WHERE DID THE MONEY GO? Mismanagement? December 8, 2014
Gentle lady & Gentlemen of the City Board—an immediate 4% increase in the cost of health insurance for city employees, paid for by the private sector, is a raise! Is a Raise! Then there is the matter of City Manager Ray Gosack.
In the case the ½ % of the 1% road & water/sewer tax, specifically dedicated to sewers & overflow ground & waste waters, soon to be 30 years of specific taxation for sewer, flooding, overflow problems accompanied by no tangible results. What happened to the money?
The arrogance, hubris and/or the lack of factual data exhibited by the Fort Smith city government is breathtaking. The present & past city governments have put city residents into a taxpaying tail spin devoid of explanation and detailed public discussions particularly pertaining to the $200 Million EPA mandate, a $300,000 fine, and forced hiring of 82 or more (?) new employees. Specifically, where did the money go these past 30 years? ‘The massive shortages in Fire & Police funds and a stated 8% salary increases for city employees with no available funding for said increases, at least 2 new programs Bikeways, Trails, etc., and water fluoridation, both accompanied also by no funding.
Director Mike Lorenz, “We’ve just got to fix the problem, no matter how ugly it is”. For Director Lorenz: it’s not a problem, it is significant problems. Director Lorenz statement would indicate he just recently became aware of the multiple financial crises. And of course, with certainty his solution is to continue pushing for the extension of the 1% tax and diverting said tax to EPA fines & deficits, diversion seems to have been the case for the last 30 years.
Some of City Manager Ray Gosack’s convoluted recent statements: “These overflows are a violation of the Clean Water Act”. That statement is an insult to citizens, certainly not a revelation…citizens have been aware of these overflows for 30 or more years. City Manager Gosack has been employed by the city of Fort Smith for at least 22 years and should have been acutely aware of these many deficiencies and foolish expenditures. Why hasn’t he, along with the past & present Board addressed these problems with the money allocated for them? It seems obvious that dedicated tax monies have been moved around to different accounts for free-wheeling spending by this Administration and others resulting in great difficulty tracking the spending? How can anyone be in upper city management for that long and not be acutely aware of these multiple crises?
In what appears to be a victory statement by Gosack, “I’m pleased to report that after 2 days of negotiation in Dallas last month, facilitated by Arkansas A.G. Dustin McDaniel, we (the city) have reached a conceptual agreement on a recommended consent decree.” Incredulous! Fines, mandates & huge increase in numbers of employees!
The time is now to dig deeply into past spending and what/who benefited…that means an INDEPENDENT AUDIT.
The dysfunctional F.S. city government cannot be trusted due to a lack of forceful, knowledgeable leadership emanating from the Directors. Gosack in his profile says he believes in a transparent government. The Mayor and Board of Directors, at the very least appear to be grossly incompetent for whatever the reasons. Obviously the city Board is not much more than enabling sycophants for Gosack, otherwise the taxpayers would not be facing a huge fine, a massive EPA mandate, and huge financial shortfalls.
Gosack has been ensconced in Fort Smith city government off & on for at least 22 years, dating back to 1985 when the 1% road/sewer tax was passed, yet he makes the following statement, “In the decades prior however, it’s unclear why the city’s sewer woes went unchecked”. Unfathomable. In all their views it always comes down to taxation, government expansion, no accountability, and business as usual. Never do they entertain the concept/precept of operating within existing revenue streams, as the private sector must do.
Another Gosack gem,”We’ve really in many ways turned the ship 180 degrees”. Think if you will, if the Public Servants had addressed the sewer problem in 1985 as they were mandated to do so by the 1% road/sewer tax, think of the positive advancements and savings of taxpayer dollars that we would enjoy today.
The sewer/waste water problem is precisely the mirror image of the Lee Creek fiasco back in the 1980’s, orchestrated by City Government, editorials in the Times Record, and an engineering firm who benefited hugely in a land deal surrounding Lee Creek and the throwaway of over $22million, while at the same time all the above were denying the viability of raising the dam at Lake Fort Smith when facts were readily available that supported the raising of the dam, which just now has been accomplished after all that waste. We are now looking at 12 years or more to get remedy for sewer/waste water problems.
Another bit of government dishonesty…Gosack trying to justify an 8% or more raise for city employees, (1% cost of Living—a raise, 2 ½ to 3% or more for merit/Step Raises, plus the disingenuous proposed 4% pay increase for city employees’ health insurance…a raise).
Gosack states “Fort Smith’s pay rate is 12% behind other regional, benchmark cities”. Government has been getting away with this “benchmark” shell game for decades. What happens in Fort Smith bares no relation to the demographics, economics, or natural resources of other cities. As stated previously, if the city does not have the funds for Pensions, the city certainly does not have the funds for city salary increases, much less enormously expensive new projects!
Fort Smith’s City Government’s philosophy, “We’ll get on it next year”….which has amounted to 30 years of inattention & procrastination and should have been directed at significant problems involving sewer, flooding, and discharging foul water into the Arkansas River resulting in high levels of pollution.
Then there is the immoral, unethical, dishonest practice of funneling millions of taxpayer dollars into the nascent Marshal’s Museum and other special interest projects. The Marshal’s Museum is a private endeavor being orchestrated by Richard Griffin, Sam Sicard, Jr. and their cohorts. For transparency sake, how many citizen total taxpayer dollars has the Fort Smith city government transferred to the embryonic Marshal’s Museum and why are citizens being forced to subsidize downtown special interests up & down Garrison Ave?
WHERE DID THE MONEY GO???
Joe McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net