2011-01-10 Reg - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

suffer. Mr. Kraft stated the City was going in the wrong direction and that is why the voters elected this Council in the last election. He said in working on the 2011 budget in June, it became clear that the interim management was incapable of major cost cutting or restructuring. Mr. Kraft said the organization had a culture, resistant to change. When the Interim City Manager asked department heads ways of reducing expenses, the list of choices all included significant service cuts and the proposed savings was disappointingly small. He said it was clear that the change would have to start at the top, immediately. The City needed a City Manager that would be willing to redesign processes, redesign departments, willing to look at changing everything. He said Council hired Mr. Walker for those reasons, to provide a more efficient responsive City government. Mr. Kraft stated that looking at the numbers on his own as to how they would fall out; he saw that it should eventually provide about $800,000 in annual savings with no decreases in City services. He said in continuing to work on providing further efficiencies, enough savings could be anticipated to balance the budget for FY 2012. He said presently the City is in the midst of big changes and noted that change is difficult. Criticisms from Councilmembers, citizen comments, and the “blogesphere” are simply resistant to change. Mr. Kraft welcomes questions but if the same question is asked multiple times at the same meeting, he can only assume the goal is to intimidate and to move the city away from making necessary changes. Mr. Kraft said we can disagree without being disagreeable. He said this is about coming together as a community and embracing change; to welcome change in creating an efficient government that provides high quality services at a price that can be afforded. An effective government will attract new businesses and new residents. Mr. Kraft asked that disagreements be civil and the focus remains on what is best for U City. Mayor Welsch announced that January 15 from 9:00 to 12:00 there will be the Heman Honeysuckle Hack, which is sponsored by the River des Peres Watershed Coalition and the UCity department of Community Development. The University City High School will be sponsoring their event for Martin Luther King at 3:00 p.m. starting with a parade at 2:00. Mayor Welsch noted that the Community Development department has been communicating with SEMA in an effort to confirm a firm deadline for completion of the worksheets. .SEMA has begun work on the documentation and plans to submit a majority of these sheets to the City by end of week and could not provide any more information than that at this time. A Public meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 19 at 6:00 p.m.in the EOC room to discuss the buyout status and procedures. Sutter Meyer Society will be holding its annual meeting with a presentation on Pershing Elementary school, on January 18 at 6:30 p.m. Mr. Sharpe moved to adjourn at 7:32 p.m. and the motion carried unanimously. Joyce Pumm City Clerk 8