Mayor Rawlings-Blake rocked Sheila Dixon on Monday! Her speech was head and shoulders above Dixon’s speech from last year. The real question is if this Mayor can bring about the radical (for Baltimore at least) change that she spoke about in her speech.
The event started out in classic Baltimore fashion with City Council President Jack Young stumbling through his opening statements. The man is not a good public speaker. The Mayor’s mastery of her speech made his words seem even more lacking than they originally appeared. Young had a nice light suit on though. That was a positive I guess. Young gave the mayor flowers before her speech.
Since politicians have huge egos they had to introduce all the visiting politicians that were in attendance. Elijah Cummings, Curt Anderson, Melvin Stukes, Joan Pratt, union leader Glen Middleton , a firefighters’ union rep, a school union rep, a police union rep, Judge Holland, and Helen Bentley were all announced. Patricia Jessamy was not there. I was worried that with all those union people present that the Mayor would promise them benefits at the expense of the taxpayer. She did not even come close to doing that though.
The Mayor got down to business right away. The differences between her style of speaking and Dixon’s style were noticeable immediately. The mayor spoke in a clear calm voice. Her speech was to the point, short yet concise, and forward looking. She actually brought up non-fluff topics that could cause controversy! You can watch the entire speech here. After watching this speech one has to wonder why we were not embarrassed by the former Mayor every time she spoke. Yesterday’s speech was a breath of fresh air on so many different levels. It was a new beginning and a renewal of a kind of Baltimore pride that had been lacking during the Dixon years.
After the light business suit wearing Mayor thanked her benefactors (O’Malley and Cummings) she jumped right into a subject that Dixon had avoided- Property taxes! The Mayor is sending a signal to the citizens that she is very much aware of the fiscal problems of this city and that property taxes are one of the biggest economic problems many citizens deal with. It was refreshing to at least hear that this mayor cares about basic municipal economics and fiscal responsibility.
“$120 million equals twenty-two-hundred City employees or 55% of our civilian workforce.”
If I were her I would try to fire as many of them as possible in order to make up the impending $120 million deficit.
“Mark these words, remember them and factor them into our actions and decisions in the coming days: This $120 million deficit is brutal and will hit all of our citizens hard. I speak plainly and bluntly. If we sugar coat our problems, we will never rise above and solve them.”
The Mayor did what I thought she would not do, she straight up told us we had a problem that would be painful to fix. She even brought up the always hush-hush “pension time-bomb”. He speech was not union-friendly! I was shocked.
“Chief among these sacrifices is pension reform for police officers and firefighters.”
Wow! Has someone from the Mayor’s office been reading this blog?
“Despite a deficit equal to a thirty-six cent increase on the property tax rate, if we work together, we can pledge we will not raise property taxes to fix this budget gap.”
Bravo!!!!
“Finally, I’m cutting the entire Mayor’s Office budget by 10%. We will do more with less.”
Has mild fiscal responsibility really returned to Baltimore? Please let the Mayor’s words turn into actions!
The transcript of the Mayor’s speech can be found here.
Filed in: Uncategorized.
Tags: Baltimore, Jack Young, property taxes, Sheila Dixon, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
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DKH, it is easy to see that you have given the idea of having an Inspector General a lot of thought. Having said that, I will agree today, that in most cases the IG is a government entity and not a political one. However, in this case with Mayor SRB, this a political appointment! This a quote, from her State of the City Address, “I am also pleased to announce today that in the next few days, I’m hiring a new Inspector General charged with delivering a more results-driven approach to investigating potential fraud, waste and abuse in City Government.” Yet, in spite of my reservations, it is my sincerest desire, that Mayor SRB, gets the results she is looking for.
Finally, I want to spend my energy and efforts working toward solutions that will have a positive impact on an entire city, state and nation.
Ms. Libra, to be honest, I see where you’re coming from. The office of the IG is an extra expense, but a necessary one I think – if, as I said, done correctly. If we could get an IG appointed by the state, the would be cool, but as it stands the Baltimore delegation would probably fight it and the Governor controls SRB to the point that any IG appointed would still be an SRB lackey. But, as you said, I’ll agree to disagree. I’m just happy anyone takes an interest in this because I know so many others who wouldn’t/
First of all, I am not attacking the Inspector General but simply pointing out that I felt that this was a waste of tax payer dollars. Of course, the transition team is a political entity. Secondly, if Mayor SRB was serving a full term then I would agree that an IG is probably needed. Lastly, I have no problems in agreeing to disagree on the usefulness of an IG at City Hall at this present time.
I disagree, the transition team – which should never have been that large – is a political organization not a governmental one. Nearly every governmental body I know of has an ‘independent’ IG; I don’t think you should attack that office, but rather confront the other stats you pointed out and the fact that the City Council which passes the budget never opposes the Mayor on anything.
Granted, the office of the Inspector General may have been around for five years but, Mayor Blake, had 151 people on her transition team to “conduct a comprehensive review of each city agency to ensure that all public and taxpayer funds are used in the most effective and efficient manner.” I found this in the Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jan 22, 2010 by Robbie Whelan
Therefore, if the transition team achieves the stated goals and objectives then you don’t need an Inspector General which is a waste of tax payer dollars.
“How can we take Mayor SRB serious when she talks about reducing the Mayors budget by 10% then hires an Inspector General?”
I’m pretty sure the Inspector General is one of those offices that, when used properly and given to the right person, can prevent fraud, abuse, and lower spending by making inefficient operations public. The problem isn’t that she hired an IG (the office has been around since 2005), it’s that the institutional corruption within city hall means that the IG won’t really be free to do the job.
I try hard not to listen to CCP Jack Young because it is obvious that he does not have a complete sentence in his verbal repetoire. CCP Young is going to get a rude awakening, if he thinks that he can win an election with his inability to express himself verbally. If CCP Young is serious about his leadership role then he should hire a coach and pay for it out of his own pocket. If he does not present himself better when his term is over he will be sent home.
After thinking about this, on the one hand Mayor SRB worked as a public defender who was required to speak before judges defending her clients. As a law school student she had mock trials were she had to speak publicly before her peers. If she didn’t have a firm grasp of the English language it would have been a disaster for her clients. Having said that it does not surprise me that she is a very good public speaker. On the other hand, is she a good public speaker or is she just different from what we have heard in the past?
However, I am more concerned with the content of the speech and what she plans to do to reduce the budget; what plans does she have to provide summer jobs for students; how will she keep us safe; will we still have the same level of city services; will she bring financial resources to the city and how does she plan to promote the city with limited resources? How many new or increased fees will be accessed on the residents? These issues are vital and they affect all of the citizens of Baltimore, so please let us know.
Also, she speaks about reducing the executive fleet by 37% which is commendable. If she really wants to reduce the executive fleet then keep one SUV and get rid of the other. Get a car that is cheaper on gas, insurance and maintenance.
Additionally, if Mayor SRB is really interested in reducing the deficit then she along with CCP Jack Young should stop feeding the council members lunch twice a week. They should tell the council members that it is a “BYOL” or “BYOB” in other words bring your own lunch or bring your own brown bag.
How can we take Mayor SRB serious when she talks about reducing the Mayors budget by 10% then hires an Inspector General? When I am downtown near City Hall and see the other city buildings they keep the lights on and none of them appears to be energy efficient. Turn the lights off at City Hall and those other buildings or reduce the number of lights on!!! Adjust the thermostat 5 degrees lower in the winter and 5 degrees higher in the summer. Tell the employees to wear sweaters if they get cold but do not bring in space heaters or fans. This should be an executive order for all city buildings and offices.
Finally, if Mayor SRB is really serious about reducing the deficit she should lead the way and take a 10% or 15% pay cut and ask the council members to do the same. If you are going to lead then lead!
I’m not seeing it; she really didn’t say anything I didn’t expect, and things you seem to be surprised by – I wouldn’t be surprised if nothing happened. Or, at the very least, there’s movement but it’s along the line of reworking statistics and the pension reform – something the unions will likely control, sign off on, and will do little other than delay the problem.
As for cutting the budget – the only specific she mentioned was no raising property taxes. She can’t – she would have to raise them by a huge amount (I don’t remember the exact statistic offhand, but I think it was around 40% – could be way off).
She cut out some Mayoral offices – not sure how wise some of those moves were, but I’m also not sure how much that actually saves. She offered few specifics besides saying what she won’t cut. Well, not completely true: she did say she would trim 10% from the mayor’s budget – a budget of %6 million. So there’s $600,000 out of the $120 million deficit. I think I hear her say no more layoffs and no more rotating closures, she’s reassigning the mayor’s fleet to other agencies which means that they’ll still be used, just not by her. And she said the Office of Cable and Communications will not be supported by the general fund – how’s it going to be funded.
I’ll admit, I don’t know much about anyone’s budget process, and if I ever saw it I’d probably cry. But the things she did choose to mention, I doubt they save us much. Mayor Rawlings-Blake will have to be a lot more forthcoming and honest about this thing before I’m surprised. [/mildly cynical rant]