The Mayor Says the Analysis of Her Administration’s 2013 Budget Process is Unfounded
She says she didn’t know what they’d ask for.
During the Municipal Recovery Financial Committee Meeting on September 26th, Mayor Linda Thompon lambasted media and public scrutiny of her Administration’s Preliminary 2013 Budget process. Previously, the Administration conducted a mandatory public review. During the 5-day process, directors and managers of each City department came before the Finance Bureau to present their draft budgets for 2013.
Remarkable requests included multiple directors asking for increased travel and conference expenses, a scissor lift to clean City Hall’s windows, a water park, a green roof, snacks for the Mayor’s Office, and a Communications Director.
In response to public outcry over these preliminary requests, the Mayor declared she has not yet decided her final 2013 Budget and that all requests
were completely at the free whim of her directors. “I allow them to own that leadership,” she defended. She contended that her Administration’s department requests are not per her direction.
In defense of the process, the Mayor explained that the Preliminary Budget will now be reviewed by her as she one by one brings the directors in front of her to tell them “the real part of the life” and begins to make cuts to balance the budget she will formally present to City Council in November.
Click here to see the Requested 2013 Budget.
Roxbury News video of the Mayor at the meeting: Municipal Financial Recovery Advisory Committee: Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson_____”It’s all nothing but exaggeratory conversations.” (Part 1)
For more details on the Preliminary 2013 Budget, see “City of Harrisburg’s 2013 Budget”
She, the Mayor. sets the budget guidelines for the department heads. You don't begin a wish list, you begin with a budget guideline before budgets are prepared.
[...] today’s the day Harrisburg–The Mayor Says the Analysis of Her Administration’s 2013 Budget Process is Unfounded [...]
So what she is saying is that each director independently comes up with their own plan for what initiatives, strategies and projects their department will undertake in the upcoming year and what the cost is projected to be…. without knowing what other departments are planning, without any coordination between the departments, nor any consideration of what revenues are or might be available in the coming year.
For someone who likes to call herself a "CEO", she has no idea how to plan and budget for future periods. They budget process should start with the development of a strategic plan for the coming year, taking into account current operations that must continue, current operations that could be terminated and also any issues, problems and projects that NEED to be addressed. Identify all possible sources of revenue. Then decide how that revenue will be spent, based on the priorities within the strategic plan. Don't decide what you want to spend and then look for the money. What a circus!
There has been a State financial takeover of our bankrupt City. We are multi- millions of dollars in the red. Yet Linda wants to jump up and stake her authority over ten dollar Community garden vegetable boxes. There is absolutely no substance coming from Ms. Thompson. Where is the concern for our City which is drowning in debt and lacking in manpower and basic social services? Also, we do not need the services or additional debt from the volunteer spokesman, Robert Philbin.