The budget passes

There were plaudits, congratulations and well wishes as the City Council passed the budget for the next year.

But even with all the warm fuzzy's coming from the council and the mayor Thursday afternoon in the council chambers, Northeast residents are left with a budget that seems to leave them out in the cold. No big surprise there - we've been here before, right? 

In the city's 2008-09 budget, Old Northeast Inc. will receive no funding at all. Also, conspicuously absent from this budget are any new police officers. Community Action Network(CAN)  offices in the area will also not receive funding under the newly adopted budget.

Additionally, the new, much heralded landlord registration program will be slashed and looks as if it could be shelved. 

Councilman John Sharp attempted to allocate an additional $1.6 million to the police department to hire new officers, but fellow council members did not buy on to the last second amendment. Sharp was the only negative vote against the budget when it was finally presented for a final vote.

In a statement released by the Mayor's office after the council proceeding, the Mayor praised the council and the city manager for working together for the good of the citizens of the city. 

For more on the unfolding budget check The Northeast News on Wednesday.

Can you hear me now?

Mayor Mark Funkhouser has heard the pleas of Northeast residents but still seems to be offering little help to the area in the budget that he and the council are set to approve on Thursday.

In his most recent town hall meeting, Funkhouser said he has heard the concerns and seen the letters from residents showing their support for Old Northeast Inc and his mission, but fell short of offering any kind clue as to whether the council would make a place for the organizations in the prodigious budget it has to finish by tomorrow.

"I hear you," Funkhouser said to Lee Lambert, vice president of Independence Plaza Neighborhood Association. "But right now (when it comes to neighborhood funds) it is like sharks in a feeding frenzy with everyone fighting for less and less."

Lambert pointed out that many of the neighborhood programs to the North of the river and south of Northeast were getting funding while ONE Inc seemed to be one of the few neighborhood programs being left out.

Funkhouser said the process was not over and still needed to go though more debate at Thursday's council meeting.

The council is set to approve the budget at its 3 p.m. council meeting at City Hall.

BREAKING NEWS: KC Museum Board seeks answers from CIMO on renovation project

The city's Capital Improvement Management Office already has several enemies in the Police Department for not fully reporting what it charging the boys in blue on several projects.

Now it looks like CIMO has also caught the ire of Kansas City Museum Advisory Board Members for doing the same thing.

On Tuesday Board chairman Gary Marsh tore into CIMO staffers for not offering any explanation on several invoices the city office has submitted to the the Museum Board for renovation work currently being done.

"If I got something like this on my desk in my business, I would mark it up with red ink and tell them they were not getting paid any money," Marsh said.

CIMO had submitted an invoice to the board with vague descriptions and a bill for $160,000. Marsh said that with out any explanation of those costs he, and the rest of the board, could not be expected to simply fork over the money.

Marsh said he tried to get some help from City Manager Wayne Cauthen but instead got a letter that "basically told us to go to hell," Marsh said.

But city sources say some of those mysterious and unnamed charges could be coming from past project that the museum has had completed though the CIMO office.

Last year when the museum had the roof repaired, city officials say that the project ended up costing the city more than they had planned — although they would not say by how much. Officials say CIMO staffer are charging extra items to the current museum project at Corinthian Hall to make up those costs.

Now Marsh and the museum advisory board is looking at options to get some of those descriptions and find out what is being purchased and where the money for the project is going. Marsh said if the city does not comply with the board's requests then they might have to take legal action — something the police board is currently considering as well.

"If the city is not looking this close at their invoices then it is no wonder that we are $48 million in the hole," Marsh said, referring to the city's ongoing struggle to balance its budget, which is due on Thursday.

For more on this, check here and The Northeast News on April 5.

Old Northeast Inc. city funding looks bleak

In a tense and emotional budget meeting on Thursday, council members approved funding for several non-profit organizations and projects thoughout the city.

But, once again, it appears that Old Northeast Inc will go without city funding for another year.

Council members argued that they needed to reconsider the number of organizations that were going to get funding this year, but opted instead to approve the already suggested list that has been circulating city hall.

Councilman Terry Riley was even shouted down by others when he attempted to amend the portion of the budget to include several organizations that he said needed the funding or would be forced to close. But even his list did not include ONE.

In fact, no one on the council seemed to acknowledge that Old Northeast is facing a financial crisis and could end up shutting its doors for good if the city does not intervene.

For more on this, check The Northeast News this Wednesday's

Graffiti abatement programs survive cuts

This is no easy time for the City Council or Mayor as they begin the slicing and dicing of the city's massive budget.

But word coming down from the top floors of City Hall is that one program that might survive the proverbial chopping block is a new graffiti abatement program coming from the Mayor's office.

The program would create a graffiti abatement coordinator that will string together department heads from all over the city to get them to remove graffiti from their property — such as parks, public works and others.

The program would also create more awareness, cooperation and help among neighborhoods, which are dealing with much of the graffiti by themselves.

There is still no word, though on how much of the programs proposed $200,000 will make it though the final budget process. Today the city heard from Northeast representatives asking for funding for programs here in Northeast.

Tut-tut, looks like rain — lucky you.

They keep referring to this winter as the perfect storm.

Lots of snow. Lots of ice and little money in the city's coffers.

At a budget hearing this week, public works officials said if the city council did not release funds from the city's reserves, then snow plows might not be able to clear the streets if Mother Nature decides to dump one more snow storm on the metro. And forecasters this week were predicting, you guessed it, more snow.

Officials went before the city's finance and audit committee Wednesday asking for an additional $1.5 million to help pay for snow removal for the remainder of the fiscal year. Already the city has spent its budgeted $1.2 million attempting to keep close to 900 miles of roadway clear during this past snow-filled winter.

Council members were reluctant, obviously, to give public works more money after it had already warned the department last July that money might not be available around this time of the year with analysts already predicting that not enough was being pumped into snow removal programs.

Budget officials said if the City Council did not grant the extra money, they had two options: wait until summer to refill their supply of sand or simply not plow the streets.

But with rain now in the forecast instead of snow, it looks like everybody can avoid the financial thin ice that the city is skating around.

For more on this, and other City Hall news, pick up a copy of The Northeast News each Wednesday.