Obviously having decided before the meeting to deliver a unanimous decision approving  the recommendations in Johnson's 45-page report, each member of the commission gave a short comment expressing gut-wrenching sadness. Mayor Ellison revealed that he was recently terminated from his job, so his 'I feel your pain" added weight to the somber mood.

Johnson was repeatedly praised for his efforts and for the comprehensiveness of his report, which offers seven recommendations:

1. Continue to prepare a two-year balanced budget for 2010-2012
2. Continue plans to prepare a complete prioritization of needs and service
3. Authorize the issuance of layoff notices
4. Approach Bargaining Units for contract concessions
5. Consider an early retirement offer to employees within  two years of retirement
6. Prepare a privatization study
7. Consider City Hall modifications to promote efficiencies and allow staff reductions.

Johnson provided context for the public with a brief summary of the opening pages of his 45-page Budget Strategy report, then asked for CITCOM to approve his "suggested resolution" which reads:

Whereas, the City of Royal Oak, like most Michigan communities, is facing dramatic declines in revenue,

And Whereas, the City of Royal Oak must decrease its expenditures to match available resources.

Be it Resolved, the recommendations of the 2010-2012 budget strategy report are approved and the administration is specifically directed to issue the layoff notices necessary to balance the 2010-2012 budget.

This, wisely, was the last item on  the agenda; it was followed immediately by adjournment; and I would hope that at least some of the officials gathered for a drink or cup of coffee. Certainly their debriefing session would include most of the same reactions as have, since then, been voiced by residents -- city hall watchers or not. Those first reactions are treated elsewhere in VersagiVoice.

Despite the presence of Detroit TV cameras, no one at The Table postured or sought excessive time on camera, either during the budget discussion or in the early part of the meeting. So normal was their overall demeanor that the single split vote was accompanied by the usual display of the strained institutional relationship between CITCOM and the Downtown Development Authority.

That split vote (4-3), with Capello, Drinkwine, and Poulton voting No, came after some procedural jockeying over tabling, or not, DDA's request to spend money on streetscaping. Another DDA item, the Authority's allocation for Arts, Beats & Eats was approved as part of the Consent Agenda.

Unanimously, CITCOM directed Staff  to require RFP's for a couple of Change Orders which had been removed from the Consent Agenda. . . . Approved a change in a money-saving modification in the administration of the city's Health Plan . . . Approved an amended plan of operation and a license for Rock on Third. . . . About RFP's, City Engineer Elden Danielson commented (1) that on something like HVAC maintenance, a new contractor would have to learn the location and condition of all the city-owned heating-cooling systems and equipment, and (2) 'the bidding process is costly."

During Public Comment which preceded formal CITCOM deliberations, one resident expressed concern over threatened long response time from the Fire Department and reduced police presence both downtown and in the neighborhood. A fireman, speaking for himself and not his union, offered full cooperation in working through the problems which will result from proposed cuts in personnel. One vendor who is frozen out of bidding on some routine Change Orders, pointed out that prices have dropped for some services and urged the city to issue RFP's instead of extending existing contracts.

And activist Bill Shaw, as usual being granted extended time for his researched comments, opined that the combination of  State laws affecting city revenues has deprived local governing bodies of the ability to address real-world budget problems.

08 March 2010:
VersagiVoice comments
City Manager Don Johnson's 45-page 2010-2012 Budget Strategy report has provided everything CITCOM and citizens need to begin evaluating the pros and cons of specific cuts in Staff and Services.

Residents should print the report off the City's Website and refer to it frequently as the dialogue continues for the next couple of years.

Johnson's 7-item list of recommendations sharpens the focus.

1. Continue to prepare a two-year balanced budget for 2010-2012
2. Continue plans to prepare a complete prioritization of needs and service
3. Authorize the issuance of layoff notices
4. Approach Bargaining Units for contract concessions
5. Consider an early retirement offer to employees within  two years of retirement
6. Prepare a privatization study
7. Consider City Hall modifications to promote efficiencies and allow staff reductions.

News and comments about the ongoing dialogue will be accumulated at 2010 Budget/Taxes Dialogue. Near or just after the time that the 2010-2012 budget is approved, VersagiVoice will suggest the design of a paper that Johnson might prepare about taxes vs. services.

In the meantime, here are the words and phrases already heard or seen. It is about these matters that there will be intense, detailed, discussion -- for a couple of years. The list is arranged alphabetically, since to arrange them chronologically as received or by frequency of mention would give a distorted impression of the relative importance that residents and VersagiVoice readers assign to them. Items were still  being added to the list at Update time.

The topics.

Johnson's 45-page report, its 7 recommendations, and this list will merge into long and difficult deliberations -- especially since most citizens focus on one or two matters.

The human dimension will complicate all this.
It's one thing to intellectually determine that departments A and R can be operationally combined or that department M is easy to privatize. It's quite another thing to ignore the uneasiness, even guilt, which results from personally knowing some of the individuals who will feel the effect of such decisions.

In the case of CITCOM, it is not unknown for there to be noticeable animosity toward this or that department, although it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the animosity is personal or institutional.

On their part, especially now, city hall workers live with the fear that "It only takes four," meaning that a position can be at-risk if a majority of CITCOM turns against a department or staff member. At the moment, Staff morale has to be pretty low.

It will be great if everyone adopts the focused professional mindset which CITCOM displayed when they (1) split 4-3 on Johnson's employment contract, then (2) voted unanimously to approve his overall approach to attacking the city's fiscal problems.

A handful of VersagiVoice readers -- so, likely, many non-reader residents -- seem put off that CITCOM spent fewer minutes deciding to approve Johnson's recommendations than "on some business's operating plan." They guessed, "The decision was made before they came out of that back room."

I'm sure it was. And they handled it well during the public meeting. There will be plenty of time to argue details, but they owed it to us to admit openly that the city can afford no more band-aid solutions and -- by inference -- that, concerning fiscal matters, as an institution the City Commission has failed us over the years.

Now, let's all get to work.