Council 1/9/2012

I attended Council on 1/9 and here's what I saw

Interest Rates - I'm glad Tony and Andy are already considering other options for our sizable balances. There's money to be made that we're forgoing today.

December missed payments - this is a big deal, regardless of cause. As I see it, there was either a purposeful act or an accidental one. I have no evidence of purposeful, so as I've learned over the past couple years (the hard way), I won't pursue concerns/accusations without evidence. So I'll assume accidental. However, this delay of payment creates a shocking choice in the narrative of our Village's finances: "Mariemont has experienced deficits in 4 out of the last 5 years" OR "Mariemont has experienced 2 surpluses in a row". Which is true? The choices could not be more different. I think regardless of our final-final balance in 2011, the former appears true. And unless I'm shown a mistake in my logic, I'll communicate this as I talk with Residents. We must do more to solve our ongoing financial problems ahead of the State's reductions Village revenue beginning in 2013.

December missed payments part 2 - I think Jeff's comments were fair and reasonable. I appreciate his detailed study of the issue (I didn't notice the discrepancy). Irregularities in our income and/or in our expenses are examples of topics that should be ok to to be discussed real-time in public. At the end of the day, I like some back and forth, and some debate and disagreement during Council is a good thing.

December missed payments part 3 - Andy K's comments gave me an idea (and as I learned later, Andy had this idea too) - why not implement a delayed payment program, especially if we can improve the interest rates? I would support implementing a process for staggering payments. The longer we hold onto $$, the more that we can make in interest....

Andy B as Vice Mayor - Andy's done a nice job, and I happily support him.

I voted in the affirmative on all votes as they were procedural in nature.

Cortney

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