So, some of the business along south locust will be renting parking space for ten dollars a pop. Nice racket. Will the be sending in the 7.5 percent taxes to the city??? Some will just line their pockets with the extra dough, some have said "a portion" of the proceeds will go to a charity. But we know who will be counting the money in the back room, so the the actual "profit" will be scewed anyway. I just say any "business" renting their property for a profit, must forward sales tax reciepts to the city. Fair's fair. (No pun intended.)

During the meeting, board members fine-tuned the county's budget by cutting a little from one department or adding a little to another, such as the $7,000 added to the county attorney's office for health insurance and $1,000 cut out of the county assessor's budget for travel expenses.

One of the areas brought up by the supervisors for budget consideration was Stuhr Museum, with board member Dan Wagoner proposing to cut that budget by $100,000.

Wagoner defended his proposal by saying the money is needed for other county budget priorities and that the museum could make up the cut in county funding through other funding sources.

Wagoner countered by saying that Stuhr Museum benefits mostly Grand Island and not Hall County and that the museum should make up the loss of funding by doing such things as staff reductions, cutting operating hours or charging the public more to enter the museum's grounds.

Enigma, in response to your earlier post (didn't want to quote the whole thing), the Indy today reported that Hornaday has full city services: water, sewer and electrical. Also, Hughes, from GIFD, and Laub, from Rural Fire, reported that both respond to any incident at Hornaday, due to the uncertainty as to who has jurisdiction.

Why didn't the City or the union put this issue into writing in the contract negotiations? I am pissed as a taxpayer and I would be pissed as a union member. Bad negotiating on both parts.

Babbling might be a more appropriate word. Hornady sits in a County industrial park set up in the 1950's under a state law that allows them to grow near city limits without being annexed. They would have to have a change in use from manufacturing in order to be annexed by the city, unless of course they volunteered. I do not believe the receive any city service other than electrical, which makes the Utility fund money. Although it does seem they received city fire services the other day.

According to the articles in the paper ALL of the unions said no to the two day furlough requested by the city. The furlough would have cost employees about a third of what the COLA increases would have cost them. The IBEW so generously volunteered to give up their COLA so long as the city agree to cover 100% of any increase in healthcare costs. The IAFF did agree to forgo COLA to cover their own butts when they realized they could face lay offs. You keep saying the city lack class and goodwill but the vast majority of the taxpayers in this town would say the same damn thing about the bargaining units. You keep pointing to Kearney but look what their employees did for the taxpayers! Maybe some self examination is in order for Unions. Respect is a two way street.

And if the City is so hard to deal with and so mean spirited why do you guys keep cashing their checks? I didn't stick around employers when I thought I was being taken advantage of.

As for 30 to 40 applicants, it's pretty easy to do when there has not been any lay-offs in the last decade and the civilian job market is falling faster than a fat man with an untied shoe. It will be interesting to see what those numbers look like after this last media blitz with everything our police officers are dealing with and our neighboring communities are not and the now apparent lack of job security compared to those same agencies. Dang it. I almost made it without arguing more union points. It's a process I guess. I'll work on it.

The city sure can be a bunch of sore losers. This is how they wasted ten's of thousands of dollars fighting the IAFF after CIR's decision a few years ago.

I do like the public bubblings about pulling Hornady into city limits. Don't get me wrong. I understand the LB840 funds, and I know that Hornady receiving these funds does not affect our economic woes elsewhere in the city budget, and I feel that Hornady is a quality employer and that the funds are being well spent there. I do, however, bemoan the fact that the city has already given them city water, sewage, and utilities without requiring them to come in to the city's tax base, and it appears that the LB840 funds were the last "card" the city held to hold anything over them to contribute. It appears they are using the city's resources to their advantage enough to justify the $5 to $7k it would cost them.

As for the city employee's COLA costs, my understanding of the situation was that several of the unions volunteered to discuss it, and city hall refused or has postponed opening the contracts for negotiation (except of course for the fire department whose contract was already being negotiated). Since allowing changes outside of an existing contract carries with it some potentially nasty legal ramifications down the road for the employees, I can see why they would be tentative to make an agreement to this point. Maybe, just once, the city should show some class and good will and openly negotiate without strong arming to the minimum legal standards or even implement a contract as it is intended rather than apparantly trying to punish bargaining units for taking them to court and they would receive some more cooperation in return. This is exactly the difference that enigma's "slightly more" could make in employee relations, retention, and quality. It sounds like the city has shot themselves in the foot and now is crying about the limp. Where did I put my fiddle...?

BTW, I don't get the Kearney Paper any more, but I've noticed that they haven't proposed a single lay off, furlough, program cut, or other similar action during this economic down-turn. How do they do it, what with only the advisement of 1 part time city attorney who makes less than our recently hired assistant attorney? Maybe someone from city hall should give them a call and ask

Honestly, I don't know if most of the public really cares, but I'm tired of the city raising taxes and bond issues to bolster our public safety and then making their first cuts in the public safety area (anyone remember the promise of additional officers with the half cent sales tax or the promises for a law enforcement training and firearms range when they bonded the purchase of the shooting park?).

Oh, although I think community needs very greatly in this area, you may be correct in the volunteer FD being a community savings to Kearney, but as for the FOP, I'm not buying it.

Kearney pays it police department more in wages and compensation than Grand Island. I believe Kearney PD officers are FOP members; they just don't use the unit for bargaining purposes because it hasn't been necessary there. It seems that we have a neighboring community that knows what fair treatment and open negotiations can do for attracting and retaining employees.

Given the state's climate toward CIR and labor disputes, I'm surmising that if the city of Grand Island didn't have such a historical reputation for poor labor negotiation practices, neither the fire department nor the police department would utilize unions save for their civil litigation protection which is their primary service.

The focus here should be on the poor management and decision making on the part of our city leaders and it's projected impact on us going forward. Now we will see if the public's input to their respective representation will allow the chips to fall where they more rightfully belong.