City still has to pay rent and feed the horses…
The discussion as to cutting the mounted patrol has happened many times, but the City can only save money from laying off the officers involved, they have a lease for the building and they have to still pay for the care of the horses. It’s being stated in the Blade:
Among the possible cuts is the city’s nine-horse mounted patrol, which is budgeted this year to cost taxpayers roughly $24,000 for “operating costs,” $55,000 for the building’s lease,
$560,000 for eight officers, and $80,000 more for a sergeant, totaling $719,000.
Unless something magical is going to happen and the owner of the building is going to not charge the City rent for a year, which is pretty doubtful considering previous discussions on that particular building and they are going to do something with the horses so that they don’t have to care for them, after every previous discussion on this, it wasn’t possible. The horses still have to walked, cared for, etc., so yes they can lay off the officers so there would be no mounted patrol, but they can’t eliminate all of the expenses. Horses or no horses, they are still going to have to provide police protection at the MudHen’s games and all of the other Downtown events where the mounted patrol was in service, which means they’ll have horses sitting there, they’ll have a building they have to pay rent for and they’ll have officers at the games that will have to be paid, probably on overtime…
I’m not seeing the logic in that scenario.
I also agree with D. Michael Collins that the City should have known in the fourth quarter, or at least known in December after the Governor announced how the State’s collection numbers were down. In addition to his suggestion of:
“When you are going into the fourth quarter knowing you are going to have a multimillion shortfall closing your books, as business you grab each department head and say, ‘No spending, no spending, no spending unless absolutely necessary.”
If we are going to do this in hindsight, Council is the one that approves the legislation for funding, there should have been questions raised after the Governor spoke and Council could have joined together and made a stand on spending saying the same “no voting yes on spending unless absolutely necessary.”
I know City Council doesn’t use the power that they have, but they could…
What a bunch of horse shit!
February 9th, 2009 at 8:46 amThat’s another job that will be lost too…
February 9th, 2009 at 8:55 amThe sky is falling! The sky is falling! It is the same old story with the city of Toledo’s administrators. If you check on the history of collective bargaining with the city work force, you will find that the city is always broke, desperate and in a financial crisis each time the contract negotiations start. After scaring and threatening the citizens, the contracts are settled and then the milk and honey flows. History shows that money was found in previously locked drawers, a decimal point was misplaced by “experts” in the finance department, revenues far exceeded projections and funds appeared as if produced by a magician. Now that the much awaited stimulus funds are close at hand, the adminstration wants to quickly settle those pesky police and fire contracts before the coffers are full of money. Toledo will probably have new bike paths or hiking trails before a new police class or fire class is hired.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:07 pmI don’t disagree that’s been tried in the past, I think this time though, with the huge decrease in revenue, it’s going to end up being worse than what they have already predicted.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:11 pmWhy is there an assumption the city government would keep these horses? The animals can be sold, and more purchased (or leased) in the future when times get better. They are animals for Chrissakes, and they’ll make good dog food and soap. In the meantime, we can use human beings to do their job. When the American Nazis show up again maybe they’ll be riding the horses we let go. I say let the Nazis and their detractors battle in out. It might be good for business. I certainly do not want to pay more taxes waiting for the next crisis.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:43 pmThe horses are trained to deal with crowds, even if the City did return them, sell them, kill them, etc., they would still have to pay for the leased building until the lease was done. You can’t just free them on the streets like an irresponsible pet owner does with a dog or a cat you no longer want. The actual costs related to the horses is the least expensive aspect of this.
Not to mention that doesn’t even address the aspect of the uses for the mounted patrol to exist will still exist, there will still be times when police will need to be there to be security for crowds.
February 9th, 2009 at 1:04 pm