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Truthseeker62

Posted 11:38 pm, 05/05/2015

Underdog, I see you are a math major. I DO think you get it.

Basking

Posted 10:49 pm, 05/04/2015

I wasn't joking. I find his posts to be long winded, self promoting, and full of nothing more than common knowledge. Occasionally he has a trivial piece of info that saves me having to do my research. But often, his knowledge on the High Country falls short

Heels09

Posted 10:47 pm, 05/04/2015

And we can exchange thoughts on student athletes on another day, but No need to be disappointed 99% of the students received an excellent education.

Heels09

Posted 10:43 pm, 05/04/2015

OCM, I was merely joking. I actually find your post very informative. And also a great way to put myself to sleep at night.

underdog2

Posted 9:22 pm, 05/04/2015

Remind me of what you were looking for Troll.

NSA Troll

Posted 7:08 pm, 05/04/2015

OCM, finally got an answer. Now I have to go look the referenced statutes to see what is what. Most interesting for all is that it should be presented to the Board during the mid-May meeting at which time it becomes public. It will be on-line or available in the clerks office. Nothing about providing to newspaper or providing justification of amounts. All who are interested should take note and review. First meeting in June would be good time to attend meeting and see of justification would be provided . Doubt if answers would be provided but could garner a bit of attention.

OldCityManager

Posted 5:35 pm, 05/04/2015

Basking, neither you or Heels need read what I post if it's too long for you. Heels, I'm glad you can read unlike some of the athletes that were given a degree. That really disappointed me.

Dog, I never worked in Greensboro, but back in the day I did work with John Kime whose father was Greensboro or Guilford County manager (never can remember). Kime was the person who Bulldogged Randleman Dam and Lake. Greensboro and Guilford have not fully recovered from the Klan/Nazi shootout. It ****ered the socio-economic/political truce so to speak and it's been nothing but factions for the last 35 years. The Rhino Times used to egg it on.

NSA, never ask the lower level staff for info. It scares them. Ask the Manager or Attorney via first class letter, return receipt requested. That puts them on the clock. They will worry that you have a hidden ax to grind, or that you may find a mistake that they have not found, and very rarely a public requests finds a real theft or waste - the latter is fairly rare. What's waste to one is good program to another.

underdog2

Posted 9:20 am, 05/04/2015

The bi-monthly show is now in progress.

NSA Troll

Posted 10:07 am, 05/02/2015

OCM, I appreciate your explanation and find it quite interesting. I also have been over budgets at least as large as the first two you mention and understand counting the number of pencils used in a year. Also understand you have to "hide" a few things to allow for the unforeseen. The part about what is public is what I was most interested in as I worked in private industry. So far our local finance division has not even acknowledged my request for information on how the budget is prepared.

underdog2

Posted 8:22 am, 05/02/2015

Here is the simple math. Roark, richerson, and rose are running the county at the direction of some other unknown at this time persons. Sands and rhodes may as well be on mars. Fact-- that the county manager and roark are buddies as the manager must abide by what he says if he wants to continue employment. What roark tells him is second hand from his puppet masters. Fact---they are trying to gently get rid of Donna Weaver, an employee I now support. Fact---not a single one of them with the exception of rhodes have the education to look at any budget or spread sheet.

Ocm, ever been the city manager of Greensboro nc?

Basking

Posted 10:23 pm, 05/01/2015

You have the right to be wrong

CooperFarms

Posted 9:59 pm, 05/01/2015

I think you don't know what you don't know.

Heels09

Posted 9:49 pm, 05/01/2015

OCM, your budgets where 350 pages? At least they were shorter than your post.

Basking

Posted 9:49 pm, 05/01/2015

I can read fine. so far, I don't think I've seen him post anything on this matter I wasn't already aware of. The point is his manifestos could be edited down a bit

crestonflash

Posted 9:23 pm, 05/01/2015

OCM, very good explanations of what goes on

CooperFarms

Posted 9:09 pm, 05/01/2015

You might learn something if you can read.

Basking

Posted 9:04 pm, 05/01/2015

Good lord... you are wordier than a 13 y/o girl in heat. Can you try to summarize some?

OldCityManager

Posted 8:20 pm, 05/01/2015

NSA - you have the right to ask for every department head's budget request. Once it's down on paper, it's a public document. You have the right to the current and past balance sheets, AP/AR reports, etc., etc. You have the right to see every item submitted for payment and to see every transaction. You have the right to all salaries an benefits. You can get this from the CM's office, or Finance office, but you may be made to wait or asked to pay a quarter per page copied.

Typically when ask for documents, the staff then tries to figure out why. That's because most interest is negative and their experiences with folks who ask for info is usually negative.

The AP/AR report is what you want to have to know what the entity is actually spending money upon. It will be everything from toilet paper to engineering services. Most of it needs to be left alone. The fact that you might get a better deal on toilet paper or Gatorade at the Costco in Hickory versus what was paid for at the local Wal-Mart is irrelevant.

Numbers that really matter have 5 and sometimes as few as 4 digits. 3 digit numbers and below are not worth chasing unless it's being blatantly stolen.

Government can not "waste" money per se. It can spend it on something stupid, but the recipient of the money is still a company or a person. Only if the government burns the money is it "wasted".

In Ashe County there are just a handful of discretionary functions - the Airport, the money to the Hospital, and the money given to non-Profits. All of those are personal value decisions and political decisions.

OldCityManager

Posted 8:06 pm, 05/01/2015

NSA, everything in the budget is public info subject to inspection. Now, I would not allow the press or the public to look at my draft budget until I was finished with the draft. Technically they had a right but I always refused until I had a finished product to show because I wanted to catch all mistakes. When I gave the draft to the Board, I gave the same draft to the press and put copies on display.

My budgets were about 350 pages. They were not just numbers but explanations of what we were doing and why with past numbers and future projections. Every work session is public info and open to the public. The only private meetings are between the Manager and a Department head.

Now, I would visit all the Board members individually with their copy. That's to give them a chance to ask any private question and for me to get an idea of their temperature.

Once in a blue moon someone would come in to see a copy or come to a work session. Usually it was to ask for money. Sometimes it was to ***** and moan.

There is very very little discretionary spending in a city or county budget. You have to have schools, DSS, water, sewer, fire, etc., etc. What the board usually works on or controls is fund balance, COLA, new positions, and new initiatives.

A good manager always underestimates revenue and overstates anticipated expenditures. My personal goal was to sock away 5% a year in fund balance which I then hid in accumulated depreciation. (That kept the **** board from spending the rainy day money).

Over the years I have seen a $2 million dollar sewer lift station collapse due to hydrogen sulfide gas, seen a raw waste water dentation pond collapse into the lower polishing pond, seen another town's town hall burn down, seen a 90' aerial ladder fire truck fall over at a fire scene when the heat of the fire melted the pavement, and had to replace a $500,000 computer system out of the blue.

I managed annual budgets of $3 million at the first head job, $6 million at the second, and $75 million at the third.

Nothing ever quiets the negative nay bobs, but an open budget process can educate those that can be educated. The public tends not to know what their services really cost.

I once was badgered about community policing and the desire to have police substations. Explaining that it took at least 5 people to staff such a creature 24/7 went over most people's head - they only wanted to count one officer at location. But there are 168 hours in a week not 40.

It was sort of like the time that I had folks upset that the police officers fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning - it's what happens when things are boring between 2 AM and 5 AM. If you fired them all, you have **** few left.

OldCityManager

Posted 7:47 pm, 05/01/2015

Prada, an individual council member has NO authority and NO legal protection in NC. He has authority and protection when the Board is meeting. The corporate entity has power and authority. The manager has power and authority. Usually the Board member is reminded by this in private by the Attorney. For instance, if councilwoman X sees the public works doing something stupid, she has NO authority to tell them to stop - she has to call the Manager or the PWD and pass along what she has seen but she herself has no authority.

While meeting as a the Board, they can say just anything about anybody and it's protected speech, but not when they are not meeting as a Board. If Councilman Y reveals that he was told employee A and employee B were caught with hanky panky in the broom closet during a meeting that is protected. If he tells that at the barber shop he **** well better be able to prove it as he has no legal protection.

I've had board members that did not fully comprehend this and I warned them. I had one that was too stupid to understand and the Mayor roughed him up explaining it to him in an illegal closed session that scared the living **** out of me.

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