Budget Process and Defects

Each year the City Council adopts a budget and then sits back while the Staff ignores the priorities, allocations and restrictions. This has been the past practice for the last four years. The Council and Staff have been reviewing departmental requests in a string of Power Point presentations for the last few months. I am hoping that the Council will do an about face and establish some budgetary and oversight controls this year.

For example, the Council approved in theory the number of employees authorized for 2006. Earlier this year the Manager created and staffed 14 additional full-time positions without Council approval. The Manager was able to hire the additional people because the Council approved the various levels of staffing in informal Study Sessions but did not tie them to their budgetary approval.

Another example is the failure of staff to carry through with the capital improvements prioritized and formally approved in the budget. The Council approved almost five million dollars in CIP projects for 2006. Since then the Council has added another $2.5 million in projects to the capital improvement list for a current total of $7.3 million. One of the problems is that the priority projects in the CIP and other Funds have and been trimmed back or eliminated to make room for the supplemental additions. Meanwhile, the original list in the CIP has been left on the shelf. Below are the original CIP projects from the General Fund only as approved in the 2006 budget:

Street Overlay $400,000, Huron-104th-112th $450,000, 112th Widening $600,000, 104th/Huron Intersection $300,000, C. Center Dr. Improvements $400,000, School Flashers/Seed Radar $20,000, Jacobucci Land Purchase $186,700, FISS System $164,000 TOTAL $2,520,700

The street seals, not overlays, are now under contract. The Jacobucci land purchase at 112th and the railroad tracks has just been cancelled; fortunately. What else has been done as budgeted? Broken promises. You can check all the Council minutes and you will only find formal supplemental small projects that are funded from the operation budgets and the use of the Cash Reserve. The staff decided to not follow through on most of the CIP projects. They have passed along their reasons on some of them to the Council but only informally. Our Council has not taken the required formal action and has no intention of doing so; as normal. The approved 2006 budget is a sham.

I will be discussing the budget process and results in greater detail very soon. I will include some specific suggestions that will help the Council to reassume its long ignored duties in fiscal management. Hopefully, some of you will also provide the current majority of the Council with some backbone. We elected and expect the Council to be in charge and not the Staff’s puppet.

Comment Response

Some comments on my last posting have advanced the theory that Ms Cullen was doing the Council a big favor by assuming the position of Interim Manager. Phil Nelson sent an email to all employees on the morning of Saturday February 11th. Just over 28 hours later, after conversing with the Mayor, Ms Cullen sent an email to all employees. You be the judge.

Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 21:01:07 -0700Subject: Message to all employees/To all employees,/By now you have probably had a chance to read Phil's letter that he emailedto you on Saturday./Although saddened by his decision to resign, I, and I am sure all of you,honor and respect Phil's decision and wish him well./I have accepted the responsibility of Interim City Manager while CityCouncil engages in their search process for a new City Manager forNorthglenn./I want to assure you that the City will continue to function with stabilityand surety during this time of transition. The Management andLeadership Team members are working extremely well together. We willcontinue to utilize this strong team approach to manage the City./We are currently finishing up with our work on 2006 Outcomes for eachService Center. These outcomes will serve as guide posts as we continuealong the path laid out by City Council's goals./The Mayor and I will meet with the Management Team on Monday at 10am.Following that meeting, I will ask each Service Center Manager to meet withtheir team to hear concerns and communicate what has been discussed./If you have any specific questions that you would like to ask me directly,please feel free to come and see me or send me an e-mail. I will publish myschedule for the week by the end of the day Monday so you will know when Iam in my office./Please know that I have a strong commitment to stability during this time.Please continue with all of your good work as you always have as we workthrough this transition./I have every confidence in our exceptional City Staff and I expect that we willcontinue to move forward together as we work to reinvigorate and bringeconomic sustainability to our City./See you Monday,Leslie

The "/s" in the paste were added to depict the orginal paragraph breaks in her email.

Interim Manager Resigns

Interim City Manager Leslie Cullen has submitted a resignation effective immediately citing ongoing conflicts with some members of the City Council. Surprised? Leslie campaigned for the position privately and in a letter to the Council immediately upon Phil Nelson’s termination. Now that she has had a taste of what a manager goes through, she runs and blames others.

Check out my posting for February 24th for some background on Leslie’s abilities in the link to the Archives. The truth for her resignation lies in her inability to handle the position and her own ego. Some of our Council members simply didn’t genuflect sufficiently. There is an alternative reason for the resignation: Power Play. It will be interesting to see what is going on behind the scenes today and what comes out at the next meeting of the City Council.

A close side issue is the fact that she, along with the former manager, has ignored the Charter with regards to the relationship between the Council and members of the staff. Both of them dodged their responsibilities when it came to presenting information to the Council. They instructed the various department heads to take the point on staff recommendations at meetings and between them rather then represent the staff. This in itself has generated a lot of conflicts with many members of the Council and the staff. As expected, Leslie created an organization in chaos and lost the respect of her own personnel.

Fortunately Steve Zoet, will be taking the helm while the Mayor and Council continue to drag out the selection of a new City Manager. Steve has served the City long and well and will be a fitting Caretaker for the time being.

$1.3 Million Non-Budgeted Project

The City Council is prepared to adopt an ordinance funding a non-budgeted project that you may wish to address at an upcoming public hearing. The project is long overdue but moving forward with it at the present time has some consequences as well as benefits.

I am speaking about the expenditure of $960,000 to reconstruct the 104th avenue trail and landscaping from the western city limits to Huron Street. The landscaping plan calls for grass, a large number of trees and the supporting watering system.

Funding is slated to come from the elimination of previously budgeted projects in the Adams County Open Space Grant, Conservation Trust Fund and General Fund plus the utilization of $114,912 from the General Fund Reserve.

When the ordinance was approved on first reading last week, three members of the Council opposed moving forward with the project this year: Lindsey, Paiz and Clyne. Major reasons given were the fact that the project is not budgeted, its high water usage, additional maintenance and the diversion of money from budgeted projects.

The budgeted projects being eliminated are: from the Open Space Grant; the Recreation Center FFE: From the Conservation Trust; West Marketplace Landscape and lighting, an additional project at the Recreation Center and a $33,000 reduction from the Citywide Beautification program. From the General Fund; the development reserve for financial software, upgrade of the Croke Reservoir aeration, reduction in city beautification and work at the Croke Reservoir.

Councilmember Garner asked the staff much earlier this year to eliminate the eyesore along 104th avenue in response to requests from residents. I criticized the current condition of the area last fall as well. Unfortunately, the timing of the project and the cuts suggested by the staff from other projects leaves me opposed to moving forward at this time.

In order to sell the appropriation ordinance to the Council, the staff tossed two additional projects into the ordinance that are also not budgeted and in addition to the costs specified above. For improvements at Wyco add $254,014 and J.D. Cayton add $54,821. Hopefully the school district will be a position to defray some of those costs. The strategy worked and the majority of the Council is ready to move forward after the required public hearing that you will be able to attend if you choose. Its your choice.

PolyCart FYI

The City Council recently raised the price for polycarts to sixty dollars. Previously, they adopted a policy that they will require all resident to use them when 70% of the residents have voluntarily chosen to purchase the carts.

Because the existing refuse trucks only have a limited life span, you can expect the City to switch to one-man trucks with a mechanical arm as quickly as possible once the goal of 70% is reached.

I have observed that many residents, currently using the polycarts, are placing additional containers and bags out for pickup. When the City switches to the one-man truck you can expect this practice to stop. Whatever you cannot place in your polycart, will not be collected. You will have to store it until the ensuing pickup or purchase an additional polycart. I am referring to the quantity; not the nature of your items. It will be up to the Council to decide whether or not they will begin to charge an additional fee for a second cart at that time.

Because the City currently has a seasonal limit on the amount of refuse they will pick up for the basic fee, I predict that a per-polycart fee will be imposed.

Executive Session Abuse

The Northglenn City Council appears to conduct business in the open but a review of the facts tells a different story. Secret Executive Sessions are where they really do the serious work.

During the first half of this year alone they held 14 secret sessions and did not give the public advance notice of the sessions in 5 instances. During all of last year they held 14 secret sessions and did not give you advance notice on 3 occasions. In 2004 they held 9 and did not give you advance notice 6 times.

The Charter recognizes that some matters need to be discussed in secret. It authorizes the City Council to meet in secret for the following reasons: Personnel, Claims against the City, Legal consultation, Litigation and finally, Deliberations in a quasi-judicial capacity.

In reviewing the agendas and minutes I have found that their most common reason for conducting executive sessions other than Personnel is “Legal, Contractual and Negotiations.” That is a quote. One of my former City Attorneys once told a City Council and me privately that, “If I am in the executive session, you can talk about anything you want.” Unfortunately that is allowed because it cannot be proven and only the integrity of our elected officials can stop the practice.

Earlier this year Mayor Novak raised hell with the members of the Council about leaks from executive sessions even though she was also involved. Leaks should not be necessary to keep the Council on track but they do serve as a deterrent to the misuse of the right to conduct executive sessions. Some of our national political figures have learned that the hard way.

It might be time to consider an initiated ordinance to reign in our Mayor and Council. Hopefully these suggestions will not make that necessary:

1. Twelve of the unannounced executives were called during the course of a meeting by Mayor Novak. No more!


2. Members insist that the purpose(s) of a proposed executive fit “narrowly” within the authority granted in the Charter. No more of, “but the attorney is present.”


3. Members refrain from the habit of “going along” with requests for executives unless it is absolutely necessary even if the issue might qualify for secrecy.


4. The City Attorney puts the source of his paycheck aside and starts to defend our right to know whenever possible.