True Budget Train Wreck

The first three cars of the Hanlon True Budget Train came cruising into City Hall Monday night looking to replenish their fuel supply in the form of tax dollars they loaded up on at the beginning of the fiscal '07 budget (a supply that the Mayor guaranteed us was more than adequate to see them through the next budget season) after having run through that fuel supply with 3 1/2 months still remaining on the trip. The conductor has lost direction, and the True Budget Train is careening out of control.

Based on Monday night's requests, these three cars alone require additional fuel totalling over half a million dollars in order for the Train to reach it's June 30th destination.

Lest we overextend the metaphor, here's what happened at the meeting. Three department heads -- Walter Rice of Veterans' Services, Barry Doyle of Facilities Maintenance, and Treasurer Dom D'Angelo -- came before the Board of Aldermen requesting transfers from free cash to see them through the rest of the fiscal year.

Walter Rice, who by all evidence is dedicated to providing services to our veterans, was upfront in admitting he underbudgeted and failed to anticipate additional expenditures that would be required by the return of soldiers fighting in Iraq. His request was for $45,000.

Barry Doyle had two separate requests -- $30,000 to cover unexpected telephone expenses and $10,000 to cover unexpected overtime expenses. The "unexpected telephone expenses" consisted of charges incurred due to, Mr. Doyle said, "employee behavior." In other words, employees were misusing business telephone services. Overuse of 411 and the *69 feature, along with excessive long distance phone calls, were among the actions which had caused the telephone charges in the Facilities Maintenance Department to increase by over $1,000 per month over fiscal '06. The additional overtime funding was, Mr. Doyle said, was a result of requests by the administration to provide additional custodial services not previously budgeted, primarily for meetings taking place in the evenings and on Saturdays at City Hall.

Domenic D'Angelo appeared to request $488,000+ to cover a check that had already been written on an account that had only 8 cents in it to make a payment on a short term loan. He spent money that was not in the account, hedging his bets that when free cash was certified, the Board of Aldermen would simply approve the transfer to replenish the fund. They did not.

There are many things that could be said about this overspending, but that's not the issue here today. The issue is the Hanlon True Budget Train -- or should we call it the Phantom Express, because clearly this "true budget" never existed. The True Budget Train is now the True Budget Train Wreck, and it is likely that more cars of the train are going to follow -- crashing into the Council chamber, looking for the City Council to save them from themselves. The Board of Aldermen were unwilling to perform immediately repairs on the first three cars of the train wreck and have sent them to the Finance Committee for further evaluation of the damage they've inflicted upon themselves. Only time will tell whether this train ever gets back on track.