2001 Budget Paves Way to Future Savings

by the Martin County Taxpayers Association

During the three-day budget review held the week of July 23rd, as many as nine members of the Martin County Taxpayers Association attended a variety of sessions. All came away pleased that the commissioners avoided a tax rate increase, but several saw these sessions as planting some seeds which, if cultivated, may result in a harvest of future savings.

Commendable was the overall efficiency of these meetings as the commissioners' rapport and mutual respect for each other and for the county staff was quite evident and resulted in swift dispatch of questions and issues. A business-like atmosphere has replaced the tedium and acrimony of past years. The commissioners asked questions which reflected their desire for a trim and efficient organization, leaving little doubt regarding their sense of direction.

We see these areas for further savings. Employee salaries and benefits remain the largest single item in the operations budget, yet an objective means of justification of new hires continues to allude county staff. Because of this absence of objective data, one commissioner consistently challenged and vetoed all requests for additional personnel on the premise that increased efficiency of existing personnel could make up the supposed shortfall. In our opinion, he was probably correct, especially in denying those depart- ments currently operation short of their approved roster but requesting more. Unfortunately, he was most often the lone dissenter.

Apparently, as the county government has evolved, individual departments, responding to their respective needs to operate successfully, have created subgroups to furnish services normally considered outside their purview or expertise. For instance, in this budget hearing a constitutional office is requesting to add a "computer troubleshooter". A second look reveals that several departments have positions involved in the use, operation, and care of computer and communication equipment. In the corporate world, these positions would seem to be within the scope and responsibility of the Information Technology Services department who, in our opinion, should have the first opportunity to perform the service.

In similar fashion multiple county departments have developed their individual programs for Human Resources (Personnel), Purchasing, records archives, technology services, emergency communications, and vehicle maintenance even though the county had established departments to perform these specific tasks. In the past, some of these functions may have been "farmed out" unsuccessfully then returned to the department in order to restore a better level of service and control. It may be time to rethink the organization required to perform these tasks.

Each of these areas offers a possibility for future consolidation and the improved operating efficiency that results from one department performing each specialized task. A spin off benefit from this type of consolidation, is that it removed the burdens and distractions of these secondary functions from some departments allowing them to focus on their primary duties whether they be law enforcement, property appraising, or emergency services.

In these tentative budgets, commissioners made offers of help and suggestions for consolidation to several departments. We can only hope these departments respond favorably and give consolidation a try. These matters should be pursued on their own merits, but certainly tied in with the justification for any future construction of a consolidated operations center.

Our column in the Stuart News, Sunday, November 30, 1997 reads "The taxpayers of Martin County wound up in familiar fashion at the County Commission meetings Nov. 18; paying extra for poor decisions made by their elected officials. This time is it hard to tell which group is to blame, but there is enough blame for everyone.

The decision to abandon the present landfill without using it to capacity will cost taxpayers millions. Another way to dispose of trash will have to be found and paid for years sooner than necessary. Residents of developments near the landfill can celebrate. The other 99 percent of the taxpayers have little to cheer about."

That was 1997. So it was, again, in the Commission meeting of August 7, 2001, when a commissioner made a motion to proceed with the current plan to close our landfill as scheduled five to seven years in the future before hearing a presentation by the Solid Waste Utility staff, which included a better alternative.

In effect, the commission had made up its mind on this political issue in spite of the economic impacts.

Had the commission allowed the presentation to play out, they would have learned that the present site has yet to be optimized, and is able to accommodate an additional ten to twelve year's capacity. Unfortunately, some politically wrong words were used such as "extending", "expanding area", "additional capacity". All these are politically unacceptable, because of the connotation that the landfill will be expanded to new acreage. This violates some legendary but nonspecific promise made to neighbors by commissions past that the landfill would not be expanded. In fact, staff's proposal would not enlarge the landfill site but only make better use of it to obtain full capacity, which the present plan does not do.

All in all, staff's proposal provided for the future by recommending a reservation of space as the Okeechobee Regional Landfill, while delaying the need to utilize it for a total of fifteen to seventeen years.

The impact to customers is staggering. If the present landfill is optimized, customers' bills will increase $.63 per month. If not, when we start carting trash to Okeechobee, bills will increase $2.30 per month. In simple terms, the County Commission rejected the opportunity to save an estimated $1.5 million per year for ten to twelve years. Two hundred vocal homeowners outvoted 60,000 customers/taxpayers who did not even know there was an issue!

If it is possible, this issue should be revisited. There certainly is plenty of time to do so.