Budget Vote Pushed Through to Curtail Discussion

The budget discussion that was planned for the Glen Ellyn Park District workshop meeting last night was again stalled. Prior to the meeting Commissioner Kinzler emailed Director Atwell and the Board about ways to cut expenses, with specific concerns about cell phone costs, private cars for staff, business meeting expenses, salary ranges, etc.

Rather than discuss these issues, President Minogue announced that the Board would instead vote to send the levy to the county and post the budget ordinance for the required 30-day public review. To my knowledge, the Board has never taken a vote during a workshop meeting before.

Even though President Minogue had assured the Board that we would have three meetings to discuss the budget, the Board was not allowed to discuss the budget last night for a third time. Commissioner Kinzler's concerns were not addressed before the vote on the budget. Later, in "Matters from Commissioners," Kinzler brought up his budget concerns. Please see my next post for specifics on these concerns.