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Once again, the City Council is tying itself in knots over a city vehicle for the mayor's office.
These leases have raised questions, particularly over the past six years. Starting in 2020, when former Mayor Eddie Sundquist, through the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency, entered into a lease for a bigger, more expensive vehicle than the one that had been provided for former Mayor Sam Teresi, and continuing through a new lease in 2023 these vehicle leases have raised questions and created consternation.
In our view, the city should take the least expensive option. On a per-year basis, that would appear to be buying out the current lease, adding the vehicle to the city's fleet and paying for fuel, maintenance and insurance. That path means a higher up-front cost to buy out the lease, but is the least expensive option over the next three years.
We're glad to see the Mayor Kim Ecklund and the City Council are looking at every penny they can save with a 7.4% tax increase on the table for 2027. But it's also the equivalent of running a quarterback sneak on third and 32. Even if the play is successful, the city is punting on fourth down because it's going to be fourth and 30 at best. The council's deliberations on the relative pennies the city can save on an $18,500 purchase or paying mileage to the mayor and staff who would use the mayor's office vehicle is like running the quarterback sneak, punting and, when we get the ball back, running the exact same plays that resulted in the previous drive's third and 32 yards to go situation. As taxpayers, do you want to see the city run a quarterback sneak on third and 32, or do you want to see a Hail Mary heaved toward the goal line? Running the sneak has no chance of getting a first down. The chances aren't good for a Hail Mary, but it's better than nothing.
Quibbling over pennies is great, but we need to find dollars – many of them, at that – in order to bring the city's budget into balance. And finding those dollars means either finding ways to reduce city salaries and benefits or finding ways to spread the city's spending over a bigger tax base by increasing city property values. Reducing city salaries isn't going to be easy. There are contracts that come with minimum staffing agreements and other negotiated costs that have to be figured out, and then there's the hard work of trying to create the structure needed to provide city residents with the services upon which they rely from city government – police, fire, EMS and public works – at a cost city residents can afford to pay. That means looking at regional policing, regional EMS and perhaps regional fire protection. Growing the tax base is just as difficult.
But proposals focused on those high-dollar areas are more likely to result in a cost structure city residents can afford than quibbling over pennies in areas like a vehicle in the mayor's office. It's time to audible to a play that doesn't result in this third and long situation every budget season.