Mayor Stands By Comments on 2010 Budget

Mayor Jordan Glatt sat down for a Patch exclusive Tuesday to offer his reflections one week after one of the most contentious budget hearings in city history.

First and foremost, he said, in retrospect he wishes he had not walked off the dais prior to the budget vote.

"In some respects I'm a little disappointed that I did that," he said. "It's not my style," saying it showed a lack of respect for council and the process.

But even though he broke his own rule of letting things get personal, he doesn't take back his comments that night.

"I feel that I meant every word I said," he said. "I don't feel that this budget is reflective of what is going to happen."

Glatt said the tension in council chambers was two-fold: partly the result of the decision to not fill two vacancies in the police department, but also partly in response to council's refusal to engage the residents that night.

"That's what we're there for," Glatt said. "I think there was a sense of 'why have public comments if you're not going to listen to public concern?' "

Glatt said it's unfortunate but he reiterated that this move by council to stay at a 2.4 percent tax levy increase this year is "political."

"They want to be able to pat themselves on the back," he said.

And council's actions now will have ramifications down the road, Glatt says.

"I think that next year the community is going to start off with a budget deficit or, the community may not see it, but we're going to have to eat into surplus or start behind the eight ball," Glatt said. "Just to make up numbers, it's just disingenuous."

However, he says he is more concerned about the reduction in overtime budgets for police and fire than he is about the two vacancies.

"That's where it's really going to be painful. Something's going to have to give," he said. "You can't take out that many hours and...something's going to give in the community."

There were, he says, other options besides cutting from police and fire, including rethinking backyard garbage pickup, reassessing hours at the transfer station and outsourcing more public works operations.

"I don't know what they (council) want to accomplish," he said. "They lack a unified vision."

Glatt said in his remaining 18 months as mayor he hopes council can make headway on any number of issues that have been put on the back-burner in 2010 because of the budget.

"We've gotta learn to handle more than one thing at a time," he said.

Revitalizing downtown, pursuing more shared services including the Joint Dispatch Center and upgrading technology at city hall to be more efficient are all projects he thinks council could focus on, in addition to the dreaded "P" word: Parking.

"It may not be a parking garage," he said, "but if we can get to a better place."

Part of the problem, he says, is council lacks leadership and has newer council members not fully understanding their roles, saying council shouldn't have made Rich Madden, a new council member, chair of the finance committee.

"Council should be working through the city administrator," he said. "Council is getting way into the weeds."

But going forward Glatt says council needs to get back to a respectful working relationship, agreeing to disagree. But one thing it is lacking right now, he says, is trust among each other.

"I don't disagree with everything," he said. "But I'm not going to sit by when I think they're doing something irresponsible and keep my mouth shut."