Friday, January 16, 2009

Tax Increases Are A Needed Part Of Recovery

I am not thrilled about  more new taxes. The local option tax is key in obtaining funds from the State.  How do I reconcile the two previous statements? 
If we are asking for  money from the State then we must  first attempt to help ourselves as a city.
There is  very little room in the  current budget to begin recovery. We have lost  3%  of our property tax base. Employees of  various agencies are  spending 60-80% of their time on flood related issues. They are not able to focus on day to day operations.

From what I heard from the budget meeting last night the City Manager is  making information available to the City Council members as quickly as possible.  There are many variables which remain unknown.

The theme I heard over and over again was that we are waiting on monies from several sources, included proposed incentives from Washington.

We need to start looking at the cold , hard fact that we are ultimately  responsible as a city for the bills that are coming due from the flood. FEMA money will help. There is a lot of talk about huge amounts of money coming into Cedar Rapids but we cannot count on that.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Confessions of a Would Be Responsible Citizen

I must  admit up from that following the  happenings in  local government is much harder than I imagined. I am sure I just need to develop a system .  Some of the information I am  following is  clearly  offered on both the City and County  web pages.  I have been  trying to look over  Linn county Supervisors agendas, meeting minutes and the like.  I have also been able to read over the  pockets of information that are given to City Council Members.

Here are  a few of my  struggles so far:

1. Much of the information for City Council meetings is presented in a consent agenda form. If I understand that  correctly, the members have already examined the materials and discussed them before the City Council Meeting. So  what  we get by the time something is voted on,  the  public may or may not have a chance to speak to the issues.  This is a practical matter in most cases as not everything can be discussed with the public.

2. There is a lot of material to look through and try to get a grasp on. There are many areas that are beyond my  current understanding. I am not sure how the Supervisor's r  City Council members are able to grasp the  contents. It could be very  easy to  just  vote the way others do or to vote on something you don't have all the facts for.  The Council and Supervisors' knowledge on any given issue may  be based on information  given to them wholly , or in part , by the  individual departments.

3. Many  times when things require that there be a public hearing before they come to the agenda, it is difficult to locate the  times and places for those public hearings.

4. The information we as citizens, are asked to comment on is  sometimes incomplete. We are asked to assent to something before we have all the facts. It seems like it would be better if we could be presented more than just a thumbnail sketch.

5. The  dollar amounts on  some projects are so large that it is easy as a citizen to stop reading at that point. We may  not have a frame of reference as to whether a listed amount is  customary, reasonable or even imaginable.  The resolutions use language  that states the bids were reasonable and responsible. we just  have to take the word of those who deal with these things every day that this is true.

all of the above are merely issues I personally  am  contemplating.  I am more than willing to have others let me know how they have navigated the system.



Friday, January 9, 2009

What Government Can't Be

As I read the article this morning on homelessness being on the rise in Linn county I experience an uncomfortable dichotomy.

My first reactions include things like- what can we do as a city to help those who are on the streets and in homeless shelters. What exactly does transitional housing provide and how difficult is it to create more of it. What program or group of programs could be created to reduce the human misery and expenses from the root causes of mental illness, poverty, addictions etc? In other words- what can government programs or non-profit alliances do? What can institutions do?

On the other hand, what can I , as a woman of faith , do as an individual? What are my responsibilities as a citizen and fellow human being ? What small thing could I be doing to make a difference in someone's life.?How could I be extending the resources of the programs that are already living on shoestring budgets and struggling to provide for the men, women and children who are in need of their services?

These trying times are demanding that ordinary citizens look beyond the idea that government programs can provide wholeness to people's torn and tattered lives. People provide relationships. Programs can provide a framework for those relationships and a limited amount of financial assistance in most cases.

We need to learn more about community building. we need to explore partnerships between not only governmental agencies, but faith communities, civic organizations and families. We need to learn that while money is needed as a resource, it is not the only resource many of us have to share.

We each have gifts, talents and areas of expertise. We can join in the public conversations about issues that are important to us. we can attend meetings and write letters and email those who sit on boards. We can even offer to join those boards .

We can also contact non-profits and offer our time, financial resources or skills. There are many wonderful non-profits that are seeking talent and resources after the floods of 2008.

Have the courage to do something ! Create the Community!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Welcome To The Civic Twit

After much thought and prayer, I have decided to begin my journey as a blogger. This blog will represent my opinions, thoughts, dreams and frustrations with life as a citizen of Cedar Rapids. I am interested in how we as individual citizens can make our communities better places to live. I want to encourage others to become more engaged in civic life in our city. As a definition found based on Word.net 3.o in the Farlex Clip Art Collection defines Civic:

Adjective: 1. civic- of relating to or belonging to a city, "civic center", "civic problems"
2. civic- of relating to or befitting citizens as individuals, "civil rights", "civil liberties",civic duties.

It will be the second definition that I will use primarily within the context of my blogging here.
What are our civic duties and how do those duties interface with our forms of City and County government.

I don't claim expertise in either of those categories. I am not an elected official and I have no intentions of becoming one. But I do feel called to try to understand what it is they do? How does someone get elected and more importantly, how do they govern? How do we go about holding them and ourselves accountable for the things that go on in our communities.

So often I hear that we need to throw the bums out- this may very well be true. But do we truly understand what the bums do ? Do we honestly believe that all that is needed is to find someone who does something more to our liking? How do we insure that they don't become the very bums we kicked out in the first place.

It is a New Year and as always, an election year for someone. As we slouch toward another year of governance and an election cycle I challenge each one of you to get to know the people who are serving in our elected capacities. Ask tough questions- ask silly questions. Don't go home until you feel like you have been given the chance to hear the answers for yourself. Know who is representing you and why. If at the end of the day you want a change than be part of the change you so desperately want.

For my part- I pledge to spend the next year helping to attempt to frame timely questions, ask questions so others can hear the answers and hold the people who represent us accountable. I can't promise I won't slip into irreverence and I am a notably awful typist but if you stick with me- I promise it won't be boring.