Catherine - Mr. Gorman created the "drama," when he called the meeting with Alex.
Riverside Info » About Riverside
Gorman's ????? to Play
(58 posts)-
Posted Monday Apr 6, 2009 11:39 #
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Catherine -
Do you not understand that Home Rule requires a vote of the Residents?
Please cite your source that the Village has hired a Home Rule expert.
It appears that you are trying to distract from the topic of this thread - the despicable tactics of the RCA related to the Gallegos intimidation. You at least have intimated that you have 2nd hand knowledge of the situation, but have yet to refute the claims made by one of the parties present.
Posted Monday Apr 6, 2009 12:29 # -
Everyone has been silent as to Gorman's bizzare treatment of Laure Kosey at the last board meeting. Now that he is the President of the village, will someone please have a talk with him and ask him to treat Villagers with respect?
Posted Tuesday Jul 28, 2009 21:10 # -
Why don't you ask her why she needed to request $2K for two soccer goals for little kids to play with, when you can buy them for a lot less. The object of the exercise was to cut down expenses and try to save unnecessary spending. This is about conflicting philosophies. The majority of the village voters asked these guys to exercise fiscal responsibility, and they are trying. Instead of constantly picking at them, why not try and help.
Posted Tuesday Jul 28, 2009 21:49 # -
Don,
She cut over $10K from her budget. When questioned, she stated, as any reasonable person would, that she'd prefer to have the entire $25k budget. Then the President went a little goofy. I think the point is that it is inappropriate for the President to rip into village staff at a public meeting.
The current soccer goals have been used for 8 years. That's a pretty good cost to value ratio. You can get cheaper ones, but you'll replace them more often.
Posted Tuesday Jul 28, 2009 22:05 # -
I have. She told me that if she bought cheaper goals, they wouldn't last very long and that the Village will get sued if a sub-standard goal fell on a child. The soccer program is the Recreation Department's biggest money maker. There are hundreds of kids enrolled (400 - 500 kids!)
Ask the parents of the kid who gets sent to the ER after the cheap, non-regulation goal falls on them how they liked saving a few bucks.
The problem is Mr. Gorman chided her, on TV. You complain about getting yelled at and mistreated by the old board. How hard is it to be respectful even if you disagree?
This is still the honeymoon period, if he can't keep his cool now, we are really in for a rocky road for the budget meetings.
Posted Tuesday Jul 28, 2009 22:12 # -
The goals I saw by googling soccer goals came in all shapes and sizes, grades, etc. Surely there are alternatives. Many people want a Lexus but can't pay for it. I went and looked at the backstop/fence in the Big Ball Park and I think a fair-minded person would think it could be fixed rather than entirely replaced. And not with duct tape. I think the point of Mr.Gorman's frustration was that some people just want to spend what was previously earmarked for their departments, and don't seem interested in trying to really pare things down. Fixing a swing (correctly) can be done. Stretching and fastening chain link is not unusual. All around town we need to look for ways to economize, even if it gores your own ox. Look at the numbers in today's Landmark. Look at where Brookfield is at. We need to work hard at whittling down little things, and forego some bigger things. These people were elected on a platform of trying to do that, and we should help them. Quite honestly, the numbers that are coming in as far as percent of expected revenue we are actually receiving are staggering - and it has nothing to do with our Board. To their credit, expenses are down a bit, but a lot more needs to be done. This situation could continue for a year or two.
Posted Tuesday Jul 28, 2009 23:14 # -
In addition to googling the cost of goals, maybe google how many children have been killed by portable soccer goals. Maybe we don't know all the information as to why Ms. Kosey chose the $2K goals. This website http://anchoredforsafety.org talks about the 35 children who were killed by soccer goals and 53 children seriously injured during the last 20 years by substandard ones. However, the bigger point is that noone deserves to be treated like a "teenage daughter overspending her credit card" in a public meeting. I wasn't there, but you bet I'll be watching the meetings from now on.
Posted Wednesday Jul 29, 2009 07:24 # -
Dom,
I understand that facts are stubborn things, but here they are:
1) The Rec Department cut their budget for park-related capital expenditures in response to the Board's direction to do so.
2) Virtually all the budget items that the Rec department requested are revenue producing--or, more correctly--linked to a revenue producing program.
3) Ms. Kosey did not ask for a $25K budget for capital improvements--she stated that she'd prefer to have it. Obviously, she knew this wasn't possible, as demonstrated by the fact that she cut that budget by $10K.
4) This--an honest statement by a Department head--made Gorman angry and he dressed her down in a public forum.
I don't believe 4) was appropriate. The question I ask is do you?
Posted Wednesday Jul 29, 2009 08:55 # -
I was there. He said he found her statement cavalier. That is an honest plain opinion from the elected village president to a village employee. I see no problem with it. I think this board is trying to bring a scalpel to Rec instead of the hatchet proposed by last year's board. It's not fair to the other department heads for one to engage in special pleading to avoid possible cuts.
I did see a problem with the disrespectful way in which some trustees address others.
I thought when Rec proposed to cut their subsidy in half and become self-sustaining after this year, that the chief item offered up for cutting was the 100K in salary and benefits to the director. So I do not understand what is going on with their budget cutting and self-sustaining initiative. Last month or so, she said they could not stay on track to become self-sustaining because they spent 5 weeks helping with the 4th of July, this help having been offered by this board. A word a bit stronger than cavalier came to mind.
Posted Wednesday Jul 29, 2009 11:21 #
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