Monday, May 9, 2011

Commissioners Are Not Serious About Making Cuts

The commissioners, on the heals of learning Wiz Miller has a hard time showing up for work, eliminated his postion of director of public safety claiming, amoung other things, it would save the county money.

Burrell Ellis, in his typical fashion of putting friends before taxpayers, appointed Wiz to director of the emergency 911 center. Now the commissioners have approved a deputy director postion in the E911 center along with an administrative assistant.

The county is broke, and facing a 25 million dollar defict. Rumors are abound of furlough days. Yet the commissioners believe the function of the county government is job creation.

Why does Wiz need a deputy director? To do his job while he is out screwing around on the taxpayers dime, as proven in the past?

The maddness continues.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep, that's going to solve the 911/ CADS issues.
In case no one remembers, the problem with CADS is technical and will require technical expertise to solve it. The county has several issues fixing the CADS problem. The first is personnel, the county doesn't pay enough money to hire good data base analysts, they run for about a 110 grand a year, and It will take two of them several years to fix the issue and document it.
The BOC will never pay that kind of cash for serious technical people that can fix the damn thing, yet they create expensive Director and Asst Director positions and admin staff that will cost nearly twice as much as a pair of DB analysts and unable to provide a solution to the CADS problems that hiring two competent DB analysts would.
This is a typical move by DeKalb political leadership that will not solve the problem but will provide jobs for their politically connected friends. When in doubt hire more chiefs and then get rid of a few more indians. Do more with less.
In June the BOC is going to have to make some tough decisions. A 25 million deficit that must be balanced by Georgia law.
From past experience employees can only expect the BOC and CEO to do something really stupid that will screw them collectively and individually.
It's become a tradition.

Anonymous said...

I think we are looking at no paid Holidays and a possible ten furlough days. That would make up about 15 of the 25 million deficit.

They will then threaten to cut the remaining deficit amount from departments highly visible to the public (Libraries, Recreation Centers, Pools, Senior Centers, etc.) in order to gain some public support for a tax increase. They will then increase taxes above the minimum needed in order to have some 'extra' money. It will not be stated as such, but this will be the result.

Thus the same standard tactics will be used again instead of actually fixing the problems of County bloat and administrative incompetence.

We need leaders who will do the right thing and make the hard choices without such blatant self interest. Sadly we do not have this with the BOC or the CEO. And I had really hoped Ellis would be different than the past CEO.....but it turns out he may be worse.

Also: Why is DeKalb One (also know as the Ellis re-election committee) still around? I thought they were specifically defunded? I still see their signs all over the place.

-JW

Anonymous said...

The blog administrator does a good job alerting you to things that affect your well-being. But he and some of the people posting have also done you a disservice at times by getting you all worked up over half-truths, or complete UNtruths. Everyone is free to say whatever they want - that’s what blogs are all about after all.
Here are some truths:
Yes – there is a revenue shortfall. It has to be made up somehow.
BUT - It was the BOC who made sure, with the separate line item budget, that the police budget can’t be raided by the CEO every time he thinks he needs money. I’ll post the bill if you want to read it.
So NO – they can’t cut police, fire, Sheriff’s Dept, or courts.
YES – furloughs HAVE been discussed – but NOT for ANY first responders.
YES – BOC asked for Public Safety Director’s office and OneDekalb to be eliminated. Your beef is with the CEO, not the BOC, as to why they are both still there.
NO – unpaid holidays is not being considered.
YES – the BOC has recommended 200 job cuts this year, and more each year for the next 5 years. But NOT to first responders.
So what’s left? You said it. Cuts are always controversial, as are tax increases. WWYD?
The one you should be pointing your finger at is Burrell Ellis, not the BOC - who has fought hard to protect police and fire from future cuts, apparently much more than you know.
Guys, if you want to know whether or not something is true, go straight to the horse’s mouth.
Be safe out there.

Anonymous said...

Well we been told to increase ticket productivity to help increase revenue for the General Fund.

They want the 36 million dollars a year that previous ticket revenue brought in during Vernon era.

If this was a company the shareholders would have fired everyone for wasteful spending.

Anonymous said...

Three words we see waaaay too often in our county email ..."Ribbon Cutting Ceremony ".

Do we need or do they just want these new facilities or "improvements".

These facilities are like buildings donated to colleges and universities ...... nice but they come with a lifetime of maintenance costs.... have you seen the annual rate of inflation for tuition?

Anonymous said...

Gee I wonder who will be the new Deputy Director?? Hey Logan you know anything about the CAD system?

Anonymous said...

The current administration is excellent at telling the public that they are cutting this, that, and the other, just like a previous blogger stated.....scare tactics.

Realistically, do you know why this is done? Because it works. It has worked in the past and it will continue to work in the furute until someone or some group gets the Ellis Idiot, Stogner or the rest of them on record and showing the public that they truely failed. All this crap is nothing new, even if the name of it has changed.

Face it, this county is broke and will stay that way indifinitely as long as the county is by idiots.

Anonymous said...

What is the sallary of this Deputy Director?

'Big Stink' Vito said...

I see a new library being built on Candler Rd. Don't we have a brand new library that sits empty at Stonecrest? Whats going to happen to the one on Mcafee and Candler?