All 256 pages of the proposed city budget do not give a clue of what the line items are for or are about. That , in part, is because nobody ever asked. Line items are the nitty gritty of what goes into a budget, like paper, pencils and personal computer use. The computer in most industries is used partly for business and partly for monkey business. That is not meant to be funny. It is at times a wasteful form of communication. Let's assume that the city hall leaders carefully studied every line item in the budget. The result is that it becomes their person viewpoint of what is needed.
A prudent alternative is to have a group of local residents take a look at the budget and render an independent viewpoint of what is needed and what they will pay for.
This can be done by the establishment of a Citizen Review Oversight Board made of of interested local residents who can make an objective study of the city budget and make valuable suggestions.
In the times ahead the time is now because we have not yet felt the financial downturn at it's worse.
The city of brookfield should act now and not wait until it is too late.
Scripture tells us to "love thy neighbor", but that is not what is being done in the current political climate. Our neighbors include all people who have an opinion of their own. Why do we not respect our neighbors in the USA, instead of finding a way to ridicule them ?
The messages that are being sent out about candidates for public office emphasize the negative. This is self destruction and self endowing.
If you really "love thy neighbor", then emphasize the positive.
