Grumpy old men like me now make up a larger share of the population than at any other time in our history; so I’m inclined to believe there is more carping against government (and just about everything else) than I saw or heard in the past.  The combination of cranky old timers and an explosion of media where they can express their feelings have given rise to a surplus of negative energy that could reduce our reliance on foreign oil if only we could find some positive outlets for the disaffected with too much time on their hands.  My recommendation would be to require anyone who makes a public complaint to run for public office in the next election.  Almost no one runs for Precinct Committee positions; so this requirement may not be as intimidating as it seems.  I know of many people, including me, who changed their point of view after learning more about democratic local government and how it works.

I majored in skiing at Central Oregon Community College, but I also took some political science courses my freshman year that caused me to question some of the actions of the Deschutes County Commission.  My father apparently got tired of my complaints and suggested I run for the Commission if I was so sure they were doing the wrong things.  I guess I wasn’t a shy 19-year-old because I took my father’s suggestion and filed to be a candidate in the May 1972 Primary Election.

I was probably fortunate to finish third in a five-way race for my party’s nomination, although I did earn the local newspaper’s endorsement and two members of my campaign committee went on to be elected mayor of Bend, with one eventually chairing the Deschutes County Commission.  My treasurer was a friend’s mother and my campaign manager was my college speech professor.  I think my sole contribution to the politics of Central Oregon was to help kindle or reignite the interest in local government of two people who went on to become outstanding leaders.

My father’s suggestion and his subsequent support, along with the contributions of my friends, taught me an important lesson that has helped me throughout my life.  I learned from them that if you don’t like the way things are, you should take positive action to change them.  I didn’t win my first election, but I did contribute to making things better in a way I never imagined.

I ran on a platform favoring home rule for the county and advocating for a regional wastewater treatment system.  My interest in sewage goes back more than 40 years.  I think the voters recognized that while I may have had some good ideas, I probably lacked the skills and experience to make them happen.  The election loss allowed me to go back to college and acquire the tools I needed to eventually find a career in local government.  I also learned that the issues confronted by local government are not as simple as they might seem, when all you are doing is thinking of clever ways to be critical.

I know we really can’t require people to run for public office, and I’m glad that many of those who complain aren’t interested in doing so.  To paraphrase Milton, they also serve who only stand and gripe, and there is much to be learned from the complaints of citizens.  I believe there is much more to be gained, however, from those who find ways to make positive contributions to their community.

I think most city managers would agree with Mark Twain’s observation that, “The lack of money is the root of all evil.”  Constrained resources mean fewer people to deliver services which leads to more complaints and demands for service.  This unvirtuous cycle typically produces conflict, instability, and a tendency to place blame on the city manager.

Fortunately, the City of Albany’s financial condition remains relatively strong in 2012, despite the need to reduce personnel and continue austerity measures that have been in place for the past four years.  The City has placed a high priority on reducing personnel costs that represent the greatest inflationary factor in the budget, yet are the hardest expenses to control. 

Albany has reduced the number of budgeted positions from more than 428 in 2009 to less than 383 in the proposed budget; a decline of more than 10.5 percent in four years.  During this period, Albany’s population increased by 3.5 percent.  Last year’s budget funded 398.5 employees.  The cuts have been distributed throughout the organization and include a director’s position, supervisors, and line employees. 

The price of these reductions is a gradual decline in the scope and quality of some services.  Fire safety inspections, for example, have fallen well behind recommended schedules; and traffic enforcement is substantially lower than it was just a few years ago.  Some services, such as building inspection, have seen reduced demand that corresponds to staff reductions; so there has been little visible impact on the public.

Oregon Revised Statute 294.403 requires a budget message to:

(1) Explain the budget document;

(2) Contain a brief description of the proposed financial policies of the municipal corporation for the ensuing year or ensuing budget period;

(3) Describe in connection with the financial policies of the municipal corporation, the important features of the budget document;

(4) Set forth the reason for salient changes from the previous year or budget period in appropriation and revenue items;

(5) Explain the major changes in financial policy; and

(6) Set forth any change contemplated in the municipal corporation’s basis of accounting and explain the reasons for the change and the effect of the change on the operations of the municipal corporation.

Albany’s budget document is prepared in accordance with standards established by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) to receive their Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.  Last year’s product contained 464 pages of summary, explanation, tables, graphs, and pictures.  The 2013 document is of similar length and quality.  The strength of Albany’s budget document is the comprehensive information it provides about the City’s finances; however, that is also its greatest weakness.  The document contains so much information it is difficult for most citizens to access and understand.  The Executive Summary and User’s Guide are perhaps the best places to start to understand the document and the information it contains.  City staff welcomes the opportunity to answer questions about the budget, and the City’s website also contains comprehensive financial information.

More than 16 pages of the City’s financial policies are included in the budget, and most require no further explanation in the Budget Message.  The most important policy, in my opinion, requires the City to recognize the balance between revenue and expenses by maintaining reserves, conservatively estimating revenues, controlling expenses, and doing both internal and external audits of financial records.  The proposed budget maintains this commitment, although it becomes increasingly difficult to balance the budget as revenues decline and expenses increase.

Any salient changes from the previous budget year can be explained as responses to reductions in revenue and increases in expenses or attempts to gain efficiencies by reorganizing personnel.  The latter is particularly true in the Public Works Department where substantial savings will be realized by eliminating several supervisory positions.  Eliminating funding for the Community Development Department Director is an example of an extraordinary measure to avoid layoffs of line employees.

There are no changes proposed in the City’s financial policies or basis of accounting for FY 2013.  The City strongly supports best practices that include an award-winning website that features detailed financial information, an annual independent audit reviewed by an audit committee composed of policy makers, strong internal controls, and conformance with GFOA reporting standards.

“For the love of money is the root of all evil,” according to 1st Timothy 6:10 in the New Testament; and whether one subscribes to the admonition of Paul or the wit of Mark Twain, cities require resources to deliver services.  The proposed FY 2013 City of Albany Budget will maintain something close to existing service levels in most departments; but if additional cuts are necessary in the future, service reductions will follow.

Our nation and state face serious challenges in the form of financing critical public services in the years ahead.  Many local governments are cutting or eliminating services at the same time that states are reducing budgets.  The problem is caused by two principal factors:  1) reduced tax revenue and 2) rapidly increasing personnel costs. 

Oregon local governments have traditionally relied on property taxes to support services that do not generate sufficient revenue to cover their costs.  Police, fire protection, libraries, planning, and parks are usually the services that require a tax subsidy, unlike water, sewer, building inspection, some courts, ambulance, and recreation programs that often pay for themselves.  The rapid decline in property values over the past six years, coupled with Oregon’s unique property tax limitations, means that there is no longer sufficient revenue to support past levels of property tax dependent services.  Communities have a number of options to increase local government income, but most are reluctant to try when unemployment is high and private sector wages are flat or declining.

The problem would be less acute if local governments had greater flexibility to reduce personnel costs without cutting the number of employees.  Salary, health insurance, and pension costs have been rising at a much faster rate than revenue in recent years, forcing local governments to lay off, furlough, or otherwise reduce the number of hours worked by their employees.  Cutting pay and benefits is usually not an option when employees are represented by bargaining units subject to binding arbitration, and most public employers seek to avoid the damage caused by strikes of other represented workers.

Some studies suggest that public employees are paid less than their counterparts in the private sector while others contend that when benefits are included, government workers fare better.  Regardless of individual opinions on the matter, there are relatively fewer public employees now than there were in the past and there is no sign this trend will change in the next decade.  According to the nonpartisan congressional research service,

“From 1955 to 2010, employment in the private sector increased by 64.1 million jobs (from 43.7 million to 107.8 million), while the number of jobs in the public sector (including federal, state, and local governments) grew by 15.5 million (from 7.0 million to 22.5 million). Since 1975, however, the percentage of all jobs that are in the public sector has fallen from 19.2% to 17.3%.”

Oregon counties and some cities have been greatly affected by layoffs in recent months, with significant staff reductions announced in Lane, Curry, Linn, and Josephine Counties to name a few; plus dramatic cuts in Oakridge, Molalla, Eugene, Salem, Corvallis, Portland, and many other cities around the state.  Albany has reduced its budgeted workforce from more than 428 workers in 2009 to less than 383 in the coming fiscal year.

Policy makers and administrators are struggling to maintain some balance between the need to cut expenses while supporting important services.  The dilemma is aggravated by laws and rules that restrict the use of certain revenues to specific purposes.  Lodging taxes, for example, must be used largely for tourism promotion; and gas taxes can only be spent on streets and roads.  Urban renewal or tax increment financing has become controversial in some areas because it is perceived by some to be taking revenue away from other services.  Oregon’s public finance system (if it can even be called that) has become so encumbered by constitutional limitations and statutes grafted on to a 19^th Century property tax plan that the vast majority of citizens no longer understand it.

Misunderstanding and confusion often lead to the kind of anger evident in so much of the discussion about what is happening in our cities, counties, states, and nation.  Many people believe we can make things better by reducing the size of government while others focus on the need to improve the quality of our services.  Regardless of how people might feel, local government is getting smaller every day and the challenges of maintaining, let alone improving, service quality are correspondingly greater.

Summary of Last Two Weeks’ Headlines Illustrating Local Government Budget Problems throughout the Nation:

Facing $18 Million Deficit, Sacramento Set To Slash City’s Public Safety Workforce

Twentynine Palms, California, In Jeopardy Of Losing Fire Department Due To Funding

Detroit Plans To Eliminate $250 Million From Budget, Cut 2,500 Jobs

Suffolk County, New York, To Lay Off 315 Employees

Florida’s Glynn County Contemplates 35 Percent Property Tax Hike To Cover Budget Shortfall

Declining Property Values In Metro Atlanta Continue To Burden Government Budgets

Budget cuts get personal at hearing

  By Bennett Hall, Corvallis Gazette-Times gazettetimes.com | Posted: Thursday, April 26, 2012 6:45 am | (6) Comments  Public pleads with city leaders to spare favorite programs

Fire Station 5 faces budget ax

City of Salem announces closure of two fire stations

Stayton police cut records position

2:27 PM, Apr. 24, 2012

Comments

More

As economic pressures continue to dog the city of Stayton’s budget, the squeeze is being felt at the Stayton Police Department.

Oregon’s small towns need to be proactive in addressing financial problems

Fire, rescue districts seek funds

LANE COUNTY – Death and taxes – Budget cuts may eliminate medical examiners and the morgue

Reduced Accounting Staff Led To Lack Of Fiscal Oversight In Florida’s Broward County

On Course For $30 Million Deficit, Birmingham, Alabama, Approves $3 Million In Spending

Unable To Raise Taxes, Jefferson County, Alabama, Plans Massive Cuts To Exit Bankruptcy

Department directors and I had a long discussion Wednesday about morale within the organization.  The consensus opinion seemed to be that morale was reasonably good considering that cutbacks and concerns about job security have been a common theme in recent years.   We also acknowledged that morale is something that changes frequently in response to events.

I know my morale is better when my health is good, my family is doing well, and I get the opportunity to do satisfying things.  Like everyone else, I have bad days at work; but my attitude toward my job remains positive because I continue to believe I’m making a contribution.  I hope all City of Albany employees have the opportunity to feel the same way.

I continue to believe the City is a great employer that provides better compensation and working conditions than any other organization where I’ve worked.  Nearly all of my employers over the past 40 years have treated me fairly and helped me accomplish the goals I set when I took the job, although I have never worked in a place where there were no complaints.

I once spent two months working as a journalist on a Canadian destroyer in the North Sea, where I had a great opportunity to see how quickly morale can turn.  I joined the ship in Stavanger, Norway, after a series of flights from my home in Virginia.  The 36-hour trip left me exhausted, and then I had to hike about a mile carrying a heavy suitcase from the center of town to the pier where the ship was docked.  I remember walking up the gangway, saluting the officer on deck, and stumbling over to the side to be sick.  I made a great first impression.  Despite my bad beginning, I soon settled into shipboard life and was generally accepted as a friend by the Canadian sailors. 

We had been at sea for about two weeks when I began to notice some bad feelings among my shipmates.  The weather was bad, the sea was rough, and most of the sailors had been away from home for an extended deployment.  Grumbling seemed to increase daily, and there were some incidents involving alcohol that culminated with one sailor diving through a hatch and seriously injuring himself when he landed two decks below.  Rumors were circulating that ship would be at sea for an additional month when I innocently walked into a crew meeting one afternoon and heard one happy soul yell, “Get the #$#@ Yank out of here.”  Morale seemed to be deteriorating to my detriment.

The captain of the ship was a distant figure to me, although I probably had more contact with him than most enlisted people because I was assigned as a staff person to the squadron commodore.  He gained my enduring respect when he called his crew together on the helicopter pad of the ship and gave a brief talk that had an immediate impact on morale.  He told the assembled sailors that the ship would be docking in Copenhagen within the next three days and that there would be extended shore leave for all hands while we were there.  The captain then explained that the ship would be headed home to Canada where they would be recognized for a number of outstanding accomplishments during their deployment.  The substance of the speech was that the bad times were over and the good times were about to roll.  I don’t recall a single complaint during my remaining two weeks on the ship.

The lesson I learned from this experience was that uncertainty and misinformation are the enemies of good morale.  Conditions on the night after the captain’s speech were no better than they were the night before, but everyone knew they would be changing soon.  I doubt the captain could have made his speech any sooner because he probably didn’t know what his orders would be. 

Like the sailors on the HMCS Huron, we have been on a difficult voyage over the past four years that has included constrained resources, some layoffs, and a heavier workload for many.  Our consolation is that our compensation has remained relatively constant and nearly all of our staff reductions have been through attrition.  We have avoided furloughs and other schedule adjustments that are now common in cities throughout the country.  Unlike the Huron’s captain, I can’t say when our course will change.  I can only say that I remain committed to preserving services and the jobs that make them possible, as well as to providing citizens and employees with the best information available regarding our financial condition.  I am optimistic about the future, and I am happy to explain why to anyone who may have questions.

I want people to know for the record that I did write a column last week.  I tried to write about a sensitive issue (child pornography) and was told by my team of reviewers that I probably shouldn’t publish it.  I think this is the first time in nearly seven years that an entire column has been rejected by my censors. 

Writing a weekly blog or column carries some risk for a city manager; so I always ask Laura Hyde, Marilyn Smith, and Diana Eilers to check it out for me to make sure I’m not offending someone, writing poorly, or passing along incorrect information.  David Shaw, Bob Woods, and Stewart Taylor also provide advice when I’m writing about something they know more about than I do.

I still manage to occasionally offend someone with my writing, although I’m sure the aggrieved number would be much higher without the honest commentary I receive from colleagues.  I have no problem writing about controversial subjects or occasionally offering an opinion on a difficult subject.  I would prefer, however, not to gratuitously anger readers who may already be cranky about something I’ve said or done.

I feel very fortunate to have coworkers who are willing to criticize my work when it deserves it and praise it on those occasions when it has been earned.  You know you have earned someone’s trust when they can be critical of you when the need arises.  I’m also grateful that the need doesn’t occur too often.

I received a copy of the following e-mail sent this week to Mike Murzynsky in Finance from Tari Hayes with the Community Development Department:

“Mike,

Here’s the story in the Oregonian we were talking about this morning. Can I just say thank you again for all the auditing and good work you do? I was telling a tax payer upset about this story last night that I am confident we are in good hands.

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2012/04/with_lax_oversight_mismanaged.html”

The story Tari referred to is about financial problems with the Cities of Molalla and Oakridge, and I would encourage people to read the article.  I am very familiar with events in Oakridge because a close friend is serving as the interim administrator there, and I hear from him nearly every day.  There are many lessons to be learned from these two cities, but perhaps the most important to me is a point contained in Tari’s message and the example of how my column is reviewed.  Making a city or any other organization work requires contributions from many different sources.  Oakridge’s problems (and Molalla’s, I suspect) could and should have been identified by a number of people before they became a crisis.  They weren’t, in part, because too few people were actively involved in keeping track of the city’s finances.

We are most fortunate to have people like Mike and Anne Baker serving as city accountants, but we are equally fortunate to have competent people like Tari throughout the organization who are not shy about recognizing issues and raising questions when there is a reason to do so.  Albany has also made a commitment to involving our citizens in their government by making our financial information available to everyone online.  I recently saw a blog post from one of our most persistent citizen critics where he cited information made available through our Dashboard.  He may not appreciate that ours is one of the very few communities in the world where this information is readily accessible to anyone who wants to see it, but the fact that he was using it to criticize the City is encouraging to me.

Groupthink should never be mistaken for teamwork.  Good teams try to involve as many people as possible in calling out their problems as well as recognizing their accomplishments.  That’s why there was no column last week and our financial condition is healthy in comparison to many cities around the country.

I was walking down the hall this afternoon, and as I passed by Linda Lamer’s cubicle I noticed she was using a picture of Keukenhof as her screensaver.  (I should note for the record that I stopped using my dead beaver screensaver some years ago.)  Keukenhof is a flower park in The Netherlands that is usually open from late March through May, and it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

My first visits there were as a child in the 1960s, and the place impressed my sister and me so much that we made sure to take our spouses there when we visited our childhood home in 2007.  I am not a gardener, and I don’t think I have any greater appreciation for flowers than the average male; but I would never miss a chance to visit Keukenhof.

Linda’s screensaver reminded me of the importance of beauty in our lives and how easy it is to forget the role that it plays.  We are extraordinarily blessed in Oregon to have relatively easy access to some of the most beautiful places on the planet, although I often fail to take advantage of opportunities to go see them.  Like Keukenhof, Crater Lake never fails to impress, inspire, and instill a sense of wonder through its colors and visual impact.  I like climbing mountains because the views from most of them give me something I can’t adequately explain.  I only know that “something” is worth a lot of physical pain that only seems to increase as I grow older.

Beauty is important to cities, too.  We truly cannot afford to live in places where there is no relief from a built environment that pays no tribute to the human need for beauty.  Albany has recognized this need for many years as we’ve built our park system and preserved historic neighborhoods.  The flower plantings on Highway 99, the renovated train station, Talking Water Gardens, the carousel project, and many of the recent downtown improvements are additional examples of the community’s commitment to be both more functional and more beautiful.

Aesthetics may seem frivolous when dollars are tight, despite strong evidence to the contrary.  Keukenhof has attracted more than 40 million visitors over the past 60 years, and its value to the economy is incalculable.  People do not visit, open businesses, or choose to live in places that are ugly if they have a better alternative.  Investing in the beauty of a community is not unlike an investment in its physical infrastructure.

While it’s true that you can’t eat beauty, it’s equally true that you can’t eat money.  Both are means to an end that includes health, security, satisfaction, and a life worth living.  I appreciated the reminder on Linda’s computer screen that surrounding ourselves with beauty is a much more wise choice than the petty display of an unfortunate dead beaver.

The City’s mission statement reads as follows:  “Providing quality public services for a better Albany community.”  While I was writing this sentence, I received a call from a man who wanted to know about housing programs in Albany.  I found the number for the Linn-Benton Housing Authority and directed the caller to someone who might be able to help him.  I take our mission statement seriously and believe I should do my best to be of service to people, even when the service they request may not be my direct responsibility.  I know most other city employees feel the same way because I see examples of the service ethic at work here every day.

The City provides many services, and I don’t get to see everything that goes on in a given day.  I’m sure in the course of the thousands of interactions and transactions that make up a day in the City there are people who will leave dissatisfied with their experience.  Most people are not happy when they receive a traffic citation, pay a water bill, hear about an expensive development requirement, or learn about a rule that prevents them from doing something they have planned.

City employees are often put in the position of enforcing a rule that benefits the majority at the expense of an individual. 

I recently met with two groups of business leaders who are concerned about how people feel after interacting with city employees.  The most common complaint is that there are too many rules and too many times when people are denied the opportunity to do something that might be good for both the individual and the community.  There was also some frustration at the way some people are treated when they submit an application or make an inquiry.

I am sure we can improve our service, just as I’m sure we will never be able to please everyone.  We are looking at ways to reduce the number of regulations imposed by the City, and the Council approved major revisions in the Municipal Code at its meeting this past Wednesday that will substantially cut the length of two chapters.  The Mayor will also ask the Council this week to approve the appointment of members to a new “Business-Ready Task Force.”  This group will be looking at regulatory barriers businesses face and how to overcome them.

More than 30 years ago, I received my only speeding ticket, and the state patrolman who issued the citation was so nice that I found myself thanking him as he handed me the ticket I could ill-afford to pay.  I certainly wasn’t happy about the incident, but I wasn’t angry about the experience either.  The lesson from the traffic stop is that our attitude and technique as we enforce rules or deliver bad news has a lot to do with how people will view the interaction.

I pledged to the local business groups that city employees would do everything possible to live up to our mission statement and continue to provide the best possible service to our citizens.  There will be times when that service comes in the form of a citation or something unpleasant, but we will attempt to deliver the bad news, as well as the good, with courtesy and respect.

I was looking at Facebook last night and noticed a link one of my friends had posted to a video about a young woman having trouble with the concept of miles per hour.  The video begins with a young man asking his wife how long it would take to travel 80 miles if a car is moving at 80 miles per hour.  The wife starts thinking out loud about how long it takes her to run a mile when she’s in good shape and about how many revolutions a car’s wheels make in an hour.  She ruminates a bit more and decides that it would take about 56 minutes to travel 80 miles in a car moving at 80 miles per hour.

The husband acknowledges that his wife’s answer is pretty close and then tries to explain why the real answer is one hour.  The young woman refuses to accept her husband’s explanation, and viewers are presumably left with the impression that she isn’t very smart.  The viewer comments on YouTube range from mildly funny to horribly offensive.

My first reaction to the video was to wonder how stupid the young husband could be.  Since he obviously recorded the conversation and presumably posted it for the world to see, he apparently doesn’t understand one of the most fundamental rules of human relationships.  People really do not like to be publicly humiliated, and they are unlikely to ever forget or forgive the person who knowingly makes them look bad.  I have unintentionally insulted my wife on a few occasions over that past 40 years, and I’m quite sure she could recount those incidents in great detail.  I know I vividly remember a time when she did it to me more than 35 years ago.

If the point of this video was to make people laugh, it probably succeeded at some level.  I found it painful.  ****Breaking News****  I had to attend a meeting after writing the previous lines and returned to find that The Oregonian website is now featuring the video.  The question is no longer whether the marriage will survive, but whether the husband will live to see tomorrow.

I remember having a conversation with a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist many years ago where he taught me a great lesson about life by pointing out that it’s easy to make someone look bad by using their own words against them.  This lesson is doubly true for video.  I know I have said many stupid things in my life, and I am equally certain everyone else has, too.  The husband in this new, viral video may have been right about the concept of miles per hour, but his sense of humor and his lack of respect for his wife are hopelessly wrong.

We all have our bad moments, and I sincerely hope the people I love and trust most will never feel inclined to broadcast mine to a world hungry to see the worst in all of us. 

Postscript:  I regret that writing about this video may inspire someone to look at it.  My best advice is to avoid it.

A few months ago, I wrote about some problems I was having with my bank and the delivery of my newspaper.  Word of the newspaper issue found its way back to the Democrat-Herald, and the problem was fixed within a few days.  My previous two phone calls and an e-mail message had no effect.  Unfortunately, time has eroded the fix; and now my paper is back in the driveway most mornings.  I have reconciled myself to the morning paper hunt, but I’m really frustrated with my former bank.

I have made at least (no exaggeration) four personal visits to my former bank to cancel all my accounts.  Each month following my latest visit, the bank sends me a statement charging me for a savings account I canceled at least four months ago.  My visits with the bankers have always been cordial, and I have always left with the assurance that the problem was now corrected.  I guess my bank just doesn’t want to see me go after making money off me for the past 40 years.

My point in writing about these very current and sad-but-true stories is not to brag that the public sector is superior to the private sector in delivering services.  I receive great service from some companies, just as I receive great service from many levels of government.  Like everyone else, I’ve had some bad days with government agencies; and I’ve even seen us make mistakes at the City of Albany.  My complaint is with people who have made up their minds that government is bad, regardless of substantial evidence to the contrary.

My payments to the City of Albany in 2011 amounted to something less than $3,000 (property taxes + water-sewer bill).  Included in that amount was 365 days where I had clean water delivered to the multiple taps in my house without a single interruption.  I drank gallons of the stuff; bathed in it; watered my lawn; washed my car; sprayed it on my grandkids during the summer; and generally used it liberally.  I’m also happy that my sewage made it to the treatment plant every day without fail.  My wife and I probably visited the library about 40 to 50 times and checked out at least that many books over the course of the year.  We attended concerts at Monteith Riverpark, and I know we took my grandchildren to Doug Killin Friendship Park a dozen or so times.  My son paid a little extra for my granddaughter’s dancing and tumbling classes and for his and his wife’s participation in our softball program.  I’m cheap; so I just ran on the free trail that surrounds our subdivision through most of the summer and fall months.

Most of my taxes went to the police and fire departments, and I don’t think I called either one this year.  We did enjoy the visits of the fire engine and the police on National Night Out, and I give both agencies some of the credit for having no crime or fires at my house this year.  I was able to ride my bike to work through much of the summer on streets that generally have decent bike lanes, and I drove my car on most other days.

The people who read this column probably know that the services we receive from the City are generally a good bargain in the same way that most of the services we purchase from businesses offer good value.  I pay $40 a month for high-speed Internet and greatly enjoy all that I’m able to do with the service.  I think I pay less than $15 for the newspaper, and I think it’s a good deal whether I have to hunt for it or not.

I will complain to my bank and the newspaper about my problems, and I encourage people who have problems with the City to complain as well.  I will not condemn all businesses because I’ve had a couple of problems in recent months.