http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmoV72INoqw

Very good video.

A new spin on “going where no MAN has gone before” lol to the comments about AMAZON mounted police~ Perhaps some jealous wanna be cowboys? ( just kidding of course) I think it is a positive!

1. So, 6k in the budget for this horse patrol and already found a man that was wanted for 99k in child support on a complaint call that men were drinking behind a house, tossing trash and disturbing the peace.

2.The horses are owned by The Park Authority and are getting exercised for all of you animal lovers out there

Better and MORE approachable community interaction

Happy Trails~

WHAT WOULD ROY ROGERS have to say about this debate?

Actually, I did read the budget. the line item you describe is the sort of summarization one expects from the “personal services” that I refer to… a generic bullet that covers millions of dollars for unspecified employees doing undefined work. I am guessing that they are (or include) contractors. “Temporary employees” is often code for independant contractors. Boards and commissions are appointed without oversight or competition by District supervisors.

Any well managed business should be able to break out 8 million dollars better than this. Since this business is in the business of spending our money, we should demand more accountability.

You read the budget as those who wrote it intended.

http://www.equisearch.com/horses_riding_training/english/hunter_jumper/beyondtwopoint_081406/

As I stated in a previous post I was questioning whether it was the entire staff or just the 2 people.

/\/\3|)iç 64 (Winner of the BVBL 40k and 50k post award) said on 3 Mar 2008 at 6:07 pm:

“I am interested in the salary of the IT dept being close to 500k. WHAT?!?! Is this just 2 people or the entire staff?”
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I understand the expense of web application development. I consider myself pretty web savvy. I tried to look at the budget line items to see what was there for myself, but the Service was Unavailable.

I know how it works with budgets. While I was in the Navy I had to order a bunch of plaster and braces for the Orthopedic clinic in Sept to spend all of the money at the end of the fiscal year. If I didn’t we had a surplus and would loose that money next year. I am pretty confident that is what’s happening here. We need to start looking into the expenses and question where the money goes and why. Justification for spending the money is needed. I say we cut everyone’s budget by 10%. Let them work with that for the year and see how it goes.

Perhaps we should just cut him out and save some money there.

From that section, “Personal Services” covers “Salaries for all full-time, part-time and temporary employees, including overtime, Sunday and holiday pay, shift differentials and per diem compensation for members of certain boards and commissions.” In others words, salaries and wages for county employees. I think you’re right that the term really should be “Personnel” not “Personal,” but it is defined in the budget document.

Saying the Director of IT and his deputy have a combined salary of close to $470,000 is flat out wrong. That number, I’m assuming is pulled from the section on Leadership and Management in the IT department budget with the *activity* budgeted at $469,680. That includes the salaries for 2.05 FTEs, but also includes all other expenses related to the Leadership and Management in IT. It would be nice if these were broken out in more detail, but assuming this “nearly $470,000″ is all salaries is a pretty big leap. Same with the $1.2 million for Web Systems Support Services. It would be nice to see more details about how the $1.2 million is spent, but it’s for more than just the county’s public Web site. It also covers the county’s intranet, development of Web-based application used internally or on the public Web site.

As for the IT staff salary, there are 85.54 FTEs in the budget, with a total “Personal Services” line amount of $6,119,200, which works out to an average salary of around $71,500 per FTE, which would be a the lower end of the range for computer professionals in the area, not something absurd.

Yes, the police boat. All it’s used for is to ascertain that Tim’s Rivershore keeps a mooring for it during the annual Hilda Barg look-alike bikini contest.

Service Unavailable

Now where is my budget money at now? I bet this is so they can say, see if we cut the budget, we loose services like the web site and when it is down, it makes PWC look bad. We need more money to keep it up and running so our image is not tarnished in any way. SHEEEESH!!!!

I am interested in the salary of the IT dept being close to 500k. WHAT?!?! Is this just 2 people or the entire staff?

I agree they should break down personal services and if they are like what Old Soldier says, they need to go ASAP. I think all contracts should be completive bid. This gets the best possible price. Enough with the good ole boy system. It is time to trim some pork fat from the budget. Let’s trim it back and if the county office that has the cut back can’t do the same work for that amount of money, lets find people to either work in that office or change leaders. Let’s cut the fat off of the budget and lets do it now.

I know when I have tight times, I have to make some decisions on what to cut out. Guess what goes first, entertainment then eating out. It is time for the county offices to remove some of their “entertainment” budget.

If Personal Services means the same at the County level as it does in the Federal Government, it refers to the practice of hiring consultants and contractors often non-competitively and without a specified statement of work (or some agreement regarding what they will do or deliver). It’s a way to bring in “bodies” (often cronies, family, friends, etc.) The Federal Government outlawed the practice because of the opportunities for abuse. (IMHO) ALL contractors should be competitively selected for specified work. I’m guessing my assessment is correct (since they didn’t break down tasks or deliverables in the budget for these “personal services”.)

Good report, by the way.

It’s not very cost effective, but a nice piece of public relations