Monday, December 14, 2009

2010 Budget To Be "Leaner and Meaner" According To Burrell Ellis

Our resent reduction in pay was only the beginning. Commissioners seem to be predicting doom and gloom for the future.

Click here for AJC article

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe the budget wouldn't be so lean if they wouldn't have had a bunch of perps working in Recorders court does the amount of 90 million ring a bell? Missing funds = unemployment I say layoff the people in recorders court first!!

Anonymous said...

Guess that means will see more of the Non-Furloughs.

Just wondering: Will they give us the option of taking a vacation without pay this time? I'd much rather work a part time or spend the time with family than work for a reduction of my AGREE UPON rate of pay.

If the citizens are getting their police and fire for less money, what incentive is there to make sensible budget cuts?

After suffering thru reduced staffing, they finally came up with the funds to pay for Police and Fire in the City of Atlanta.

Is a WARNING BLITZ called for during the furlough pay period?

Anonymous said...

Wow big surprise there.

Anonymous said...

What's the reason to stay and work in DeKalb....NO MERIT INCREASES, SALARY REDUCTION (MY LAST PAYCHECK SHOWED A LESSER AMOUNT OF MONTHLY PAY), NO SICK LEAVE PAYCHECKS, INSURANCES KEEP GOING UP, NO COST OF LIVING RAISE SINCE LEVITAN DAYS, why am I still here, why are we being punished for RECORDER'S COURT LOSING 90MILLION DOLLARS...start where the problem is....and CEO why can't your office be at Maloof Building like all other CEO's, waisting taxpayers dollars at another location with over 30+ staff members....WHAT'S GOING ON DEKALB! CITIZENS WAKE UP OR ALL YOUR SERVICES THAT YOU CURRENTLY USED TO IN DEKALB IS FIXING TO BE CUT IN HALF.....

Anonymous said...

The way I see it, if DeKalb County had taken public safety more seriously in the past, say around the early to mid-ninties, we might not be in this mess now. Citizens want to feel safe in their homes, businesses, and schools. When they no longer feel safe, they leave and go seek it elsewhere. And when they leave, or incorporate as was the case with Dunwoody, they take their money (tax base) with them.

Having read the article, I did not see sanitation collection mentioned as an essential service that need be provided by the county. There are employees who live in the county and those who do not. Personally, I live outside of the county. I pay for sanitation pick-up once per week and recycling collection once per week. It works out fine. Perhaps DeKalb County should consider pulling back to once per week (from twice) collection for garbage as well. Seems to me that should reduce the sanitation departments operating expenses for that specific collection purpose by about 50%, right?. How this might effect those particular employees, I don't know. I don't want to have to see any of us employees suffer any more losses. But, surely it would be better than stopping the county's sanitation service for the private sector to pick up. Then again, that would create jobs in the private sector. They would need to buy equipment too to meet demand. The private sector could get a good price from the sale/auction of county equipment.

So many places use private collection. The most obvious that do not that I am aware of are DeKalb and Atlanta. My experience is that it does not impact my quality of life. But, if DeKalb wants to keep current level of services, it's simply going to cost more. Gwinnett has realized this and their commission has made a tough and unpopular decision to increase their milleage rate in order to compensate. Even still, and someone correct me if I am wrong, Gwinnett does not provide a sanitation collection service. So, if Gwinnett has to increase tax collections, DeKalb most certainly has to in order to keep current levels and existing services.

It's tough, people. It down right sucks. Tough times equals tough decisions that may impact some or all of us, employees and citizens, as we have already been seeing. I'm curious to see how you other folks might think and feel about this...

Anonymous said...

I look at it in an entirely different way. The nation, our nation, as well as our state and our county, are all suffering through extremely hard economic times. Millions of qualified people can't even get a job, and many more received pink slips over the last few years. Families have been economically devastated, bankruptcies are at an all-time high, and Christmas is looking pretty sad for a lot of children this year.

We have our jobs. Thank God Almighty, we still have our jobs. Are we accepting some concessions in the form of merit increases and furloughs? Yes. But who wouldn't make those concessions willingly when the alternative is massive reduction in force?

The CEO and BOC, like every local government in Georgia, are making tough decisions. It's easy for us to sit back and criticize them for this or that, but no one would want their job. They may be the last of the large local governments in the Atlanta area to go with a reduction in force, and they may not chose to do that at all - we'll see.

The bottom line is this - thank God for your job, your benefits, and your safety. Then thank Him again for your family, friends, and all of the other many blessings in your life.

Anonymous said...

I was just wondering - was anyone from the CEO's office or the BOC affected by the forced "non-furlough" fiasco? And Anon # 3 - point well taken regarding the 30+ staffers for these people. If you want to get "lean and mean", start with your own plate before taking off others.

Anonymous said...

Please take note that Ellis wants a 14% budget increase for HIS office! Guess HE can't suffer through this mess, but WE can! BTW, just WHAT has he accomplished during his 1st year in office? Weak leadership!