Welcome to LitchfieldPolitics.com!! WORKING WITH THE PROVIDER TO GET THE FORUMS BACK ONLINE...THEY ARE HAVING ISSUES THANK YOU TO ALL WHO JOINED OUR CHAT...SEE YOU AGAIN SOON BUDGET SHORTFALL Almost one year ago, I set in a forum at the Lincoln Land campus in Litchfield to be introduced along with others as a candidate for Alderman for the City Of Litchfield. After spending many months ahead of the forum studying everything that had taken place in City Hall for the previous 5 years, I felt I had a pretty good handle on things. The one thing that I had not been able to prepare for, was the ability to speak in front of a large crowd. Now that I am required to do it as a part of my "regular" job on a daily basis, I have become a little more immuned to the jitters that come from performing such an act. Anyhow, after the forums I felt like I had bombed and that I had blown the oppurtunity to represent the people of this City. As it turned out, I did bomb, but I wasn't the "other guy". After winning by the same margin as our Mayor (read ONE vote), I realized that I had just been given the oppurtunity to guide this community as a member of the council. I went right to work, and I have not stopped. I am very studious in reading my packet every month, and doing my homework. Although factual, I joked with a member of the community at the last council meeting, that you could tell who was studying their packet by comparing it to mine. You see, there is one tell-tell sign that your represenative is "doing their homework". Look at the tabs on their manilla envelope, mine are always broke off from going in and out of my packet all the time, others are just being folded back for the first time, right before the Pledge Of Allegiance. Anyhow, back to bombing at the forum. I was comforted by Tom Franzen afterwards, assuring me that I had done fine. I questioned his judgement and moved along to speak with others in the crowd that evening. One of those people quick to grab my attention was Levi Suhenbrock. He wanted to question my stance that the budget was out of wack and that the city needed to reduce spending immediately. He assured me that the numbers in the budget were solid and that my concerns were misguided. For those of you who attended that night, you know that my stance on the budget being in bad shape was immediately followed with a rebuke of my stance by none other than future Alderman...Woodrow Street. He stated that he had looked at the same budget as I had, and found everything to be in tip top shape. I say all of this to tell you this.....I WAS RIGHT!! The current budget that the city is running under, passed by the previous council, but overseen by the current, is way over budget. Current predictions put the city at a level exceding HALF A MILLION DOLLARS OVER BUDGET!! at the end of the fiscal year ending April 2012. What is going on behind the "NO VOTERS" back now, is a scramble to cut spending in all city departments. Nothing is being left off the table, including a reduction in workforce once again. The reduction in workforce is a revolving door, if you look at the way this administration is pencil whipping the budget. Let me explain. If you ran a business and you employed 10 people that make $50,000 annually, why would you budget anything less than $500,000 for base salaries in your budget ? Yet, this is exactly what this administration has done with the budget. And when it comes time to explain to the taxpayer why the budget is in deficit, they will simply explain that salaries for employees came in way over budget and that they are looking at trimming the workforce to get the budget back in line. The truth in the matter is that they intentionally lowered the cost of salaries in the budget so that they could fund "pet projects". This cycle will continue on an every other year basis until there is no one left to perform the work that is needed to provide you with the services you need and pay for. I will be more than happy to show anyone these numbers, just ask me. The sad part is that the administration is trying to find a way to trim $500,000 from the budget. In all actuallity, the city has a "bi-annual" budget, which means that next years will pretty much mirror this budget...thats right...they better start looking into how to trim 1 MILLION DOLLARS!! Anyone who is interested in hearing what I said at Lincoln Land and the misguided Woody Street, can listen to the exchange here: http://litchfieldilnews.net/afr.wav     WELCOME BACK TO LITCHFIELDPOLITICS.COM