It was agendized as the “2009-11 Fiscal Years Budget – Department Presentations”

Not much of a budget report.  Scott Ochoa would have been embarrassed if he had any idea of how his department heads should present a budget to the governing body whose job it is to approve that budget.

It was a show and tell about what the department heads wanted to accomplish and not a budget report that described how the departments would deal with the shortfalls that the city’s budget is facing and how they would provide for the needs of the community without sacrificing goods and services during the reduced funding period.

The City Council asked a few general questions but fell short of gaining any substantive knowledge to allow them to ascertain what each department was going to do to address their reduced funding.

I would not approve a budget based on the written reports and presentations that I’ve read or witnessed during that meeting.