on the Finance Committee to do their work for them. We need to work more
collaboratively. And I think it starts with making the Finance Committee permanent. It
should never have been an ad hoc committee to begin with. I think we should meet
regularly during the year. We should dig into a $50M budget more than we do, and we all
should understand what's in it. And I think we really need to make a better effort going
forward, we need more debate. We should be debating that IGA distribution so we
understand that fully. I appreciate the creativity of coming up for some at the 11th hour,
but no one has even seen that memo. When we are voting on a budget, it is not the way
we should be doing it, it is not good policy. So, I'm not voting for this budget.
Member Honig said, he assumed the budget is on OpenGov like every other budget for
the County. He said, there are certain aspects where you can retrieve information. So
when we are talking about revenue for the year, it is broken down and aspects such as
where our expenses come from. He said on OpenGov you could take a deeper dive or if
you want, request more information from ETSB or Executive Director Zerwin. Member
Honig said, reading the memos, it seems like staff does a good job at putting almost
everything we talk about into those memos, whether it is a line item and then what's in
the line item. He said, you have to look for it, I guess. Member Honig said, his question is
that, if there is something that we have a question about, whether it is a line item that has
$5M in it, or whether it's in capital improvements, etc, can we see a breakdown of that?
Executive Director Zerwin replied, yes, that ETSB is in OpenGov and follows the County
format. She said as soon as we present the first part of the budget, we enter all that
information, because we follow the County policy.
Chair Schwarze said, this is his fifth year being chair, and we have done five ad hoc
finance committees. Everybody on this committee has the opportunity to participate in
our ad hoc finance committee. I asked who wanted to volunteer, and we do not turn
anybody down. He said, I do appreciate that not everyone has the time for it, and I also
appreciate the fact that those who do not have the time for it trust in the members that do.
Member Maranowicz said he has been on the ad hoc committee for all five years. And
that in those five years, they were in a place where there was no IGA, and there was a
request for money to the PSAPs, and there was some lively debate. He said, that got done,
and there was now an increase to potentially see if there is a revenue stream of getting
more to the PSAPs. And I believe that has been accomplished. If this gets passed here
coming up, I just want to say thank you, because where we were five years ago to where
we are now, we moved some mountains. You moved some mountains. So thank you.
Chair Schwarze asked for a roll call. On roll call, nine Members voted “Aye”, one
Member voted “Nay”, motion carried.
Attachments:
APPROVED
RESULT:
MOVER:
SECONDER:
AYES:
Joseph Maranowicz
Marilu Hernandez
Schwarze, Hernandez, Honig, Maranowicz, Markay, McCarthy,
Robb, Schar, and Wolber