Heres the lay of the land with the current status of Albanys budget. - Last night, the Mayors office presented the Council with budget amendments 45 minutes before the 7p start of our meeting. It was not clear then and it is still not clear what exactly the amendments contained, with the exception of retaining our crossing guards. - As a result of the confusion created by the Mayors office, I voted present on the crossing guard amendment because I have virtually no time to review the amendment. - The picture didnt get any clearer as the night went on. There was a Mayors amendment and an amendment sponsored by Finance Chair Frank Commisso that covered a lot of ground and I supported. The Commisso Amendment was, I thought, representative of a consensus on the Council. It turned out that many members were ready to support the Mayors amendment. - Given that there were discrepancies between the Commisso Amendment and the Mayors amendment, there was no way a thoughtful decision could have been made last night. - Chairman Commisso withdrew the ordinance in light of the Mayors budget containing many arithmetic errors and an apparent unwillingness to address those errors. - As a result of the withdrawing of the ordinance, a new ordinance has to be introduced and sufficiently aged to be considered for passage. That means another member (I do not know who) will carry an ordinance to support the Mayors budget as presented. - This new ordinance will be introduced at another special meeting of the Council this Friday. BUT if at least 8 members are not present Friday, business cannot be conducted and the ordinance cannot be introduced. Under the charter, the Mayors budget, as is, would age into law without Council action. - If the ordinance is introduced on Friday, the Council will take it up at our regular meeting on Monday. From there, I have no idea what is going to happen.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 20:12:38 +0000
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