During the public comment portion of the Portsmouth City Council meeting on February 18, Zoning Board of Adjustment member emeritus Jim Lee suggested that Portsmouth create a new board to be known as the “Portsmouth Office of Government Efficiency”. He suggested this board be comprised of “people from the outside” that are not city employees or City Councilors and be tasked to make recommendations that maximize efficiency in city hall operations. See his public comment at 18 minutes and 20 seconds in the video below:
He provided an example a current inefficient City Hall practice, namely, its use of the “1-sided” printing option for City Council meeting agendas. By not using the recently invented 2-sided printing option, not only are taxpayers’ dollars being wasted, it’s also an insult to Portsmouth’s 2007 self-identified “Eco-Municipality” designation.
“Watch the pennies, and the pounds* take care of themselves” is an axiom often attributed to Poor Richard’s Almanac printed by Benjamin Franklin during the American colonial period. (* note: pounds were the British unit of currency in the colonial America before the United States was formed in 1776.) Not as well-known is the corollary of this statement, namely, “If pennies are being frivolously wasted, can you imagine how many bennies* are being blown?”. (* note: bennies are a slang term for $100 dollar bills, as Benjamin Franklin’s portrait is on the bill.)
As Mr. Lee announced, states and municipalities across the nation are forming similar committees, including the State of New Hampshire. On January 9, 2025, the day she was sworn in, Governor Kelly Ayotte signed her first executive order creating the Commission on Government Efficiency, or COGE. See links below
Ayotte Creates Commission on Government Efficiency in First Executive Order | Governor Kelly Ayotte
Hopefully, Portsmouth can avoid engaging in the partisan nonsense going on in Washington, DC and agree that the efficient use of taxpayer’s dollars is not a right or left issue, it’s just plain common sense. Is anyone in favor of government waste and inefficiency?
With last year’s crippling residential property tax increase and this year’s proposed City Hall budget increase that’s shamelessly twice the rate of inflation ($144.9 million to $153.7 million), let’s hope the Portsmouth City Council will finally stand up to the big spenders in City Hall, show some fiscal sympathy for the beleaguered Portsmouth taxpayer it supposed to represent, and acts on Mr. Lee’s sage and timely suggestion.
