City council was called to order on Tuesday September 2, following a long Labor Day weekend.
Finley deGraffenreid, incoming City Manager, may have foreshadowed a new age of transparency. deGraffenreid placed himself on the agenda to present his thoughts on the budget to City Council. The simple act of standing in front of the assembled group with slide materials to reinforce the message, shared his opinion and insight, not just with council but with citizens as well.
This item was non-actionable so there was no vote but that did not diminish the weight of deGraffenreid’s message. He said he spent 3 days reviewing the budget, saying he “appreciated the work of Josh [Becker] and Cara [Hewitt]” and that though they continue to review for any other errors he found several line items that not just reduced the current budget deficit ($172,000), but increased it to a surplus of almost $360,000. He further explained that he doesn’t think outsourcing mowing of city property would be beneficial to the city stating that although he felt vendors would do a good job he thought under his management keeping “boots on the ground he could do more to increase services to the citizens”. He quickly followed up and said if Council wanted him to outsource he would of course comply.
