urbanSTL

Well then this should have really been like a $450m-500m bond issue and we could have gotten something worth voting for instead of this snooze fest

dbInSouthCity wrote:Well then this should have really been like a $450m-500m bond issue and we could have gotten something worth voting for instead of this snooze fest

In this case, unlike the sales tax, passing the projects are all still positive even if they don't accomplish everything, and this bond doesn't put any limitations (either by law or in practicality) on getting to some of the other things a bit down the line.

ward24 wrote:Correct, the estimated cost of cleaning and sealing the City Hall exterior is $30 million. However, its not in the bond issue. The document online includes everything that was considered to be included so far. That $30 million line item was considered but it didn't make the cut. (I suppose it could be less after it was bid, but there's been some investigation and the price will be really high)

Scott Ogilvie
24th Ward Alderman

Thanks for the clarification, Scott.

Which project are they talking about?

KMOX - Board of Alderman President Warns of Sweetheart Deal for Developer

Aldermanic President Lewis Reed says he wants McKee to succeed in his Northside Regeneration project, but including an extra $29 million for McKee in a general obligation bond on the November ballot could turn off voters.

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/06/23/ ... developer/

Has McKee used any of his own money yet?

What is in the proposed bond issue projects that would be for NorthSide?

St. Louis looking at possible bond issue for $195 million in infrastructure upgrades

The aldermanic committee's support is far from certain. In recent days, some aldermen and residents have voiced concern that the bond issue, which would come in the form of a real estate tax increase, could pump additional millions into developer Paul McKee's NorthSide regeneration project.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt ... 3293b.html

I find this more bothersome than fixing up Jefferson and Cass

Paul Hohmann ‏@VanishingSTL

Extremely disappointed @MayorSlay pulled stabilization & home repair bond $$!! This says sustaining existing neighborhoods isn't a priority!

This thing has turned into a joke...no actual lists, just categories. Better way to funds things like this is to reduce city staff. I think the city has 6500 employees. 1 per 49 residents. City keeps a lot of people working just so that they are working. Example; plan exam section has 4 senior plan examiners...one sits in the hot spot over at the building permit room, 3 others sit at zoning....one plays cards on computer most of the day, other reads history books and the 3rd gets pissed off when he has to help a person that walks in for a review....zoning and plan exam have 9 workers and 3 full time secretaries....there is a board of adjustment secretary, conditional use hearing secretary, board of something else secretary...all can be done by one of them.....anyway, I think the city can cut its workforce by 1500 people easily, MoDOT did it, they had 6500 in 2011 and 5100 today. If the city cut it's workforce by 1500 It would free up about $800-million to $1.2billion over 10 years

dbInSouthCity wrote:This thing has turned into a joke...no actual lists, just categories. Better way to funds things like this is to reduce city staff. I think the city has 6500 employees. 1 per 49 residents. City keeps a lot of people working just so that they are working. Example; plan exam section has 4 senior plan examiners...one sits in the hot spot over at the building permit room, 3 others sit at zoning....one plays cards on computer most of the day, other reads history books and the 3rd gets pissed off when he has to help a person that walks in for a review....zoning and plan exam have 9 workers and 3 full time secretaries....there is a board of adjustment secretary, conditional use hearing secretary, board of something else secretary...all can be done by one of them.....anyway, I think the city can cut its workforce by 1500 people easily, MoDOT did it, they had 6500 in 2011 and 5100 today. If the city cut it's workforce by 1500 It would free up about $800-million to $1.2billion over 10 years

Intresting and we can use the savings for a lot of things like a streetcar lines , or more police

dbInSouthCity wrote:This thing has turned into a joke...no actual lists, just categories. Better way to funds things like this is to reduce city staff. I think the city has 6500 employees. 1 per 49 residents. City keeps a lot of people working just so that they are working. Example; plan exam section has 4 senior plan examiners...one sits in the hot spot over at the building permit room, 3 others sit at zoning....one plays cards on computer most of the day, other reads history books and the 3rd gets pissed off when he has to help a person that walks in for a review....zoning and plan exam have 9 workers and 3 full time secretaries....there is a board of adjustment secretary, conditional use hearing secretary, board of something else secretary...all can be done by one of them.....anyway, I think the city can cut its workforce by 1500 people easily, MoDOT did it, they had 6500 in 2011 and 5100 today. If the city cut it's workforce by 1500 It would free up about $800-million to $1.2billion over 10 years

You are exactly right and everyone knows it but nobody will do anything about it.

Bureaucracy exists only to enlarge itself. I believe our very own William Burroughs said that (if he only knew how unhip it would be to say that nowadays! He liked guns too!). The madness of bureaucracy has always been a great source of black comedy, humor and absurdity for writers. Too bad it's not very funny in real life.
That's a shitload of money that could be put towards city projects and a few more cops or, you know, things that could actually make this place better.

Everyone knows that many of these city jobs are glorified welfare programs or "patronage".

I will gladly acknowledge that there are people who work for the city who do a great, important job.

Now, Is there ANYONE who is reading this who thinks we don't have a major problem when we have 1 employee on the city payroll for every 49 residents but we can't afford one more cop in a city such as this?

It's absolutely insane.

Pretty sure the final list for A7 that will be approved next week will have full project description and $ amount for each project

How has the city's payroll numbers look like over time? What's the ratio of city employees to residents like in other cities in the area and in other metros? Better Together showed that we're spending way more per capita for local government than Indianapolis and Louisville. This definitely needs to be looked at more closely.

Whatever happened with reforming the firefighter pension and disability? The disability benefits were incredible. If you could no longer do exactly the job you were doing, you would get full disability. A sane policy would be to explore whether you could do another job for the fire department or even somewhere else in city government. While on disability, one could work up to a certain $ limit and then rarely would anyone check whether you had gone over that limit.

I may have known this back when this first came up, but now I feel like a novice...

What will we be voting for on this bond issue? Are we raising a tax to float it or what?

^property tax

Thanks to both of you.

Property tax makes a ton of sense to me. Those who can afford to own nicer things pay more. Those who benefit from any improvements eventually pay a bit more.

I'm sure there's an opposition perspective to that, but I like it.

It's been put off till next year...
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt ... c9463.html

If home repair and demo funds are an issue, I'd like to see more Great Streets type projects added.

its dead. no action taken