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We need the Paul Harvey of the story: City budget Written after reading an interview with Columbia Police Chief Jason Cross in the December 5, 2013, Adair County Community Voice, He says he was disappointed when he went behind the numbers, and makes this plea: "Please, Chief, be a Company Man and help cut excess spending, you can do it! Mayor Mark, you could be one of the first to open our books and let us see how our money is being spent,' - RALPH R. WAGGENER By Ralph Roy Waggener, Editor, It's Just for a Smile News Personal commentary Attitude is everything! If Columbia Police Chief Jason Cross would look at ways to run his department in a more economical way instead of defending how it's run now he could cut cost and still have a very good police department. If the Mayor and city council gave him a budget of $750,000.00 and told him there was no money available and not to excide his budget he could run his department on that amount and give us the same service we are getting now. Make sure he understands that there is no more money coming then we will get more done with less cost, if you have a budget and know that if you over spend and that the city will add more to your budget then there is no incentive to stay within your budget! After reading his interview with Sharon Burton in the 12-5-2013 issue of her Adair County Community Voice and taking some of the figures used in her story and doing some math I discovered the following:
The more officers we have the more we put into retirement benefits, and someone somewhere decided that police officers should retire after only 24 years of employment, no matter their age. This $170,165.00 per year will not cover the life time of retired Columbia Police officers it will require additional money at the rate it is paid to all retirees of all Police officers in Kentucky. It's nice thing to do but we can't afford to keep this young retirement program going. It would be a great gesture for us to bestow upon our police if we could afford it. Chief Cross, as well as the taxpayers would be better served if he would work on a yearly budget that he could not exceed as the private sector has to do, same goes for all government bodies. This is not an attack on the police officers who as a whole do a pretty good job; it is however an attack on the way money is spent taking better care of employs and not taking care of the citizens of Columbia in respect to our taxes we pay. When those "free" state and Federal grants come back to cost us A lot of our problems with our budget over spending started when the federal government started giving city and county government Grants that had regulations attached to them, that where we grew the number of police officers with better pay demanded by the regulations we had to follow in order to get these free ride grants. The grants were also a way for the Feds to control us. On the Police Cruisers: Let's have the Paul Harvey on the real costs Please look at ways to cut cost because you will find ways and not have to cut services, stop the excuses and just look for ways to cut spending. As for the police cruisers I would like to see the Paul Harvey of the real cost of miles driven and the real cost of drive home cruisers including wear and tear, additional gasoline used and up keep of the vehicle. I was disappointed in Chief Cross's defense of his over the top budget, instead of offering to help cut cost as he should; he defended what had been spent. Please, Chief, be a company man and help cut excess spending, you can do it! Mayor Mark, you could be one of the first to open our books and let us see how our money is being spent. - Ralph Roy Waggener This story was posted on 2013-12-11 16:05:44
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