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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
I hope you will never hesitate to let me know about any important issues your neighborhood or business may be experiencing. If you ever have a question, concern or comment about Phoenix please get in touch with me right away so I can help. It is vital that all residents live, work and spend free time in a community that you consider safe, clean and that offers you plenty of wonderful places to enjoy with your friends and family.
Parking Fees Proposed at Mountain Preserves
New parking at Phoenix mountain preserves will be discussed during an information-only agenda item at tonight’s Parks Board meeting. Details: 5 p.m. Aug. 26 in Council Chambers (200 W Jefferson ST). See agenda HERE. An item has not yet been placed on an upcoming Council agenda for a vote, but I will update you. Though the Parks Board will not vote on the parking fee tonight, continued public input is crucial. I am strongly OPPOSED to this fee and plan to vote NO when it comes before council. I am very disappointed by the lack of transparency associated with the Parks Board’s recent vote on the fee. This is yet another example of the continuous failure by the city to restructure internally first rather than looking to you, the taxpayer, for more money through taxes and fees. I have attached a four-point plan I have proposed to address budget-related problems in Phoenix. I would appreciate you passing this on to friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and anyone else who may be interested. Change cannot occur without citizen involvement, so I hope you will commit to helping see that accomplished in Phoenix. I have created a flyer opposing implementing these parking fees that I would appreciate your help in distributing. To help pass out flyers please contact my office.
Events August 26 and 28:
I am hosting two events this week to talk with you and your neighbors about district and city-wide issues and to address questions or concerns. To RSVP please contact my office at 602-262-7491 or council.district.6@phoenix.gov.
5:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 26 at Phoenix City Grille (5816 N 16th ST)
9 a.m. on Saturday, August 28 at Vatra Grillhouse (3433 N 56th ST)
I’ll come to your next gathering
Please let me know if I can help organize a neighborhood meeting, speak to your neighborhood or organization, send out an announcement about an event or issue, or if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Respectfully,
Sal DiCiccio
City of Phoenix
Councilman, District 6
Arcadia, Ahwatukee, Biltmore and North Central Neighborhoods
602-262-7491
council.district.6@phoenix.gov
Four-Point Plan
To open link to the Phoenix Republic editorial click HERE or see Full-Text below.
“4-point plan for citizens to solve city’s fiscal mess”
While you and your families have been struggling to make your mortgage payments and keep your jobs, Phoenix has been busy adding new taxes and fees.
And why is this happening? Because the average cost of city employees is $100,000 per year. To pay for this high cost of labor, Phoenix has shifted the responsibility of solving this problem to your family rather than restructuring its operations.
In the past six months, Phoenix has increased your burden by:
· Raising your water rates (up 40 percent in the past five years).
· Raising your sewer rates ($3 million this year).
· Imposing a new food tax ($50 million a year).
· Raising fees on small business.
I have a four-point solution to the city’s financial mess that would put it on the path to fiscal stability, focus resources on functions that affect you directly and make it more responsive and transparent.
I once believed this could come about internally, that the administration would see that the train heading for the cliff needed to be redirected immediately. Now I believe it will require a citizen initiative, a charter-changer that must be followed rather than a temporary policy to be side-stepped.
Phoenix’s problem is not lack of revenue; it’s too much spending and a system designed to keep it that way. We could solve that forever using these simple – although not easy to accomplish – changes:
· Require managed competition not gamed by the city.
With employee costs averaging $100,000, much of that driven by high pension costs, the city must move non-core functions to the private sector. Non-core would be any function that is not a sworn police or firefighter position. The same amount of non-core work would have to be accomplished by the private sector, but we would not pay above-market compensation to workers until they died.
· Link employee compensation to market compensation.
This concept alone would solve the financial crisis by saving a minimum $300 million per year, essentially paying back all the fees and taxes Phoenix took from taxpayers. It makes no sense that Phoenix pays an average $100,000 compensation in a community where taxpayers make about half of that on average.
This would require a mechanism allowing the City Council to exceed that compensation in public votes on singular positions. So if engineers were lacking and much higher paid in the private sector, the council could accommodate those anomalies.
· Link employee numbers to population.
Linking the number of authorized employees to city population would require the city to balance its growth with its need. It would increase the value of each slot so managers would use people wisely and not shuffle workers to fee-based departments like Water and Aviation (where fees can be raised more quietly to pay for them).
· Align elections.
If Phoenix aligned its elections with the traditional cycle, September and November of even-number years, it would reduce greatly the influence of special interests. Council races often turn on 1,000 votes or fewer. Having elections at odd times when only the most passionate vote (read that, those with the most at stake), makes it much easier for a well-funded vocal minority to determine who wins. That’s not a recipe for significant change.
If a new direction is not achieved, next year Phoenix will claim once again that it solved the budget crisis. Unfortunately, it will be laid on the backs and shoulders of an overburdened public. With my changes, Phoenix would accept responsibility for the budget problem and could get off the budget roller coaster that requires repeated tax hikes and service cuts.
Councilman Sal DiCiccio represents District 6, which includes Ahwatukee, Arcadia, Biltmore, East Camelback and North Central. He can be reached at council.district.6@phoenix.gov or 602-262-7491. |
