CITY MANAGER RANT RINGS FALSE

'The Emperor's New Clothes'

"The Emperor's New Clothes"  is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes invisible to those unfit for their positions or incompetent. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" The tale has been translated into over a hundred languages.

The Plot;
An Emperor who cares for nothing but his wardrobe hires two weavers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid". The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position or stupid; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects. A child in the crowd calls out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession.

Writing metaphourically, this old geezer would like to turn the mirror upon City Manager Casey and other denizens of Silly Hall.

The Appeal Democrat reports in this morn's newspaper the following from Silly Hall denizens;
"There is no money. There is no money. There is no money," City Manager Steve Casey summarized Monday. "And there will be no money for the foreseeable future," added Administrative Services Manager Dixon Coulter.

The City Council will consider approval of the city's proposed 2010-11 budget at a special 5 p.m. meeting on Tuesday in the council chambers in City Hall.
According to the city's projections, sales tax — the single largest revenue source in the General Fund — will decrease by an estimated 36 percent over the same period of time.
"If the voters of the City of Marysville had approved the sales tax increase measure placed upon the ballot by the City Council in November 2008, virtually none of the service reductions proposed in this budget would be necessary," according to the summary signed by Casey and Coulter.

How full of hubris Mr. Casey & Mr. Coulter be.

The whole world knows how punitive 'sales tax' be and to raise it would drive even more shoppers away.

What a grand thing it would be if the folks at Silly Hall would try to tell voters just what cash could be saved if things were done a bit different in the City of Marysville.

These are mean times and local government has to look for more effective ways to deal with the shortfall in revenues.  Look at what has been and trim off the fat, however hard that might be.

It may well be a perfect time for Marysville to wake up to hard cold fact that the luxury of a city run police department is no longer an option.  For such a small town, with county run police force in place, it may well be the perfect time to face the music and reach out and 'out source' this service.  Am told, this single act would place the City of Marysville in the 'black'.

"There is no money. There is no money. There is no money,"  is a rant Mr. Casey needs to stop and quick.  Might he hear; "SHOW ME THE MONEY" chant of voters?  Voters who would love to know just how much cash could be saved by Marysville turning over police services to the county?  Or is that too 'out of the box' for Mr. Casey & company?