The Times-Reporter editorial on Wednesday, January 19, 2011, is commendable. This time they really got it right. Councilwoman Cox and Fire Department Chief Parish got the old ladder truck refurbished without the usual hemming-and-hawing which is typical of bureaucrats.
For twenty years Sandy Cox has been on City Council, much of it as the Chairman of the Finance Committee. She has seen councilmen, mayors, and department heads come and go. But she keeps getting reelected and fortunately for the city, keeps getting reappointed to Chair the Finance Committee. As a result of her experience, she knows where the money is, how much there is, and even more importantly, how not to spend it.
Chief Parish knows firefighting. He is good at it. And he knows equipment. When he went to the City Council two years ago and asked for a new ladder truck there was no question that it needed replacement. He made a good presentation to support his request, one which made a lot of sense, but the price tag was unreasonable, and Cox told him so along with the mandate to find another way. Well, Parish did. He located an outfit in Virginia, one of the few in the country, which rebuilt fire trucks at huge cost savings. It took a while, but when he came back to Council, he had the facts on what had to be done, what it would cost, and how long it would take to refurbish the old ladder truck.
Cox, in the meantime, dug through the budget figures, checked Auditor Gundy’s figures on the financial status of the City, crunched numbers in the cash status reports, and came up with a financial plan whereby the City of New Philadelphia could afford to refurbish the ladder truck to new condition. Council accepted Cox’s financial plan, okayed the purchase, and the City let the contract.
The end result is available for anybody to see. Take a trip down to the station house and see what you taxpayers bought. But as you look at it, marvel at what was accomplished. First no outside financing. No loans. No bond issues. No promissory notes. Even better, the job came in at only 1.3% over the estimate, something unheard of with government contracts. Even more amazing, the truck was delivered within the promised time frame, and at half the cost of a new one. How this was accomplished is simple. Cox does her homework and understands her responsibilities.
This project is notable as it does not fit into the norm of the way New Philadelphia, and other municipalities, do business. It’s all about the money. Take a good, hard look at how politicians do business. And you don’t have to look that far from home. Cox does due diligence. Other bureaucrats in town don’t. If you attend council meetings, and not many do, you hear a lot of “I don’t know”, “I’m not sure”, “I don’t have those figures with me” responses from the administration to questions ranging from finances to water billing, from paving to cash flow. It is difficult to understand why questions on the operation of the city by citizens as well as council members, are not answered concisely by administration representatives nor some council members. Difficult because it is the job of all elected officials, appointed department heads and supervisors, to know enough about the operations they oversee to have those answers. And if they don’t know, they have nobody but themselves to blame because, in short, they don’t do their homework.
Lack of background research by city officials and members of city council is inexcusable. Walking into a Council meeting without a profound understanding of what legislation is going to be considered is more than incompetent. No-one who holds an elected or appointed office does so unwillingly. Be it administrative, legislative, or appointive, each has actively politicked for the position, and part of the responsibility of each is to be fully informed on the legislation they are asking and voting for.
As pointed out in the T-R editorial, because of the efforts of Sandy Cox and Jim Parish, the refurbishing of the ladder truck was a success, not only equipment wise but financially as well. They both did their home work and it worked. New Philadelphia has an all but new ladder truck and the taxpayers got good value for their money.
If you don’t believe that homework, research, and study don’t pay off, consider the fiasco of the Gas Aggregation Plan now going on in the Special/Contact Committee, the two plus years it took the Public Safety Committee to come up with an ineffective noise ordinance, the lack of support and failure of the proposed runway extension at the New Philadelphia Airport, and the granddaddy failure of them all, the rezoning of Franklin Square against the wishes of the New Philadelphia citizen. These and other legislative and administrative problems occur because city officials do not do their due diligence.
All things taken into consideration, Sandy Cox and Jim Parish did a superb job on the part of the city to save half-a-million dollars and still come up with a modern ladder truck. Yep. This time the Times Reporter editorial got it right.
For twenty years Sandy Cox has been on City Council, much of it as the Chairman of the Finance Committee. She has seen councilmen, mayors, and department heads come and go. But she keeps getting reelected and fortunately for the city, keeps getting reappointed to Chair the Finance Committee. As a result of her experience, she knows where the money is, how much there is, and even more importantly, how not to spend it.
Chief Parish knows firefighting. He is good at it. And he knows equipment. When he went to the City Council two years ago and asked for a new ladder truck there was no question that it needed replacement. He made a good presentation to support his request, one which made a lot of sense, but the price tag was unreasonable, and Cox told him so along with the mandate to find another way. Well, Parish did. He located an outfit in Virginia, one of the few in the country, which rebuilt fire trucks at huge cost savings. It took a while, but when he came back to Council, he had the facts on what had to be done, what it would cost, and how long it would take to refurbish the old ladder truck.
Cox, in the meantime, dug through the budget figures, checked Auditor Gundy’s figures on the financial status of the City, crunched numbers in the cash status reports, and came up with a financial plan whereby the City of New Philadelphia could afford to refurbish the ladder truck to new condition. Council accepted Cox’s financial plan, okayed the purchase, and the City let the contract.
The end result is available for anybody to see. Take a trip down to the station house and see what you taxpayers bought. But as you look at it, marvel at what was accomplished. First no outside financing. No loans. No bond issues. No promissory notes. Even better, the job came in at only 1.3% over the estimate, something unheard of with government contracts. Even more amazing, the truck was delivered within the promised time frame, and at half the cost of a new one. How this was accomplished is simple. Cox does her homework and understands her responsibilities.
This project is notable as it does not fit into the norm of the way New Philadelphia, and other municipalities, do business. It’s all about the money. Take a good, hard look at how politicians do business. And you don’t have to look that far from home. Cox does due diligence. Other bureaucrats in town don’t. If you attend council meetings, and not many do, you hear a lot of “I don’t know”, “I’m not sure”, “I don’t have those figures with me” responses from the administration to questions ranging from finances to water billing, from paving to cash flow. It is difficult to understand why questions on the operation of the city by citizens as well as council members, are not answered concisely by administration representatives nor some council members. Difficult because it is the job of all elected officials, appointed department heads and supervisors, to know enough about the operations they oversee to have those answers. And if they don’t know, they have nobody but themselves to blame because, in short, they don’t do their homework.
Lack of background research by city officials and members of city council is inexcusable. Walking into a Council meeting without a profound understanding of what legislation is going to be considered is more than incompetent. No-one who holds an elected or appointed office does so unwillingly. Be it administrative, legislative, or appointive, each has actively politicked for the position, and part of the responsibility of each is to be fully informed on the legislation they are asking and voting for.
As pointed out in the T-R editorial, because of the efforts of Sandy Cox and Jim Parish, the refurbishing of the ladder truck was a success, not only equipment wise but financially as well. They both did their home work and it worked. New Philadelphia has an all but new ladder truck and the taxpayers got good value for their money.
If you don’t believe that homework, research, and study don’t pay off, consider the fiasco of the Gas Aggregation Plan now going on in the Special/Contact Committee, the two plus years it took the Public Safety Committee to come up with an ineffective noise ordinance, the lack of support and failure of the proposed runway extension at the New Philadelphia Airport, and the granddaddy failure of them all, the rezoning of Franklin Square against the wishes of the New Philadelphia citizen. These and other legislative and administrative problems occur because city officials do not do their due diligence.
All things taken into consideration, Sandy Cox and Jim Parish did a superb job on the part of the city to save half-a-million dollars and still come up with a modern ladder truck. Yep. This time the Times Reporter editorial got it right.
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