Friday, November 16, 2007

Fayetteville Budget Cuts, Telecom Board

The Fayetteville city council did not pass a recommended property tax increase of .9 mills. The painful process of making cuts to the budget is beginning. On November 13th, Mayor Coody issued a memo that had a proposed list of budget reductions. These are only the Mayor's proposed cuts. The city council will be meeting several times to decide which of these they may agree to cut or come up with some themselves.
Now, I understand many people will not happy to see some favorite activity or division get eliminated or reduced. I, however, don't think that derogatory remarks need to be made, especially by sitting board members. From NWA News
Board member Jon Zimmer, like Drake, did not like the idea of the city losing its cable administrator.
" So far as I’m concerned, this is by far the most misguided proposal I can imagine, " he said. " How much money is being spent right now putting up Christmas lights ? The whole Square, for the last two weeks, has been occupied by monstrous machines and highly paid, I’m sure, rednecks, climbing up and down to put up all these lights. I think the cable channel is infinitely more important."

Mayor Coody and the city council need to make a statement that such comments are not to be made. If some one is unhappy about a cut they can say so without insulting people, especially those who have no input in the process. If an activity or division is that important it is far better to expend energy in finding funds for it instead of putting down people. I truly hope that Jon Zimmer fully intends to apologize for his insult.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope he resigns because we do not need people like this child on any board in our great city.

Valerie said...

No, he won't be resigning. The City Council last night did make an amendment to the City Council and Planning Comminssion conduct rules so that they apply to people on city boards. It was commented that Jon had apoligized. I think Jon got too angry and wasn't thinking about what he said. I think the City Council's action last night closed the issue.