[Durham INC] let's help the City with ideas...

Sat Mar 6 13:31:44 EST 2010

That's actually Cheryl Shiflett's suggestion that Melissa and Matt  
applauded, and to which I join the ovation.

I certainly hope Randy was kidding about the idea of selling Durham's most  
historic park, and suspect part of the reason for such a tepid response  
from this well informed "collective unit", as he calls it, are the original  
instructions "Send me your ideas.... and I'll forward them on to their 
targeted  individuals."

Why should we send our ideas to Randy? This collective unit knows which  
department their ideas target, and between emails and listservs, and Coffees  
w/Council, we have ample opportunity to make suggestions directly to those 
in  charge. Why would we send them to Randy Pickle to see where they go?

In fact, the city recognizes the abundance of good ideas floating around in 
 our collective heads, and helped organize the neighborhood workshop that 
Pat  speaks of, just to harvest some of the fruit of that think tank.
I wasn't able to attend, but am unsurprised at one of the  other great 
suggestions that resurfaced.  Pat stated, "For  example, maybe Parks and Rec 
needs fewer doers and more people who can organize  the community to do stuff."

That idea first surfaced when the city paid dearly for the ten year master  
plan for Parks and Rec back in 2003. One component of that plan was a 
survey of  the citizen's recommendations, and partnering with neighborhoods to 
revitalize  our existing facilities ranked 50% higher than our desire for more 
play grounds  and equipment. Sadly, as Pat also pointed out, it's just too 
damned  difficult.

Until Parks & Rec truly embraces that plan, it will remain difficult,  if 
not impossible. As valuable as that advice is, the opportunity to partner is  
drastically limited. Out of over 200 neighborhoods, only about a half dozen 
are  qualified by having attained a nonprofit status that (as I understand 
it) is  required. Those neighborhoods include Woodcroft, WHHNA, Forest 
Hills,  Trinity Park and Duke Park, by way of Duke Park Preservation Initiative  
(DPPI). 

As the recently elected President of DPPI, I'm still struggling to get a  
lease with the city signed after four years with a draft on the table, that  
would permit the neighborhood to attend to the long neglected Bath House, 
and  supply reasonable bathrooms to go along with our intensely popular 
playground.  The kids (and parents) are still using the bushes, and the lease 
remains  unsigned, the hold up, of course, is money. Money that would have been 
a great  deal easier to find four years ago.

That lack of money should be the reason we, as a City, should pursue this  
solution aggressively, not an excuse for avoiding it. An excellent  
illustration occurred last year, and the result was the City and the citizens  both 
getting what they wanted, and at an unknown savings to boot. The mutual  
desire was the completion of a walking trail, Parks & Rec just didn't have  the 
money to complete it  ~ they thought.

They did have the money for the materials, just not the labor.  One single 
Parks & Rec employee, Rebecca Radke (spelling?) should be  commended for 
suggesting a neighborhood work day. She brought the materials, and  50 
neighbors turned out to help install them! Boom, instant trail, all thanks to  one 
city employee and the eager hands of the citizens.

In these tight economic times, we should see a lot more of that kind of  
cooperation. I have other ideas, but that one stands the tallest. No need to  
forward it anywhere, Randy, but thanks for the offer, I'm working directly 
with  the City staff.

Bill  Anderson
President DPPI

In a message dated 3/6/2010 11:33:16 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
matt.dudek at gmail.com writes:

Cheryl,

I think those ideas are great. I'm curious though,  aren't there  
property tax protections and support available for  those on SSI and  
limited incomes? I remember my grandparents took  advantage of the STAR  
program which I belive is a federal  program.

Additionally, Durham has already cut a large number of  employees these  
past two years and further cuts will only be more  counterproductive  
without specifically looking at the performance of  individual programs.

And finally, I believe Mr. Pickle was being  facetious in suggesting we  
sell off our parks, but this would only  bring one time profits and we  
would be selling valuable land at  depressed values and in a bad market.

I think there have been few  responses not because people don't care  
about this issue, but  because it is very complicated and can't be  
solved by budget cuts  without more information and a better  
understanding of the full  picture.

Sincerely,
Matt Dudek

502 mallard  ave.
Cleveland-Holloway

On Mar 6, 2010, at 11:17 AM,  scjdurham at aol.com wrote:

> Here's a novel idea.  Let's raise  occupancy taxes on hotel rooms,  
> bring back that prepared food  tax, come up with some sort of  
> entertainment tax,  etc.
>
> A huge percentage of non-Durhamites come here to work and  take their  
> money home to their municipality.  But we pay  to protect them when  
> they're here including police, fire, EMS  and don't forget about the  
> road use going back and forth from  their city to ours.  They are  
> very welcome here but it  would be nice if they paid their fair share.
>
> Some of the above  items would be listed under discretionary  
> spending.  Folks  can decide whether it's how they want to spend  
> their excess $$  or not.
>
> Property taxes really hurt those on limited incomes,  living on their  
> social security benefits, living on  unemployment compensation or who  
> have just timed out their  unemployment or simply can not secure a  
> higher paying  job.
>
> Food for thought.
>
> Cheryl  Shiflett
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Randy Pickle  <rwpickle at gmail.com>
> To: inc-list at durhaminc.org
> Sent:  Fri, Mar 5, 2010 2:17 am
> Subject: [Durham INC] let's help the City  with ideas...
>
> to make the budget ends meet. I've been saying  this everywhere I go.  
> Surely as a collective unit we can tell  them where we see pork or  
> come up with some place to save some  cash.
>
> Here's my 3 ideas:
>
> 1) We have a fleet of  new garbage trucks; they have yet to get the  
> massive graphics  package that you regularly see on the trash can end  
> of the  truck. So what... We all know it's a garbage truck. Leave the  
>  fancy graphics off. Maybe that will even help with resale...
>
>  2) Fleet says we have 2100 units in service as a City; 500 are fire   
> and safety. Let's leave those alone. That still leaves us 1600   
> units. Let's cut that by 25% (down to 1200 units). Between the  fuel,  
> maintenance, and gift giving of them to other cities,  that's bound  
> to be a big figure... Fleet told Budget they  needed $7M this next  
> year. When ask how they came to that  figure they were told the  
> computer program they use told them.  Budget told them to tell the  
> computer to figure out how to pay  for them since it was so smart and  
> reduced it to  $1M.
>
> 3) Employees... IBM laid off a 1000 workers recently.  It's the  
> fastest way to make government leaner (and with less  vehicles, that  
> works out as well). I personally would help add  some of those  
> employees to a list (since I have found recently  that some seem to  
> take their jobs for granted). There's no  tenure in government and  
> some off the folks we have working for  us have fallen into a comfort  
> zone where they just think  showing up enough. As far as I know, we  
> still think of it as  work. And it's time to get back to it...
>
> We started off the  budget process with a $16M gap; at the  
> neighborhood Engagement  Workshop we heard it was $13M; in the budget  
> prep meetings this  week it's now down to $8+M. So we're getting there.
>
> Send me  your ideas (not your jokes about it all; be serious) and  
> I'll  forward them on to their targeted individuals. Maybe someone  
>  out there has just the idea that will make it all work. Otherwise   
> get ready to pay more in property taxes. They never seem to go  down,  
> only up... And you have to pay them every year... So once  they go  
> up, we're stuck.
>
> RWP
> 27  Beverly_______________________________________________
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>
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