Sister City Program Suspended

The blogging world lost its battle cry against wasteful city government today as Mayor Cohen announced he would spend the remaining $27,500 in the sister city budget to mitigate the deficit in the general budget.

For a long time, former Mayor Moyer denied that the Sister City Program cost the taxpayers any money.  Recently the city admitted to spending money on the program, but I still have not been able to find a line item for the program in the city's budget.  My best guess is that it exists as part of the Boards and Commissions Budget, or as a part of the Mayor's Special Projects Budget.

The old Mayor didn't even acknowledge our financial problem, so Josh's efforts are a step in the right direction.  It remains to be seen if the contractual positions that have been added will be more than balances out by job cuts or monetary savings elsewhere.

Here is the press release:

Annapolis, MD (01-12-10) – As part of his continuing effort to attack the city's financial deficit, Mayor Joshua J. Cohen announced today that he is redirecting the $27,500 remaining in the Sister Cities program to the general fund for the current fiscal year. 

"Now is not the time to be spending $27,500 on the Sister Cities program when we are struggling even to fund essential services," said Mayor Cohen, whose administration is focused on eliminating an estimated $6.5 million budget deficit for FY 2011. 

The Mayor also is convening a group of community stakeholders to review the Sister Cities program and recommend ways to explore public/private partnerships that would provide long-term benefit to the city. 

"A strategically thought-out international exchange program has the potential to add value to our economic development efforts, as well as our educational and cultural institutions within the city," Mayor Cohen said. "It is time to take the Sister Cities program out from under the umbrella of city government and make it a more community-based initiative." 

Individuals who have accepted the Mayor's invitation to review the Sister Cities program and make recommendations include: 

Linnell Bowen, Executive Director, Maryland Hall for the Performing Arts Reginald Broddie, Chief Professional Officer, Boys & Girls Clubs of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Bob Burdon, President and CEO, Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce Connie Del Signore, President and CEO, Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference & Visitors Bureau Kevin Maxwell, Superintendent, Anne Arundel County Public Schools Joe Rubino, Director of Governmental Affairs, U.S. Naval Academy. 

Annapolis first began as a Sister City in 1980, partnering with Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada.  Since then, Annapolis has partnered with many other cities, including Wexford, Ireland; Dumfries, Scotland; Tallin, Estonia; Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Rochefort, France; Richmond, North Yorkshire; and Newport, Wales. 

City Finally Admits Sister City Program Isn't Free

If the Department Of Economic Affairs is the pinnacle of needless government expansion, then the Sister City Program is the definition of misplaced priorities. The city is spending $5052 to teach 3 French students how to sail a 36 foot sailboat, part of the Sister City program with one of our sister cities in France.

The mayor visited France in the summer of 2007, when she went to Europe for 2 months, by boat, and learned about cognac and bicycles.

I have come to expect that money will be spent without regard to the economic circumstance of the city. I'm not surprised and I don't have much more to say about the arrogance and ignorance displayed by the administration. I don't care if it was "scheduled far in advance" or "part of a reciprocal program".

What I'm more interested in is that the city admits to spending money on the program. For a long time, the Mayor claimed that she and Aldermen traveled across the world on their own dime, which nobody believed. It was thought that the 'education and training' budget was tapped for the sister city program.

The article claimed that the trip was funded through the 'Sister City Program', but I could find no such program in the budget. What I did find in the budget was that the Mayor's personnel budget is up by 11%, and the Mayor's "other operating expenditures" were up 29% ($80,000)!!

You may also be interested to know that the Public Information budget is up 86%. The personnel budget for that office is more than $192,000....and there's only 1 full time employee.

Umm...are we being punked?!

Sister Cities

Apparently I was sabotaged by by a cheeky eggnog recipe over the holidays, because I am just now finding this wealth of blogging material posted on the Mayor's official blog. I know that her blog is official because it displays the official seal, and this blog was once reprimanded by the city for displaying the seal in an unofficial manner.

Why the mayor chose to post about that particular topic at that particular time is anyone's guess--perhaps she is buttering the city council up for massive funding of the sister city program in next year's budget.

Much like the PhD economics program at the University of Maryland, to which I was denied admission, the Sister Cities Program apparently has highly exclusive entry standards:

Sister Cities choose each other on the basis of one or more similar
demographic, characteristic, or historical ties and agree by ordinance to
participate.

Can you imagine how easy it must be to find a city with one thing in common with this city? I have to admit, if I was in charge of this program, there would be sister cities in Hawaii, the Virgin Islands (British, of course), St Lucia, Spain, Wisconsin (because I like cheese), and the lost city of Atlantis. And I would visit all the time. Why?:

They look to each other for assistance and advice on matters including
governance, healthcare, housing, and just about anything else facing a city
today.

We must be very well assisted and advised, because the Mayor's blog reports that we have 15 sister cities. This is double the 8 sister cities that I could find!

The mayor called the program "cultural mentoring", sharpening her keen command of misleading phrases.

"I believe that participating in these types of programs are the only way to appear more worldly, and convince foreigners that we are not racist", the mayor failed to say.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Mayor wishes to use the sister city program to strengthen its ties to its fifteen global partners.

Annapolis will continue to strengthen its ties to its fifteen global partners
through mutual visits, events, and exchanges of ideas and information. Through
these bonds Annapolis will further its Sister City mission of creating a force
for international cooperation and understanding through community involvement
and people-to-people relationships.

The sister city program is being administered with the zeal that should be applied to fighting crime. WHO CARES about sister cites, other than the people we pay to visit these places? Nobody will ever convince me that sister cities have provided us a solution to a city problem that we could not have found on our own. Heck, the highly read pages of this expert blog provide solutions all the time! Having one or two sister cites would be fine, even cute. But fifteen? With plans for more on the way? And continual time being spent by our city staff to travel across the world?

I am unpersuaded.

Public Bickering Continues

Mayor Moyer has been somewhat famously uncooperative when it comes to collaboration with other local jurisdictions. While we have have sister cities in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Estonia, Canada, and Brazil-- and a soon to be sister city in England--we have seen little cooperation with the county that surrounds us. Transportation, police, and fire are departments that could easily enjoy economies of scale savings, were they to be combined or partially merged.

Further complicating things, the Mayor is quite happy to nurture or destroy relationships by issuing press releases, although to be fair, she is not the only one that does this.

Most recently, the Mayor has been unsuccessful even to work with a quasi-governmental organization within the city limits: HACA. The Housing Authority's director, Eric Brown, perceived that he had no recourse but to debate the mayor publicly, and offered a rebuttal in a letter to The Capital:

In a recent radio address as well as a letter to the editor, the mayor
indicated that there is a disagreement between herself and the Housing Authority
and that I, as its executive director, declined to attend a meeting on public
safety.

I do not know the source of the disagreement she referred to. But on
1 p.m. on Sept. 11, at the mayor's request, I met with the city attorney and the
chief of the Annapolis Police Department.

The meeting ended when the attendees agreed that there was no clarity as to
what was to be accomplished. It was further agreed that the city
attorney would take responsibility for consulting with the mayor and getting
clarity on what she expected the three of us to accomplish.

I have repeatedly attempted to get the mayor to chair a meeting of myself,
the police chief and the city attorney. Since July, I have asked the mayor to put aside whatever animosities and disagreements she believes exist between the Housing Authority and the city and chart a new direction based on cooperation and dialogue.

To date, she has refused to convene such a meeting. The mayor is
missing a great opportunity to show true leadership and crate bold new
initiatives that we all can get behind and support.

It's not in my general nature to engage in communication with others
through the media. But recent statements by the mayor grossly
misrepresented facts about me and the Housing Authority and should no longer go
unchallenged.

I will continue to reach out to the mayor and truly hope that we can find
common ground. It is in the best interest of all to do so.

As we see more examples of the Mayor's leadership style, there seems to be little cause for optimism. The mayor seems to be aloof or disinterested in tangible improvements to city life, yet shrewdly calculating in her image and perception of political performance. Hopefully we won't have to wait until 2009 to witness the reverse.

Legislative City Council Meeting Tonight.....

...At 7:30 pm.

For the entire agenda, click here.

There are a couple of votes that interest me:

-A bill amending the protocol for replacing department directors.
-An ordinance to allow swimming in the city dock waters, which apparently, and curiously, has not been passed even though the triathlon already happened.
-A change in zoning to move something from ward 7 to ward 5.
-Waving fees for the Harry Potter festival. Seriously.

There are also a lot of bills on first reader that I am very interested in reading, and some of things they propose to do include:

-lease the city dock to a non-profit company apparently running some type of bicycle race--triathlon style but this time for a whole week
-have stiffer fines for littering
-limiting non-resident parking in certain districts
-specifying a lease for the open air market that I posted about 2 days ago
-formally praise John Patmore, who ironically was fired by the mayor and not yet replaced as far as I know
-recognize ANOTHER sister city

Looks like yours truly will be burning the midnight oil tonight. It's a good thing Mrs. Politics approves all of this.