Co.OfEeerie....
October 27th, 2003, 03:54 PM
Making the Numbers
Q: Why is the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority like a corporate board of directors?
A Because it cares little what’s going on, as long as the numbers seem to add up.
That’s turning into the weakness of the control board: little concern about what’s actually going on in the city…the school board…
It’s like more than one corporation where the chairman and CEO produced numbers at the board meeting which looked better than the last quarter.No one bothered to ask about any of the underlying conditions like sales or customer service.
Here, Albany’s musketeers just want to see a balanced budget, without worrying whether some of the cuts are a good idea.They also don’t seem to care if the numbers they are approving bear any resemblance to reality, to what’s really going on.
Board Chairman and CPA Tom Baker told one meeting city schools weren’t very good.Obviously a CPA might notice that, based on educational numbers.Then, he shut off that section of his brain noticing school problems and approved further cuts.
Does he really think things will get better, spending even less money?
Maybe the board members should go out and visit schools and see how big the classes are or visit a public housing project and check how well maintained they are or ride along with a police officer and see how pot-holed the city’s streets are and how much business there is for the cop in the patrol car.
Council President James Pitts is on the campaign trail saying that if he becomes city comptroller after Election Day he wants to do more management audits of city operations. That’s nice and probably a good idea, to look at those schools…streets…potholes.
There’s a problem. That’s the shortage of staff in the comptroller’s office and the likelihood it won’t get any better with the staff cuts of the control board.
You can’t do management audits without management auditors.
If city leaders are going to deal with great minds obsessed only with making the numbers, maybe the mayor and the council should just turn in the keys to City Hall and let County Executive Joel Giambra and Buffalo News Editorial Page Editor Jerry Goldberg solve the problems.
Maybe there aren’t any solutions. Maybe the city is beyond salvation. This crew on the control board certainly doesn’t seem interested in figuring it out. They re just there to give the Albany politicians cover, to fulfil the traditional role of state government to push problems and their solutions into the future.
There are a lot of people in the various agencies being watched by the control board who are really good at massaging numbers to cover reality. Look at what turned up when the Council of Great City Schools looked into the fiscal operations of the school board and found no one really knew anything.
It’s probably a good bet that if the same kind of experienced agency looked into the city or the Municipal Housing Authority or the Urban Renewal Agency, that same disconnect might turn up.
Do you think the board of Enron or WorldCom or Sunbeam really cared what was going on in the organization, as long as the numbers looked good and the CPAs said they were all right?
Board members say they plan a very small staff, maybe seven-people. That’s barely enough to run the numbers through a computer and literally see if they add up. That won’t tell if the money is being spent adequately, effectively or efficiently.
Remember, the people who contributed to this mess are the same people in charge of producing numbers which are supposed to represent balanced budgets.
If you are a pol, do you really think that given a choice between cutting a cop, a fire fighter, a teacher OR cutting a political aide needed for the next election, it will be the political aide that goes?
If you are in one of the city agencies and the Giambra people come over and say we can do this same work for much less money and eliminate the need for all of you, that those City Hall people aren’t going to say: Can’t be done?
I don’t want to say a county takeover is an absolute solution, since City Hall might turn into the Downtown equivalent of the Aurora Highway Barn or that list of Giambra payroll appointments of relatives and friends being circulated by the Democrats.At the same time, the control board probably wouldn’t care if the county made a proposal to take over some city operation and every individual assigned to the job carried the last name of Giambra.
The numbers, you know.
The city desperately needs a control board. What it may not need is this control board, run this way. If it is only in existence to bless the numbers and say they are good, city leaders might as well walk over to Bankruptcy Court and turn in the keys. Because this crew is only there for sham and show and to push off decisions some time into the future.
Peyton Randolph
Buffalo.com
Q: Why is the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority like a corporate board of directors?
A Because it cares little what’s going on, as long as the numbers seem to add up.
That’s turning into the weakness of the control board: little concern about what’s actually going on in the city…the school board…
It’s like more than one corporation where the chairman and CEO produced numbers at the board meeting which looked better than the last quarter.No one bothered to ask about any of the underlying conditions like sales or customer service.
Here, Albany’s musketeers just want to see a balanced budget, without worrying whether some of the cuts are a good idea.They also don’t seem to care if the numbers they are approving bear any resemblance to reality, to what’s really going on.
Board Chairman and CPA Tom Baker told one meeting city schools weren’t very good.Obviously a CPA might notice that, based on educational numbers.Then, he shut off that section of his brain noticing school problems and approved further cuts.
Does he really think things will get better, spending even less money?
Maybe the board members should go out and visit schools and see how big the classes are or visit a public housing project and check how well maintained they are or ride along with a police officer and see how pot-holed the city’s streets are and how much business there is for the cop in the patrol car.
Council President James Pitts is on the campaign trail saying that if he becomes city comptroller after Election Day he wants to do more management audits of city operations. That’s nice and probably a good idea, to look at those schools…streets…potholes.
There’s a problem. That’s the shortage of staff in the comptroller’s office and the likelihood it won’t get any better with the staff cuts of the control board.
You can’t do management audits without management auditors.
If city leaders are going to deal with great minds obsessed only with making the numbers, maybe the mayor and the council should just turn in the keys to City Hall and let County Executive Joel Giambra and Buffalo News Editorial Page Editor Jerry Goldberg solve the problems.
Maybe there aren’t any solutions. Maybe the city is beyond salvation. This crew on the control board certainly doesn’t seem interested in figuring it out. They re just there to give the Albany politicians cover, to fulfil the traditional role of state government to push problems and their solutions into the future.
There are a lot of people in the various agencies being watched by the control board who are really good at massaging numbers to cover reality. Look at what turned up when the Council of Great City Schools looked into the fiscal operations of the school board and found no one really knew anything.
It’s probably a good bet that if the same kind of experienced agency looked into the city or the Municipal Housing Authority or the Urban Renewal Agency, that same disconnect might turn up.
Do you think the board of Enron or WorldCom or Sunbeam really cared what was going on in the organization, as long as the numbers looked good and the CPAs said they were all right?
Board members say they plan a very small staff, maybe seven-people. That’s barely enough to run the numbers through a computer and literally see if they add up. That won’t tell if the money is being spent adequately, effectively or efficiently.
Remember, the people who contributed to this mess are the same people in charge of producing numbers which are supposed to represent balanced budgets.
If you are a pol, do you really think that given a choice between cutting a cop, a fire fighter, a teacher OR cutting a political aide needed for the next election, it will be the political aide that goes?
If you are in one of the city agencies and the Giambra people come over and say we can do this same work for much less money and eliminate the need for all of you, that those City Hall people aren’t going to say: Can’t be done?
I don’t want to say a county takeover is an absolute solution, since City Hall might turn into the Downtown equivalent of the Aurora Highway Barn or that list of Giambra payroll appointments of relatives and friends being circulated by the Democrats.At the same time, the control board probably wouldn’t care if the county made a proposal to take over some city operation and every individual assigned to the job carried the last name of Giambra.
The numbers, you know.
The city desperately needs a control board. What it may not need is this control board, run this way. If it is only in existence to bless the numbers and say they are good, city leaders might as well walk over to Bankruptcy Court and turn in the keys. Because this crew is only there for sham and show and to push off decisions some time into the future.
Peyton Randolph
Buffalo.com