Just cutting out Fred Richardson’s travel expense alone would do it !!

SoYouWillKnow - thanks for adding to my point about travel expenses.  If they are going to cut anything out of the budget, they should start with the free European vacations for city staff.  Does EVERYBODY even know how often these people travel?  Again, not just the mayor and/or council.  I am talking about department managers going to Europe for a conference.  Is this really necessary?  Can we get the media interested in auditing travel expenses for city staff?

Mayor Jones knows what he’s doing and his plan sounds like a reasonable approach given the circumstances the nation is facing right now. I believe things will get better before long no matter what the doom and gloomers try to tell us. The constant negativity explains a lot of the problems but one simply has to learn to ignore it sometimes.
Keep up the good work Mayor Jones.

Fred did have an attitude about that pie.  He pretty much told the voters and tax payers he didn’t care what they wanted.  He wanted a pie and he would have a pie!

The biggest mystery is how that plywood pie with a few old Christmas lights wound up costing $9,000.00.

It’s only a plywood moonpie
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in Freddie

They are probably already working on the replacement moonpie for next year in secret. You can bet that no one in the city council or the mayor’s office will talk about this.  The city has money to spend on little parks and monuments, but nothing for the upkeep of the city. Look anywhere and you see trash, empty houses and office buildings, vacant lots, and many potholes. Yet, the city spends money on needless things. I am surprised that Fred Richardson’s campaign signs are not shaped like moonpies, since he made sure that Mobilians had no sayso in his spending the taxpayer money for his dream pie.

Mobile just needs a few more moonpies.  Those things raise millions and millions!

I believe the budget was put together and passed prior to Jone’s illness.

taxpayer - maybe the City should implement a NO TRAVEL POLICY for the rest of the year.  That would help considerably with those unnecessary expenses.

Well, BamaBob, I would think that some of that 52% increase in the Mayor’s Office operating expense might be related to the Mayor’s “office away from Mobile” located up there in Arkansas. I guess that is something we’re paying for with tax dollars.  Someone needs to look into this HINT HINT

Also, didn’t the Mayor promise those folks down there in Theodore FREE garbage pickup for their votes to bring that HUGE area into the City of Mobile?  From what I heard, they still don’t have garbage pickup.  Is the Mayor and Council going to renege on their promise to those people? 

If they are cutting 10% “across the board” maybe they should also look at cutting the salaries of the Mayor and the City Council.

It is not just the mayor and council members who spend frivolously on traveling; and with no “real purpose” for serving the city and/or it’s citizens.  SOMEBODY please audit the department supervisors and their travel expenses!!  Tell me why the IT Director needs to travel to Europe for any reason for her job at the city!!  Or better yet, cost justify last year’s overseas travel budget by coorelating expenses with relevant projects. So we are going to cut valuable programs that serve the citizens, but these executives still keep their passports for touring Europe on our tax dollars!!