How Authentic is the Campaign Issue of Controlling Spending?

In my opinion there's two major budget issues at work.  First, most people who distrust government believe the city payrolls are padded with lazy employees and useless jobs that only exist to be dolled out as patronage.  Candidates who run on a platform of reducing taxes appeal greatly to this constituency since the voters can imagine reducing taxes without cutting any services.  This can be soft-pedaled in a candidate's policy statements code-worded as "efficiency".Note that I'm not saying there aren't portions of the city budget that couldn't be more efficient; the difference is one of magnitude.  The background you need for this is experience in managing city departments efficiently, which is more of a factor in hiring department heads than something you can get in a council member.  The other perceived advantage of a business-person on budget issues is one of priorities.  Once the government is efficient, the only thing left to cut is based on priorities more in-line with the candidates perceived "business" values with little perceived value, i.e. cutting unnecessary spending such as on the arts or on poor people.In reality, controlling spending for a community is really difficult, because the council represents the entire community, and has to do what's best for the entire community.  Cutting spending is really hard, since the minute you cut spending for anything the affected constituency, even very small ones, can disrupt council meetings.  Since only a tiny percentage of the population votes, all you need is to rile up 3% of the population who'll show up at the polls and you'll get voted out of office.   

Point one: People with a interest or expertise in fiscal and ecological stewardship are not mutually exclusive, but even if they are, that's why we have a town council and not a town king.Point two: The difference between the business arena and government is like the difference between a small sailboat (where a slight adjustment in sail trim or ballast leads to immediate speed gain, loss or capsize), and a huge yacht (where ballast is built into the boat itself, a change in course isn't noticed for quite a while, and when disaster strikes, it is catastrophic). Dinghy sailors are scrappy, they are sensitive to wind shifts. If you want to race a yacht, you would do well to learn about wind, current, ballast and sail trim in a dinghy.There are plenty of examples of businesses that are streamlined, treat their employees well, provide quality client service, are positioned to adjust to new changes or needs in their markets, and whose investments are informed by social and ecological community goals. Chapel Hill can have that too, but we won't get there by abdicating council leadership. To say that town council members don't need to have expertise in fiscal management because Chapel Hill employs its own town manager and support staff is no different from saying that town council members don't need to have expertise in transportation, watershed management, social services, or town planning because the city employs people to do this for us too. We'll all be better off when "business" stops being a dirty word.    

I think it is perfectly reasonable to expect that people with business management experience are more attuned to thinking through the consequences of actions (and inactions) in regards to the fiscal impact.  They will also ask better questions of the staff, which is what drives those conversations. 

the town had a committee to study whether the town was being operated in a sound fiscal manner. I was an instigating force behind this committee and served on it (as did Gene Peace). There was an outside consultant hired (which is government practice not often used in smaller business) who basically praised operations and made several minor recommendations. The committee's main recommendation, which I didn't agree with, was to sell several town properties including the old library and old town hall (where the shelter is now). They thought we could use the money to retire some debt. I never thought this was a good idea and still don't. While a business, with a short term focus, might have considered this idea worthwhile: the council felt that it was important for Chapel Hill to hold on to these properties.The difference between municipal accounting and private business accounting is significant. At one not too long ago budget discussion one of our current council people (with an MBA from Harvard) did not understand what a budget line item meant. Specifically, the parking fund was listed as having revenues of $xxxx and this number was zeroed out to the general fund  with costs of $xxxx, leaving a parking fund balance of $0. The council member said:"if it doesn't make us any money let's just stop charging for parking altogether." The town manager, to save the council member embarassment, suggested they discuss this offline. So, even people who should know things sometimes don't..... Cam

"One of the recommendations we routinely received from consultants and accrediting agencies was that we should strive for a variety of skill sets on our board: have a lawyer (different from the paid lawyer), a financial expert (different from the paid accountant and auditors), have someone with expertise in our area of service, have some current stakeholders, have some former stakeholders, have someone from the community-at-large. It's hard to get this kind of balanced representation. Often, we did not have all of these categories represented, but we tried to do so. The town council is elected, but we should also try to do so there too."Yes, that is good advice.  A legal background is helpful in running government, but it is over-represented.