Two Views on Port Angeles’ Budget Priorities

This post has nothing that I've written. It’s a reprint of two excellent letters in Friday’s Peninsula Daily News. They're both about Port Angeles’ budget process and funding priorities:

“I would very much like to see an expansive overview of the City of Port Angeles’ budget proposals.

I feel that I'm only getting a very small view of this huge problem and really have no opinion at all except that if the elected city officials and the highly priced city department heads can't figure it out, what's the use of hiring or electing such inept people to run the city and community? We could be hiring less expensive people to do the same thing.

It would help the community to help itself by getting the information out to the general public so that these tough financial decisions can be voted on or we the citizens can contact our elected officials to make our voice heard as to what we want and don’t want to fund.

Sorry, the public funding party is over for pet projects. Hard financial decisions must be made to get Port Angeles back on track to financial responsibility.”

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The next letter has been abridged:

“……….....…Now I understand the city pool is to be closed for lack of funding.

This is the last straw. How dare the city fund pork-barrel projects and staff and then close something as base to our health and community as the pool.

The city needs to formally retract its recent piecemeal budget decisions that simultaneously benefit only questionable business interests and damage the taxpayer.

The city then needs to redistribute public funds in a responsible manner that reflects community will, including funding the city pool. If the city and its council fail to do this in a timely manner, the citizens of the North Olympic Peninsula need to take action with a citizen initiative to revamp the city budgetary process and follow Shirley Waters-Nixon and Norma Turner’s lead and formally request the state auditor and governor’s office investigate the city’s budget actions over the last five years.”