Response to Pat foley's Opinion Piece in Georgetown News-Graphic

Attempts at Influence in Georgetown, KY

The article which sparked this response can be found at: http://www.georgetownnews.com/articles/2009/04/26/opinion/doc49f237f637a81074540100.txt

In the article, Georgetown, KY's former City Attorney, Pat Foley, alleges that Georgetown's City Employees, particularly those of the Police and Fire Departments still haven't realized the need for economy in their departmental budgets. The departments have postponed all new big-ticket equipment purchases and resorted to maintenance as opposed to replacement otherwise. Their have been severe, even dangerous, lay-offs. Individual officers and firefighters are now responsible for a larger than ever portion of their insurance costs.

In 2006, Georgetown, KY employed nearly 60 officers, it now fields 37; Georgetown's recommended police strength is 50. In 2006, Georgetown's average officer's experience was 15 years; today it is 5. There is current talk of reducing the city's share of police insurance by 10%, with the officers picking this up. For a third year officer with a spouse and two children, this would result in the officer's insurance costing 34% of his gross pay.

Georgetown's firefighters have suffered similar losses and are also encouraged by Pat Foley to give up more.

Pat Foley is a member of one the larger property owning families in Georgetown. Most of this property is investment property, earning profits for Pat and her family. Pat foley wants to see Georgetown's budget slashed to the point that an increased real property tax will not occur. Interestingly, the real property tax in Georgetown is 1/3 that of the surrounding county and nearby towns. Realistically, the real property tax could be doubled in Georgetown and entirely solve the budget problems while retaining competitiveness in relation to local tax rates.

Pat Foley also became the City Attorney in January, 2007, coming in with a new Mayor. Interestingly, the scandal of the Suffoletta Aquatic Park, mentioned briefly in my response below, was set into motion just as Pat Foley suddenly and unexpectedly left her position with the city in the Summer of 2007, citing the ubiquitous "family issues". The Suffoletta Water Park is the single event that pushed the city's budget woes over the brink. Employment levels, general expenditures, payroll; none of these caused the current deficit. The abuse, fraud, and waste that haunted the water park's planning and construction is the undisputed cause.

And now that I have provided some background, I now provide my response:

Over the course of the past year of my residence here in Georgetown, I have heard many farcical, fallacious, preposterous, and unsound arguments presented in the City Council Chamber and read as many in the pages of the Georgetown News-Graphic.

I find it interesting that the voice calling loudest for the city employees to do their share in alleviating Georgetown’s budget woes is a former city official who left immediately after city budget problems were fixed as a soon to be sure thing.

The city employees are not responsible for the city’s economic turmoil; the city government is; yet this voice calls for accountability where responsibility does not rest. Why does this voice continually call for others to fix problems that seem to be linked to her time as City Attorney?

In Pat Foley’s stated opinions, it seems that she is willing to see small businesses fail, crime rates increase, and the city burn so that she and hers don’t have to pay more in taxes. Pat Foley has continually called for others, usually less well off than her, to make sacrifices in order that she and hers, being large property owners in Georgetown, not have to make sacrifices of their own. Also, her calls for cuts have thus far always focused on the productive rather than the administrative end of city payrolls. Could her aim be to slash city spending to the point where the realistic and very necessary increase in real property taxes not be realized? The pattern of Ms. Foley’s lobbying indicates a real and concerted effort to shift the burden of the city’s financial woes onto narrow groups such as local restaurants and city employees, while ignoring the very real need to distribute the burden as equitably as possible. A doubling of the current real property tax, for city property owners, would cost the average Georgetown homeowner approximately $50-$75 per year, an individual pittance compared to her proposals, but a much more equally distributed burden. Yet this fairer and more agreeable increase would satisfy the city’s increased revenue need in one stroke.

This city cuts its police presence while its gang signs increase. Outside of City Hall, I have not been in a Georgetown public restroom that has not been “tagged” by gang organizations. Now I hear a call for additional cutbacks in the agencies that protect this community. Regarding public safety, payroll has been harmed enough. Do not further endanger this community with further cuts in the police and fire protective services. While the best personnel can and will bring success with less than perfect equipment, the best equipment in the world is meaningless in untrained or unwilling hands. There is absolutely no sane reason for talking about further cuts into protective services’ payrolls. Doing so is tragically irresponsible.

We all know, or should, that the city’s budget problems stem from one singular event: the Suffoletta water park. If the city had not overpaid for that project, there would be no budget crisis. Speaking of the water park; when a $2million project costs $7million it is practically a given that someone received a kickback- the question is who?