By:  Diane Benjamin

The December City Manager’s Report is now on-line:  http://www.cityblm.org//modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=8147

The City goal:  Measuring Performance – Targeting Results

The report by the Police only has one chart comparing current violent crime to a 4 year average.  The property crimes chart is only for a year.  I’d like to see year-to-year comparisons so performance can really be measured and citizens have a clear view of the local crime rate.  The same chart is shown twice, pages 11 & 14.

Page 16 has a chart of refuse by month.  Problem:  The chart has lines labeled Series 1, Series 2, Series 3 without any explanation of what those are.  Therefore, the chart is meaningless.

The Ecology Action Center has a lot of pages, evidently they are now part of the City.  Why else would they be in the City Manger’s monthly report?  Look at pages 27 & 28. EAC shows giving a presentation at local schools and how many kids they presented information to.  Compare the public schools class size with private schools.  Sending your kids to a private school doesn’t ensure smaller class size – according to their report.  Keep that in mind when the public schools want more money for more teachers.

Page 48 is the import one!  “Revenues Earned” (confiscated) from citizens is down.  Expect more tax increases in the upcoming budget.  It’s immaterial that family income is down-see income tax (or did people leave?).  Some of the Utility Taxes passed last year just started 1-1-2015.  Check your bills.  Every dollar taken by government from taxpayers is a dollar less they have to spend in the local economy.  Expect the Sales Taxes to keep declining as taxes are raised.