ESTÚPIDO SAVANNAH - Tuesday, December 23, 2008 12:32:00 PM
Just a couple of loose ends before the holiday consumes us.
More proof that Darth Berkow is trying to make his boss and the City Council look bad as part of some misguided power play.
While it hasn’t been reported anywhere that I can find, about midway through the marathon City Council meeting Thursday the fact that Berkow seems to be talking out of both sides of his mouth came up.
Council members are concerned that their Prince of Police is doing public appearances at which he says he is losing the war on crime because City Council won’t give him the manpower he needs.
According to Alderman Mary Ellen Sprague who was at one of those appearances at the JEA, “He reiterated that the City Council is not giving him enough officers.”
Now the facts are these:
The department runs about 50 bodies shy of a full force and has been that way since 2005.
The council always gives the Police Department exactly what it asks for in its budget and has never refused any request for extra money made by any chief in the past 6 years.
Berkow’s Budget, presented to City Council in November at their retreat at St. Simons and passed by Council last week does not request more officers.
The Police budget for ‘09 is roughly $4 million more than was budgeted in ’08 and about $9 million more than ‘07.
According to Michael Brown, he and the Chief have discussed his budget and the current crime situation at length and according to Brown “He is in complete accord” with his budget as it stands
But what does Darth Berkow say?
According to the Mayor, “The issue is that we’ve got a Chief out there saying things and we’ve got a City Manager that is saying something different”
My advice to Brown is to nip this thing in the bud now.
Berkow is a master of the public arena, he talks a good game and his fans are loyal to a fault.
If he said smearing your children with butter and sacrificing them to Ba’al would help fight crime, there would be a run on Land O’Lakes.
"If the people in the city of Savannah are cutting back and living on a budget, why is the city buying unneeded amounts of recycling cans and taking unnecessary trips? We pay taxes, so publish a statement showing where the money goes."
First I agree the whole recycling thing is a waste but you are responsible for it. This is what happens when good people stand idly by while a small minority of knownothings hijacks the democratic process.
As to a list of your tax money and where it goes; the city put this list out back in August.
The city figures the average home is worth $132,116 and the city taxes paid by the owner of this average home are $413.
Of that:
$106 pays for the Police Department
$66 pays for stormwater/streets maintenance/traffic control/litter pickup
$59 pays for the Fire Department
$57 pays for building stuff, new water/sewer/drainage lines and pays off debt on stuff we already built.
$45 pays for parks and recreation
$40 pays for all the neighborhood/affordable housing/small business support the city does.
$35 pays for the big brains that keep things running like human resources and the budget office.
$5 pays for the Recorders court.
And finally, something I never thought I would ever see in the Vox:
Thank heaven for Tony Thomas.
