Jane:
Will the City adopt all of the state’s recommendation made in the performance
audit; why and why not?
Many
of the recommendations and strategies contained in the Performance Audit have
been or are in the process of being implemented by my administration and serve
to reaffirm that the City is moving in the right direction. Other recommendations are new to us and will
be considered in whole or part depending on the city’s ability to remedy
barriers as well as address local preferences and priorities. Some recommendations, including a number of
the Enterprise Fund recommendations, cannot be implemented without the
acquisition of further technology that will be needed to streamline operations
and will be considered as resources become available. Seven of the 14 cost-saving recommendations
in Local Governments Funds ($1,167,737 of the total $2,024,983) are subject to
the collective bargaining process with the City’s six unions. The audit findings in these areas will serve
as vehicles for discussions as we enter negotiations. The recommendations that involve the creation
of joint districts across municipalities are subject to agreements by multiple
government bodies, and in some cases voters, and will have to be addressed over
time.
As we have discussed, while these recommendations were
made using a cost-control lens, in the end, community values and local
priorities may override some of the cost-savings recommendations. Because municipal government also has the
responsibility of giving taxpayers what they want and are willing to pay for –
there may be services taxpayers are willing to pay more for compared to peers
because they want to maintain more local control, they perceive the quality of
the city service to be value-added compared to a privatized service, or other
reasons. In cases where this
administration and Elyria City Council believe there is a disparity between
the recommendation and local preference or benefits, every attempt will be
made to conduct further internal and external analysis, and in some cases,
publically vet these issues by providing residents an opportunity to weigh in
on alternative scenarios with costs and benefits attached to them during the
strategic planning update process. This
added information will assist this administration and Elyria City Council in
making final determinations on issues like the future use of our parks and
pools and other issues.
