizens have spoken that they are satisfied with the way we operate, haven't they? What else can we do about it?
City Budget Issues
Authored by: Zoff B. on Monday, April 17 2006 @ 09:17 PM MDT
Yes, I know.
Unfortunatly the "powers that be" like the current system and any attempt to change will be met with an VERY well funded campaign to leave it as is.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: oshwi324 on Tuesday, April 18 2006 @ 07:04 AM MDT
Unfortunately, that is politics. If you want to compete, you have to be able to throw money at a cause to make sure people hear about it. I am not sure most people even know what they vote for. It's mostly name recognition or topic recognition that wins elections. Platform means little; it's how much you got your name circulated that is going to get you somewhere.
I think naievete may be driving the mayor/city manager issue. I would include myself in that category. No one has been able to show me in their campaigning that getting rid of the city manager in favor of a mayor will really improve things in this city. Besides, based on the last two candidates for mayor, I would be scared to death if either of those to had much power.
I really believe that the garbage user fee is just a symptom of a much larger problem in our city government.
I watch council meetings and from time to time observe elected council members ask probing questions to city staff.
From my position as a viewer, I am occasionally appalled by the condescending responses given.
Mr. Kinny, Mr. Patek, Mr. Stephany have been observed feeding pabulum to council members to appease them.
TOUGH questions need defined concrete answers not flip politically crafted rhetoric.
Council members such as Bryan Bain are educated capable elected officials that should DEMAND city staff provide complete information. City staff should be held to a high level of accountability. The City Manager should be taken to task to insure his subordinates do not dismiss council members for asking questions.
We have a new council make-up soon to occur. I believe it’s time to shake up the administration and let them know that many citizens in Oshkosh are upset about the current path our City is taking.
#1 – We need to have a complete audit of all city department positions, Department heads as well as line employees.
#2 – We need to determine whether we are staffed at appropriate levels in each area.
#3 – We need to verify that our pay and benefit structure is within reasonable averages. We are not a city that can afford above average wages and benefits. Oshkosh is a modest conservative, blue collar community. We can not afford elite city services on the modest wages of the average Oshkosh resident.
#4 – The union arbitration issue must be addressed. We may need a professional negotiator if our current city negotiator is unable to be successful.
#5 – Private sector wages, benefits and jobs in general are on a decline. Oshkosh and the greater Fox Valley have been hit extremely hard these past few years. Manufacturing jobs, union and non-union are being eliminated at an astounding rate. I am sad to see this occurring, but city government needs to understand that as the private sector goes, so goes the public sector.
#6 – We need to change the way we approach our residential street improvements. I applaud the group of councilors that suggest that secondary residential streets be resurfaced using concrete curb and gutter, but asphalt is used as the driving surface. I believe as most of our older streets need costly sewer and utility replacement, using the concrete/asphalt approach is the only way we can accommodate more miles of street repairs on a timely basis.
#7 – We need to drive more retail growth in Oshkosh. Oshkosh continues to loose out retail opportunities to our neighbors to the north and south. I think that the current drivers attempting to secure new retail ventures in Oshkosh are clearly unsuccessful. We need to make a change. Let CHAMCO take the lead in an effort to attract retail AND manufacturing ventures for Oshkosh.
To summarize:
We need to keep general city services on the tax roll. Only highly unique services should have user fees. We need to address and most likely reduce city staffing, wages and benefits. We need to improve our streets. We need to attract jobs that provide family supporting wages. We need to drastically improve retail opportunities.
Thank you for your consideration.
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: DP on Thursday, April 13 2006 @ 08:27 PM MDT
Great post! I agree on all points.
P.S. It was very disturbing last year to watch our prime negotiator side step a question from one of the council members. When asked about how much employees pay for health care, he sang and danced for so long that the initial question was forgotton. By the way, I believe that city employees not pay 5% of their health care (up from 4%).
City Budget Issues
Authored by: Jim B. on Friday, April 14 2006 @ 09:12 AM MDT
Could be the post of the year! How could we get the council and administration to address these point by point?
Jim B.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: mjs on Saturday, April 15 2006 @ 09:32 PM MDT
Thanks Jim,
I appreciate your supportive comments...But rather than comment to
me, please take a moment and write our council members and voice
your opinion to them.
Our council member need to hear from everyone that agrees with me
on this issue.
sbrabendermattox@ci.oshkosh.wi.us
ftower@ci.oshkosh.wi.us
btower@ci.oshkosh.wi.us
bbain@ci.oshkosh.wi.us
mscheuermann@ci.oshkosh.wi.us
Bill Castle and Paul Esslinger do not have e-mail, so please call or
write them via postal mail.
Bill Castle
(920) 426-7309
1125 Hazel Street
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Paul Esslinger
(920) 426-9750
2350 High Oak Drive
Oshkosh, WI 54902
City Budget Issues
Authored by: got it on Sunday, April 16 2006 @ 07:15 AM MDT
This topic is a smidge on the 'ad nauseum' side. While admirable, it really does nothing more than re-hash the arguments that have been made time and time again in the last several weeks on this blogsite.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: mjs on Sunday, April 16 2006 @ 09:32 AM MDT
Got It, I appreciate your candor.
My point is to insure each Oshkosh taxpayer that truely believes as I
do that our city government must adjust spending to allign with
taxpayer ability to support city services, must do so at this time.
We have a new council being seated this week. Please engage the
system and call, e-mail or postal mail your councilor to express your
view on where we are, and where you feel we should be headed.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: oshwi324 on Monday, April 17 2006 @ 08:26 AM MDT
In The Northwestern, 4-17-06:
"The council asked Wollangk....to complete an "internal productivity audit" of city operations by the end of June.
"The latter will rely on contracting with an outside conpany or consultant to guage city worker duties, measure productivity, and, possibly, recommend a reorganization of some kind."
City Budget Issues
Authored by: mjs on Monday, April 17 2006 @ 09:44 AM MDT
OshWi342 writes....
In The Northwestern, 4-17-06:
"The council asked Wollangk....to complete an "internal productivity audit" of city operations by the end of June.
"The latter will rely on contracting with an outside conpany or consultant to guage city worker duties, measure productivity, and, possibly, recommend a reorganization of some kind."
I thank the council for listening.
This will be a great first step.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: Zoff B. on Monday, April 17 2006 @ 02:34 PM MDT
msj has some great points and while I'm glad that the City c
ouncil has requested an audit of all departments, I'm a bit cynical that anything will come of it.
I believe that many of these problems are a "side-effect" of the city-manager form of government.
Who has a "vision" for the future of Oshkosh?
Who would propose "tough" and "radical" solutions to some of our problems.
Our Mayor is a glorified councilperson with no real power. Our city mangager's primary job seems to be keeping his job. We lived thorugh 20+ years of Bill Frueh dynasty, now we are in year 9 of the Wollagnk dynasty. Our city managers aren't hired, they are annointed.
I always hear how bad off Oshkosh would be if not for the great advantages of the city-manger form of government. Maybe we are in the predicament we are in now BECAUSE of it. In a city with an elected Mayor who runs things, if you think he's dong a bad job you have to vote out ONE PERSON, the mayor. If I think Dick Wollangk is doing a bad job, I have too vote out FOUR councilmembers and replace them with FOUR candidates who support that thinking.
WHAT is the chance that will EVER happen?
Does electing a mayor with so much power have any risks?? Sure it does, but anything with a high reward factor has risks as well. As long as we have the "play it safe/keep my job" city-manager form of government, Oshkosh will continue to toil in mediocrity.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: oshwi324 on Monday, April 17 2006 @ 04:24 PM MDT
Interesting comments, Zoff. But this has been tried before. Several times. And it lost each and every time. The citizens have spoken that they are satisfied with the way we operate, haven't they? What else can we do about it?
City Budget Issues
Authored by: Zoff B. on Monday, April 17 2006 @ 09:17 PM MDT
Yes, I know.
Unfortunatly the "powers that be" like the current system and any attempt to change will be met with an VERY well funded campaign to leave it as is.
City Budget Issues
Authored by: oshwi324 on Tuesday, April 18 2006 @ 07:04 AM MDT
Unfortunately, that is politics. If you want to compete, you have to be able to throw money at a cause to make sure people hear about it. I am not sure most people even know what they vote for. It's mostly name recognition or topic recognition that wins elections. Platform means little; it's how much you got your name circulated that is going to get you somewhere.
I think naievete may be driving the mayor/city manager issue. I would include myself in that category. No one has been able to show me in their campaigning that getting rid of the city manager in favor of a mayor will really improve things in this city. Besides, based on the last two candidates for mayor, I would be scared to death if either of those to had much power.
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 5:15 PM
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