The City Manager Requests Another $9,000,000 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 on Top of the $8,000,000 Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Budget Increase Taxpayers Saw Last Year.
We review the Portsmouth FY2024 Budget in Four Parts.
By Buck Fuller
Part II
We divide this discussion into two parts. The first covers Information Technology and the City Manager’s department. Part III will cover Legal and Community Campus.
The Big Ones
Here are the prime examples of these poor budget decisions:
Information Technology
With little doubt, the real expansion of City staff and expenses are in Information Technology as can be seen on Page 213. This line item alone is up 56% over FY2023 to $1.9 million. There are two new full-time equivalent positions (FTE) requested.
Remarkably, the budget for “Contracted Services,” otherwise known as consultants, is also set to more than double. The request of $211,000 in FY2023 is now a request of $540,440 in FY2024. It’s not enough to hire qualified tech people. The two consultants will also be expected to train these new hires.
Rest assured, the City is getting top-ranked consultants, too. These are designated Tier 3. Only they will be able to sort out the City mess once called technology. We’re warned by the City’s new Chief Information Officer that it will take 3 to 4 years (YEARS!) to sort out the Gordian knot called finance to implement a new City finance system.
But don’t expect that Police or the Fire Department will interface with the City’s Finance Department. Maybe some time in the distant future.
City Manager
The City Manager needs some love, too. A few years ago, her office had three FTEs. There are now five FTEs with the addition of the Assistant City Manager for Communication. That’s about $530,000 of “love” from the taxpayer. Of course, this undercounts her direct reports. There is also the Assistant City Manager for Economic Development, who has his own department with all its overhead charges.
Perhaps they could combine and cut a few of the overhead expenses, aka “Other Operating”?
Here’s the City Manager’s Summary of Expenses:
Perhaps this could be justified if the City Manager has successfully negotiated the McIntyre deal with Michael Kane. But on reading Mr. Kane’s public release of his records, one comes away seeing that the City Manager was completely in over her head and was played to the detriment of the City’s interests. This is how public servants get rewarded: grow your cost center.
That’s the end of Part II. Part III follows, discussing Legal and Community Campus, two other areas showing large increases in expenses.
