Odd train of thought?

Reading this forced parking issue and the many segments of the proposals that need to be agreed upon and implemented to accomplish a city project, I find on Councillor Cronin's Blog a statement that highlights the atmosphere of ignorance of our public officials in their thought patterns. Not to say that Mr. Cronin is ignorant, just uninformed as most public representatives are led astray when counting public debt.
In his reporting he several times refers to the 'City' preforming a portion of work on projects as 'savings'. I fail to grasp this theory. The City creates a budget for labor to maintain the city and it's infrastructure for any given year. Department heads submit their estimates on labor, material and other expenses to preform the tasks that need to be completed to keep our city operational and safe. Now items like these need to be progressive Holiday Dreams and Wishes come along and add the need for additional man hours to 'save' money on what are unfunded projects when council passed the present year's budget. New toys with no yard to play with then in.

Realizing that 40 hours of standard labor per employee (35 for City Hall employees) as the needed labor prior to (take your pick as to the need from clerical to lifting (and purchasing the material too) to 'raising the iron) by adding these sweetening 'deals' has not been planned for the present standard FY operations to complete items like repairing our deplorable sidewalks, for only one infrastructure issue that constantly takes a back seat to the 'Dreams and Wishes' of each and every new Newburyport CEO. Where do the extra 'hours' of paid labor come from? Two main choices are apparent. We fall deeper into infrastructure debt by not adding manpower labor and costs to these seemingly 'free' labor tasks. Or, under the new management we pay excessive amounts of overtime to a  very few and select individuals to preform tasks that should be considered as part of the initial presented project plan costs. Expect yet another transfer request to cover the free cash we don't already have in hand. Abusing the laws of overspending in our Snow Overtime Budget now carries year round? To balance the need for free out of contract labor it seems it does.

It doesn't take a financial major to recognize that the reason our city is in such dire financial straights is due to these 'free' project favours that are not balanced in the approved budget. Taking hours away from cleaning your house results in a dirty mess after time away from the real issues. We are so far behind in maintaining our city we are passing our self again to be in the lead with opinions like these from our elected officials.

With the recent stacking of the deck with a crew of uneducated or licensed temporary department managers with  'yes men' will only assure that if you are not politically connected your tax dollar will not be spent on your street or your interests. With no paper trail, anything can be accomplished or 'swept under the rug'! The cost of 'FREE' has proven to be too expensive for us to date and leading the public astray on these types of 'savings' needs correcting up front.