Why We Call her DebFEE

Submitted by rmill on Mon, 09/15/2008 - 19:32.

Why do we call her
DebFEE Sutherland?

While she has taken to criticizing the County Commissioners and how they run the government, she has some work to do in her own town. You would think in an affluent Westside suburb like Bay Village there would be little to worry about. Not so under the management of DebFEE Sutherland.

 

With a budget of $24 M and a city of 14,736 people, DebFEE has a $2 M hole. Now she complains that the county has too many employees and should cut 600 employees and eliminate the .25% sales tax for MedMart or some other .25%sales tax (still not sure which one it is this week) to fix the county budget gap. Does DebFEE suggest doing the same in Bay? No. Her own website says she oversees 140 employees (Doing some quick math shows her per capita employees in Bay is higher than Cuyahoga County), and some of the part-time summer help may be relatives or friends but instead she settled on raising FEES! And fees on what services you might ask? Seniors, kids, and public safety. And best of all, there is no vote of the people.

Fee increases, hiring freeze in proposed
budget
By Jeff Gallatin
Bay Village
Published Jan. 16, 2008

City
administration officials are looking at an increase in several user and service
fees and a municipal hiring freeze as ways of balancing the budget.

Mayor Debbie Sutherland’s budget proposes increasing the sewer rates, charging for ambulance runs, and utilizing user fees in different areas of the city such as some senior services and recreation programs. In addition, the proposal would also put a hiring freeze into effect and make some positions in the city go
from full to part time.

http://www.westlifenews.com/2008/01-16/baybudget.html

So DebFEE Sutherlands idea of “leadership” is to jeopardize public safety and fix her budget on the backs of seniors and kids. Oh yeah, she also tacked on fees for the sewers too. I hear that went over real well with homeowners in Bay.

 

One comment on Cleveland.com said they never has budget problems or fee increases before DebFEE Sutherland. They are hoping she wins just to get her out of Bay.

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Incompetence

Submitted by lmcshane on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 10:02.

Wow--and I thought incompetent local representation only applied to the City of Cleveland.  Welcome to RealNEO :)
BTW, if any of you personally know PLJ, can you get him to drop this site?

This election will not address the reality that local government is incomprehensible by design and the effort to restructure local government has gone nowhere.

I know that I am not alone in not understanding how our tax dollars are spent. So, I would rate almost every local politician an F on communication.

How hard is it to provide an annual statement in a simple balance sheet?

Budget info not hard to find

Submitted by rmill on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 19:15.

http://obm.cuyahogacounty.us/

 

I agree I have no idea what that other site is trying to accomplish. 

 

I like you

Submitted by lmcshane on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 07:08.

  (I get tired of digging through piles of garbage by myself :) 

This is a good find--I will read through it and get back to you, but the miscellaneous column on page 13 popped out--$105,570,136. 

Does the City of Cleveland fall under that category?  :(

Explanation further back in document

Submitted by rmill on Thu, 09/18/2008 - 20:01.

The short answer-

Miscellaneous expenditures consist of those mandated by Ohio Revised Code, expenditures voluntarily incurred by the county for the betterment of the community, and other obligations. Also, refl ected are the expenses associated with the employee hospitalization self-insurance program. Budget at $105.6 million, miscellaneous makes up 7% of the county’s overall budget.

Reading the entire budget document will yield more specific answers.  One big one is the $40 M subsidy to MetroHealth I believe.