“Can we rely on the current City Council to attend to this? Of course not.”

You just hurt little Robert Ryan’s feelings, and may have pushed Don Bach’s and Frank Wsol’s noses out of joint at the same time. Just becuase they mismanage the City doesn’t mean you can criticize and blame them. That’s not playing nice nice.

Since Schmidt beat their boy Frimark (What did you get for your $800 contribution, Bobby?), they’ve done nothing but try to throw wrenches in his way. And they would sell Park Ridge down the river if they thought it would undermine Schmidt.

In many places, trash is not “picked up once a week.” People engage private contractors or take it to the landfill themselves. Why should this service be provided (or subsidized) by the city?

There are private security services. Perhaps we should get rid of the police and just let people fend for themselves and/or hire it done. Why should this service be provided for free by the city?

The fire department already makes citizens pay for ambulence service. Firefighting could be charged on an as-needed basis, too.

Why should the city provide water? Many municipalities are served by private, for-profit water companies and the customers pay as they go/drink/wash.

Park Ridge provides these services (and more, such as tree care for parkway trees) because that’s what they’ve been doing for years.

It’s time to take a fresh–and hard–look at every city service and subsidy. Each needs to be justified and funded. Otherwise the budget mess will never get resolved. Can we rely on the current City Council to attend to this? Of course not. Can Mayor Dave browbeat the Council or at least the staff into moving in this direction? Sure he can.

But will he?

I belief is that municipalities have strayed too far from the core misson: police, fire and public works. Supporting things like the “taste” or social services are well intented, but should not be supported by local government. Places like the “Center of Concern” and others typically get funding from the state, the township, the city and private interests. Plus, Maine Twsp. also provides its own level of social services — it just seems like their is a duplication of services and too many taxing bodies subsidizing its operations…

The social service arena is just one aspect of the conversation. I think at the end of the day, a majority of people expect the following from their municipal government (not necessarily) in this order:
- trash is picked up once a week
- streets are in good shape
- infrastructure is in good shape (water/sewer)
- when I call 911, police/fire show up in a timely fashion

Everything else is gingerbread…and should be supported by private interests. I think we all agree that the “taste” and “fireworks” are nice to have in a community, but is it the role of municipal government to provide those services. I would say “no” — especially when the City’s infrastructure is crumbling and there is always a street that could repaved or crack sealed…

I’m sorry, but I simply must throw some gasoline on this debate fire…

“You people crack me up. The complaints about the City staff and other public employees are non-stop, and yet you’d rather have our housebound elderly cared for by more highly paid bureaucrats instead of the skeleton crew of modestly paid staffers plus hundreds of ardent volunteers?”

“Who/How” is the second question to be addressed. The first question is “What?”; as in, what exactly are the essential services the government/taxpayers should be funding.

“Oh, wait; you don’t want these services to be provided by the gub-mint. You want families (read, middle-aged sandwich generation women who are raising kids and working full-time)”

Uh oh, *somebody’s* sexist bloomers are a’showin’…not to mention the implied presumption that “women’s work” should be government subsidized.

“and if they don’t, well, put the old folks out on an ice floe, right?”

Do we have ice floes in Park Ridge? The “unmentionable task” would probably be accomplished quicker if we just stuck them out in the middle of traffic near Maine South during rush hour, don’t you think?

“Or would you rather just wait until you can smell the bodies? That might put a crimp in the neighbors’ quality of life, don’t you think?”

Only temporarily; it’s not like O’Hare expansion or anything.

“Even the right-wingers know it’s a better deal for the taxpayer to fund these charitable programs without having to pay more bureaucrats.”

Sure, but a REAL, honest-to-goodness wingnut doesn’t want taxpayers to fund ANYthing of a social service nature, or did you mean to call conservatives spineless skin-flint-y compromisers?

“Volunteers and their few paid leaders work their hearts out, 50, 60 hours a week or more.”

Suckers!

“We can hardly get City staff to do a day’s work for a straight-time day’s pay!”

G’dang union contracts!

“What’s more, a majority of the Center of Concern’s budget is through grants which are mandated pass-thru; i.e. they are earmarked for direct services, not staff salaries or whatever you fear.”

Ah-hah! So you admit it! CoC is getting OTHER gub-mint hand-outs too!

“The very modest salaries that are paid to the skeleton crews of charities come out of what’s left, and without at least a few stable, permanent employees to hold the fort, you cannot hope for efficient orchestration of volunteer efforts and miniscule other funds.”

Have you ever met a PTO/PTA president Mom? They could show you how to accomplish the above in about an hour…

“It’s easy to say we should stop supporting charitable efforts that don’t personally wring our hearts – empathy (not sympathy, empathy) seems to be the one thing in shorter supply than money.”

I have plenty of empathy for those who find themselves on the receiving end of gub-mint subsidies. Just this past holiday sing, I was feeling real real sorry for some of the parents whose kids are in the D64 instrumental music program, which is subsidized through taxpayer dollars; if those solos were the result of home practice, my God, my heart goes out to those parents!

“But a responsible public official’s job is to foresee the unintended consequences of any decision.”

Or ask for a task force, or commission, or blue ribbon panel, or advisory board, or staff recommendation.

“If the penny-wise, pound-foolish prevail in re Park Ridge service groups/charities, what will the real consequences be?”

A renewed sense of familial responsibility? Just a w.a.g.

“Oh, and P.S. The Park District is not funded through the City of Park Ridge. It’s a separate taxing body, and when you take a look at the tiny percentage of real estate taxes that go to the Park District, you’ll laugh.”

How much does it cost to cut grass?

“Further, unlike the City, the Park District is strictly limited in what it can spend without going to referendum.”

Thank the Lord!

“And the cherry on top? The Park District’s union agreed without a fight to forego raises this year for the common good. What a concept! THE COMMON GOOD!!!!”

Excellent! But I do think you may want to prepare yourself to get that cherry popped during the next round of negotiations.

By the way, did I miss the part where you discussed all the contributions to community groups, non-profits and charities BESIDES the CoC?

Very good post. I agree with you about the PD and the amount we are taxed versus what we get. You are also correct to point out it is a seperate taximb body. My family and I love the Park District and use many of the services they offer on a fee and non-fee basis. The only reason that I ever bring it up in this discusion is that while not a huge amount of money, it is a great deal more (like way more!!!!!) than 271,000. The services provided by the Park District would most certainly fall into the catagory of non-essentials and yet most here are perfectly willing to have their tax dollars support it. I fail to see the logic in that.

Seriously, some people (including me) think the CoC is a good thing and worthy of public $. Others don’t and would rather see the money spent on the library or fireworks or concerts or maybe nothing at all but police, fire and snowplowing. Perhaps those who own Suburbans or Hummers think snowplowing is unnecessary. Vive la difference!

Dogood is right: our elected officials make these calls. That’s how it works in a republic. So if any of you wants to put your oar in the water on public spending, you might want to call or email the mayor and/or your alderman, or perhaps write a letter to the editor of the H-A, or maybe show up at a city council meeting and say your piece.

Posting here is fine, too, but it’s not going to get it done at the end of the day. And I doubt it’s going to change any other poster’s mind.

By what legal or other authority do these various private community groups have a claim on public funds?

Somebody questioned the library, but there is a library district that is legally entitled to our property tax revenues.

I, for one, don’t want my tax dollars to fund somebody else’s hobby or charity. If they can’t raise private funds, they should shut their doors. If those services are so “essential,” either some governmental body will start performing them, or some competent private provider will fill the gap.