Did the City Misuse Utility Funds to Fix the Budget?
UPDATE: The News Tribune this morning published a clarification on the council’s level of involvement in the transfer. According to a clarification from the City, the Council was most likely briefed on the transfer of funds from the internal services fund, but it’s not clear that they would have been informed that the source of those funds was the utilities. Of the members of today’s Council, only Lauren Walker, Joe Lonergan, Jake Fey, and Marilyn Strickland were City Council members at the time; Bill Baarsma was mayor. Read the TNT’s explanation here.
It looks like Tacoma may have one more item to add to its list of budget woes. According to an article in The News Tribune over the weekend, a decision to shift funds from a TPU fund to the City’s general fund in 2009 may have been a misuse of utility funds. And now it appears that the City needs to reimburse the fund up to $1.7 million. Not what we needed to hear right now.
Apparently excess money from the internal services fund got “swept … into the general fund” to help balance the 2009-2010 budget. The move, according to the TNT, was most likely authorized by both then City Manager Eric Anderson and finance director Bob Biles, and the Council at the time was likely briefed on the action. The issue with the transfer is the same kind of issue that stands in the way of solving our current budget crunch with transfers from other funds, namely, as the TNT points out:
State law generally prohibits municipalities from shifting costs of general government services to utility ratepayers, and Tacoma’s City Charter states that utility revenues “shall never be used for any purposes other than” those related to utilities.
The facts of the situation are still being sorted through … but this isn’t going to help.
Read the full story from The News Tribune
Filed under: budget, budget
9 comments
F fredo April 2, 2012
Which movie title best describes Marilyn Strickland’s administration:
1. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
2. Field of Dreams
3. As You Like It
4. Dumb & Dumber
K ken miller April 2, 2012
Fredo, how about Back to the Future? The alleged mis-appropriation took place in 2009; Strickland was sworn in as Mayor in January, 2010.
F fredo April 3, 2012
Stickland’s been Mayor for 27 months yet she’s failed to properly oversee the workings of the city. She’s had both time and opportunity to provide financial guidance. According to the story she was a council member who was originally briefed on the transfers. But your comment about Back to the Future was still pretty funny.
C Chris April 3, 2012
Come on fredo. Council does not even have their own staff and they are only part time – per the charter. The mayor is not directly involved in day to day operations, because Tacoma has an outmoded council-manager system. They are reliant on the city manager for information.
I encourage us all to stop playing the blame game. It’s not productive. Recognize the larger issues at play here – like the outmoded structure of city government.
C Christine April 3, 2012
I admit that I don’t know a lot of the details of how the budget is created or what our options for type of government stucture may be, but having lived in the city for nearly 25 years and watching city managers come and go, always leaving in a big disgrace and scandal, it does make me wonder why the heck we keep doing it this way. Does the city not have budget managers and personnel managers that could coordinate to do the job of one person that is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in salary and perks? Couldn’t the mayor and council direct these managers?
I don’t know anything about T.C. Broadnax and I do hope that he’s the right guy for the job and helps our burg, but I can’t help but to think that 2 or 3 years, maybe 7 or 8 years from now he will be chased out in some scandal. (Jumping with a golden parachute, I add.)
I’m going on and on, but the big question is: What other cities the size of Tacoma use the manager/council model and what cities have gone back to pure mayor/council rule? And how is it working out? I can vote or not vote for a council member or mayor, but I have no voice on a manager that may have never heard of Tacoma until the job posting showed up.
F fredo April 3, 2012
The advantage of the manager/council model is easy to understand. It completely destroys any sense of accountability. Both parties are very adept at blaming each other for the misworkings of government and the voters are co-conspirators in the deception. The overwhelming majority are so apathetic they don’t know the names of the city manager or council members. Regarding the part time pay being the reason council members can’t do otheir jobs, I don’t buy it When these people ran for office they were full of vigor to tackle civic problems (such as we see in Finance). It’s only after they assume their seats that this part time pay “problem” becomes an issue.
K ken miller April 5, 2012
I’d like to add a couple of facts and an observation. First, to Christine’s ? re: other cities, about half are council-mgr and half “strong mayor.” The bigger the city, the more likely to be strong mayor. We have an uncommon hybrid: separately-elected mayor AND a manager. Second, to Fredo’s comment on mgrs leaving in disgrace: not entirely true. Some – Jim Walton, Erling Mork, Dave Rowlands – left without taint. Finally my observation: as a one-time candidate I too was “full of vigor,” as Fredo says. And I’m happy I lost. City govt – like most complex systems – grinds slow at best. Does it have to? Don’t know; but changing the “vigor level” is an awesome challenge.
F fredo April 6, 2012
Ken, I never commented about any city manager “leaving in disgrace.” Think that was another posting. Regarding your run for council, you had my vote and I know the city would have been a better place with you on board.
C Christine April 6, 2012
That was me that said “leaving in disgrace” and I am guilty of exaggeration. I can only speak of city managers that have been in since I have been “politically aware” of the city’s government system. I’m sure we had great managers, but where did they come from? Were they Tacomans to start with or were they headhunted like we do now?