MAYDAY! M AYDAY!

Friday afternoon I visited the City Clerk's office when the Agenda is supposed to be available. Sadly Mrs. Cathcart was alone, her cohort was at lunch. and there were no agendas ready. As a result of the layoffs, the City Clerk's office was hit especially hard and with the exception of The City Clerk, the Assistant City Clerk, and Mrs Cathcart the one or two individuals working in that office were apparently bump down by seniority and have, I was informed, as of yet little knowledge of the offices functions.

Instead the copier was not functioning, and apparently waiting for a service technician. Prominently on the counter were two enormous piles at least 3" each of paper for the Council members to pick up. One pile contained what I supposed was the material for the agenda setting session the other the Board of Education Budget which by law after being rejected has to go to the Council for acceptance or revisions.

I wonder if any of the Councilors could certify that in the 72 hours before the Council meeting that they had read and digested every word (or even page) in those monstrous piles? Once again to this uninformed onlooker, the Council's meeting schedule seems self defeating. And I am not an 800lb gorilla. .

I will grant that for practical purposes the task with the BOE budget is one of futility. There are many lines which held items last year that are empty in this years budget, only to be supplemented with lines that did not exist last year. We may be dealing only with apples but it is difficult to compare Granny Smiths with Cortlands.

PSS can not function without a budget even tho the city seems to year after year. Yet the changes in line items can be significant. I hope the Councilors have an interpreter or a knowledgeable CPA with them to go over the line items before approval. Who knows there may be slush funds hidden in some lines.

As to their own pile of data there should be included a complete explanation of the sudden appearing Senior Center charges.