Here is the pledge I make to Binghamton’s beleaguered taxpayers:
If at the end of my first term, your city taxes are not lower than they are now, I will not seek a second term.
Here is the plan:
First, the plan is a long term vision, not my version of a “you make the budget” video game, preceded by eye glazing disclaimers, and accompanied by a straw man challenge or wager. Since I would not have to submit a budget – the 2011 budget – until August 2010, there will be no line by line presentation.
Likewise, the plan does not pretend the city’s fiscal woes all commenced the moment the current administration took office, and that up until then, there had been no such problems. That is exactly the sort of cliche’ driven, cookie cutter political partisanship that has hurt the city, and from which we need to get away as quickly as possible.
I recognize what Binghamton now faces is the result of a long period of short term thinking, extending over multiple administrations, and gripping both political parties. Accordingly, my plan is heavily weighted toward long term solutions, is based in no way upon near term political considerations, and will above all else, put necessity before luxury.
Reducing Costs/Increasing Productivity
Every city department and every city facility will be examined for ways to save taxpayer dollars. I will begin in my own office, where there will no longer be a receptionist, or typist. In fact, City Hall has entirely too many receptionists, typists, phone lines and fax machines, all of which could be reduced by relatively simple measures, or replaced by existing technology.
Instead of paying for a receptionist in every office, there will be a general reception area outside the elevators on each floor. So one person will be doing the work that 4 or 5 are doing now. The flow of people throughout the building would be better controlled, making a safer work environment, with less distractions, which would mean higher productivity.
Instead of paying for someone typing or doing data entry in every office, there will be a central data processing room. Anything to be transcribed will be received there electronically from all City Hall offices, where voice recognition software will be installed. So, if a letter is to go out, it will dictated directly into a computer, emailed to central data processing in draft, who will then prepare it for final approval, email it back to the drafter, and if approved, then emailed it back to CDP to be printed out and mailed. Central data processing could be staffed by three or four people, doing the work more than a dozen are currently doing, and actually doing it better.
Right now City Hall has over 30 different phone numbers. I propose to end that unnecessarily costly and inefficient practice. There should be one general city phone number, along with rollover lines, that will ring into a central switchboard. In every instance, callers would initially speak to a human being, then have their call routed to the appropriate person.
There is a system called e-fax that renders fax machines unnecessary. Not having to purchase, power and maintain them will yield savings to taxpayers, as will the reductions in personnel outlined above. So will increased productivity yielded by going to central data processing and a central switchboard.
Restructuring must extend into all public services, where the guiding principle will be less management, more manpower. I believe the Police and Fire Departments, for example, are top heavy, and further believe that situation can be addressed, while actually boosting police presence on the street, and maintaining our ability to provide professional, high quality fire protection.
Some may suggest positions cannot be cut, because those losing them will become a societal burden. My answer is that at this point, keeping those jobs filled is actually a heavier societal burden long term, and that those leaving them will have experience employers want, and every incentive to find new employment. City government’s purpose is not to provide jobs for certain people, it is to provide services to the broader mass of people, at a price that can be afforded. City government’s current operation cannot be afforded, and its services can be better delivered more affordably, by doing what I outlined above, as well as by doing what I have set forth below.
Making the Pie BIGGER
Long term solutions cannot only include cutting expenditures. Revenue must be considered, and I have a number of proposals.
A disturbing trend linking the current administration and its predecessor, is the proliferation of so-called “not for profits”, taking up increasing amounts of property in the city, and taking it off the tax rolls. The result has been nearly half the city’s property paying little to nothing in property taxes. Put another way, about half the property in the city is shouldering the entire property tax burden. That is unfair, unsustainable, and unacceptable.
To address that situation, I propose several things.
Within thirty days of taking office, the owners of such properties will be notified, that as of March 1, 2010, they will be responsible for transporting their own trash to the county landfill.
The immediate benefit of such a move, which can be accomplished by executive decision, and in no way infringes upon any rights, will be less wear and tear on city equipment, less fuel consumption, lower fuel costs, and less man hours required for trash collection. Those savings can be passed back to taxpayers, directed into other endeavors like snow removal, or a combination of such things.
Furthermore, my administration, unlike the current one and its predecessor, will actively discourage the continued expansion of property ownership in the city by “non-profits”. In order to ease the burden on those paying in, we must increase the number of properties paying in, not decrease them. As part of that effort, I will ask City Council to enact a local law, pursuant to New York State Real Property Tax Law 420-b, which allows local taxation of certain “non-profits”.
Additionally, unlike the current administration, and its predecessor, which made a half-hearted effort in 2004 known as the “Fair Share Program”, my administration will aggressively pursue voluntary payments from “non-profit” property owners. Metro-Interfaith, which operates elderly housing Binghamton makes such a payment every year, and would be a good model to follow.
Finally, I will hold weekly press conferences, where I will discuss, among other things, those “non-profits” that have been helpful, and those that have not, which will introduce a long missing factor into the equation; shame. I believe it will be effective, where the current administration’s predecessor was woefully ineffective, because they just didn’t have the guts to do it, or they considered other things more important. I consider very few things as important as the crushing tax burden being heaped on city property owners, and will act accordingly. The result will be an easing of that burden.
Another way to get more property paying in, is for the city to divest itself of demonstrably losing propositions like the Ely Park Golf Course, and city facilities whose operating costs can no longer be justified.
First, it is inexplicable and inexcusable, that in times when massive cuts in public safety are being proposed, the current administration believes the city ought to remain in the golf course business. Its predecessor took the same approach. Between 2002 and 2007, a time period that bridges the current administration and its predecessor, the golf course lost an average of $165,000.00 yearly. Both had the chance to end that problem, but refused. I will end it.
My preferred method of doing so will be to sell the golf course. People to whom I have spoken that are knowledgeable about the game and golf courses, advise me the sale could fetch $2.5 to $3 million. That would translate into a substantial one time property tax cut. Not only would selling the course have that benefit. There would be an immediate and long term savings of wear and tear on city equipment, fuel savings, and significant man hour savings, all of which could be re-allocated into other services, or passed back to the taxpayer too. Most importantly, instead of increasing the burden on taxpayers as it has, the course would begin paying in, and easing that burden. It would pay property taxes, school taxes and generate sales tax revenue. It would also pay for its water, thereby reducing the burden on ratepayers, instead of increasing it, as it does now.
Unfortunately, this common sense proposal has generated controversy. The current mayor claims a sale would be “illegal”, as if I have suggested merely planting a “for sale by owner” sign in front of the course is all that would be needed.
I understand it would not be quite so easy, but it is not impossible as has been suggested. There would be a process involving the state Legislature, and tracking down S. Mills Ely’s heirs to get them to part with the interest they retain in the land on which the course sits. That process could have begun years ago, by the current administration, or its predecessor, but once again, they either thought little of such an idea, or didn’t think of it at all. Had they done so, the course would already be generating benefits for all taxpayers, instead of increasing the burden upon them.
As mayor, I would commence that process immediately upon taking office,. If it was not complete by the time for submission of my first budget, course operations would be suspended, a less preferred method of addressing the problem, but one which would insure an end to the massive financial losses currently being passed on to taxpayers, as well as create the savings on wear and tear to city equipment, man hours, fuel, and water.
As previously stated, in these times necessity before luxury must guide city government, not the other way around. There must be a corresponding effort to focus on services that benefit the broadest possible cross section of residents. Compelling every property owning taxpayer to subsidize a couple hundred golfers is totally inconsistent with that idea. It seems the First Ward pool, which has been allowed to fall into disrepair, is a facility with far broader recreational use than the golf course, along with greater historical significance, and aesthetic appeal.
Regarding the West Street Fire Station, it can be closed, sold to private interests, and put back on the tax rolls, without compromising safety.
According to MapQuest, the 180 Main Street fire station is only one half mile from West Street. It calculates the drive time at one minute, and that’s in a non-emergency vehicle, without ability to control traffic lights, traveling within the speed limit. 180 Main Street is a better equipped station, and according to MapQuest, is actually closer than West Street to the furthest point in the First Ward (1 Ely Park Blvd).
Nonetheless, highly emotional pleas about the impact on the First Ward’s elderly have been made, as well as histrionic threats about lives being endangered, or even lost by the station closing. But with the station open, lives were recently lost to fire less than a mile away from it.
So unfortunately, having it open is no guarantee of lives being saved. What is guaranteed by maintaining and staffing a 24/7/365 facility a mere 60 seconds away from a better equipped facility, is a significant cost to city taxpayers, and First Ward elderly homeowners arguably face greater risk of losing their homes to unaffordably high taxes than to fire.
If Binghamton’s taxpayers are going to get the break they desperately need, they need political leadership that will tell them what they need to know, and not just what they want to hear on such issues. Neither the current administration, or its predecessor provided that kind of leadership. I will, and the elderly, who are being taxed right out of town, will directly benefit. So will everyone else, because the more the tax base can be broadened, the lighter the load will be on those already paying in. For the city to get headed in the right direction, that has to happen soon.
Making New Opportunities
The recent revelations concerning the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation, and their implications for the city’s future, have largely gone undiscussed by the current administration, and its predecessor’s handpicked candidate. Apparently, they either think nothing of it, or think other matters are more important. I have thought of such things, and believe they are extremely important.
The Marcellus Shale is the largest gas shale formation in the United States, with an estimated 516 trillion cubic feet of gas. It represents one of the largest sources of domestically produced clean energy, and a tremendous source for economic opportunities of which our cash strapped city should at least attempt to take advantage.
It takes a million gallons of water to service a gas drilling site. Binghamton is in the best position of any city in the region to supply those quantities of water to drilling companies, and be compensated by them for it, providing the city with a source of revenue to offset the outrageous increases in city water rates recently, and for upgrading the water works.
An idea I am developing is one that will allow city property owners to benefit from the gas beneath their property, just as rural residents do, but without having the surface of their property or their neighborhoods disturbed.
In rural areas, gas companies are paying thousands of dollars an acre to owners for leasing rights. There are 8,043 acres within the City of Binghamton. Imagine the wealth that could be distributed to city property owners, if the acreage beneath the city could be pooled on the owners’ behalf by the city , and then leased. Each parcel owner would get a pro rata share of lease proceeds based on their acreage. Since the city owns property, it would also get a share, and I would propose such funds go exclusively into a property tax reduction trust. Drilling could occur only on city owned property away from residential areas, and the royalties from any gas discovered beneath the city would be paid out in the same manner as lease proceeds.
Of course the county, state, and federal governments also own land within the city, and naturally, there would be a process that would have to be worked out with them before any such arrangements could begin. But since it appears there will be little movement forward regarding Marcellus Shale development in New York until at least 2011, there is time to consider, and further develop these ideas and proposals.
Since my administration will not be bogged down in party politics, there will be more time for exploring such potentially lucrative endeavors. Policy will come before politics, not the other way around, and the principal beneficiary will be the taxpayer.
Raising Morale/Encouraging Innovation
What I believe has been wholly overlooked, is the role low morale has played in decreasing city workforce productivity, and in turn, increasing costs to taxpayers. Based on my interactions with various members of the city workforce over recent years, it seems the current administration, and its predecessor, share a common management style. They speak to “their people”, but generally not to the people doing the bulk of the city’s work.
I am committed to changing that by visiting each major city facility monthly, and holding a general meeting with facility staff. I will be able to hear directly from those actually doing the day to day work at these facilities about what they think can be done to improve the city’s delivery of services, what I can do to improve the quality of their work environment, and I can tell them what I expect from them to improve what the taxpayers are getting from city government.
I have been impressed by some of the ideas I have heard, and dismayed that these ideas disappeared somewhere on the way to the top of the city’s food chain. When I am mayor, such ideas will not disappear on the way to the top. They will go straight to the top, and everything that can be done to implement them, will be done.
For instance, while I was touring the sewage treatment plant, I notice the huge quantities of water flowing there. I asked whether anything was being done to harness the enormous potential in that flow through use of turbines. I was advised there were indeed ideas, but no actions had been taken by the political leadership. I further asked how much we pay NYSEG to power that plant. The answer was $1.1 million. Then I asked, if the turbines were in the water, solar panels were on the roof, and the methane generated from the waste currently dissipating into the atmosphere was recaptured, to what extent could the plant become energy independent? The answer was 85%. That would represent a yearly savings of $935,000. What would the cost be to install that energy saving technology? I was told $5 million. So, at nearly a million dollars savings a year, the improvements would be payed for relatively quickly, and of course after that, the savings could go right into the pockets of ratepayers, used to improve the plant, or both; obviously attractive propositions.
When ideas that would make such propositions possible are ignored or quashed, worker incentive to come up with more of them is chilled. That makes for lower productivity, and conveys a sense to city workers that what they are doing doesn’t matter that much. I strongly believe if you are not conveying a sense to the people working for you that you believe what they are doing is important, they will not believe it is important, and worst of all, they will act like it is not important. Binghamton taxpayers need the exact opposite of that in city government, and I assure you, in my administration, that is the way it will be.
Establishing a Good Reputation
Just as in lives of individuals, municipalities need a good reputation to succeed. If an individual has a good reputation, good things are more likely to happen for them. If they have a bad reputation, they need to rely mostly on luck. Binghamton can no longer rely on luck. The 2010 Census will show Binghamton lost upper and middle income population. It will be the fourth such Census in a row. If the 2020 Census is to show an end to that trend, the city must establish the kind of reputation that inspires confidence in upper and middle income people; a reputation based on safety and cleanliness.
Accordingly, my goal is to establish the city’s reputation as the safest and cleanest city in upstate New York, because I believe from such a reputation, all the good things people want to see, like new families, new businesses and new investment, will flow. That will be accomplished by getting the city’s priorities straight, putting necessity before luxury as set forth above, and doing the not so glamorous, but important things city government ought to be doing exceedingly well over a sustained period. Only someone with a proven long term commitment to the city, and political independence is suited to lead that effort. I am the only candidate that is such a person.
Conquering Fear
None of what is proposed here can become reality, if voters are too afraid to break out of merely switching back and forth between the major parties, who have thoroughly demonstrated no ability to bring Binghamton to where it ought to be. No doubt both will be stoking that fear.
Party interests are very different from those of the people paying the freight, the people must recognize that, and reject the party interest driven politics that have damaged the city, before the damage becomes irreparable. The way to do that is by electing independent political leadership now.
In spite of all the problems besetting it, Binghamton still has a lot to offer, but only by playing to its strengths will it compete and win. The local political class dominated by the major parties has repeatedly proven it cannot and will not do that. I can, and I will do it.
My policy decisions will be guided by my constituents’ desires, and the dictates of my conscience, not party politics. I will work with anyone that has good ideas, and against anyone with bad ideas. For many years I have offered ideas about improving the city, not just when it came time to run for office, because I actually care about it. People know the difference between those with Binghamton in their heart, and politics in their heart. That is the difference between me, and the other candidates, and what will set my administration apart from the current one and its predecessor.
Among the local political class, and beyond, there is fear that you are on the verge of breaking free of the stranglehold they have so long had upon you. In a desperate attempt to prevent that, they will say or do anything in the coming days to infuse you with that fear, including going back one more time to the tiresome line about “throwing your vote away”. I urge you not to give in to that fear.
Stand strong, and you will get the change you want , and that the city has so long needed. Give in, and you will get the same old end to the same old political story, which spells death for our hometown. To those who want to listen, who want to see, and understand what is killing Binghamton I say, if you want to live, come with me.
Let’s consign the discredited party machine politics of the past to the ash heap of local history where they belong. Let’s forge a new political alignment in Binghamton among independent minded members of all parties, and have not just a change of faces in City Hall, but a change in philosophy that puts the people paying the freight first. Let’s make Binghamton’s new beginning…
Good ideas for improving the city. Keep up the push to personally meet potential voters for the big day-November 3rd.
Will do…thanks for all your encouragement and support, Terry.
A very impressive and impassioned plan. The real problem with government is politics and professional politicians, a concept you appear to firmly grasp. While I have to raise an eyebrow at things like putting too much faith in automated voice transcription, I like the fact that your ideas are bold… they show that you’re not afraid to consider new approaches to the city’s problems.
A suggestion: work on getting your name in the paper more. Mr. David is absolutely trouncing you in terms of publicity. Anytime Mayor Ryan says something, Mr. David’s comments are in the second paragraph, if not the headline. While I admittedly don’t closely follow city politics (I live a few miles outside the city limits), this is the first time I can remember hearing of you. I found this website from a link at the bottom of a Press and Sun online article… about Mr. David’s comments on Mayor Ryan’s budget.
Best of luck to you, Mr. Drazen. You sound like just the guy the city needs right now.
Thanks Chad. Regarding media, please understand that they unfortunately sometimes take the bait the professional pols are constantly casting about to contrive news and events. Mr. David is well schooled in those practices, as well as the others typically seen from the dominant political class. We do not engage in such practices, but we are always working to get fair coverage.
Mr. Drazen..
Although I am not a resident of Binghamton, I have become increasingly interested in the topic of pension reform with regard to NYS public employees.
I am interested as a taxpayer what a typical municipal, town, city employee is payed in terms of annual salary, numbers by job title etc. What were the difference in salarys versus place of employment (Binghamton, Vestal, Owego etc). What type of guarentees does a typical state employee receive; how much does he/or she contribut to his or her retrirement plan. In any event, I have sliced and diced this data (salary database) any number of ways.
If you haven’t allready obtained this data, please email and I will send the data to you, (if you are interested) You also mention ‘non profits’ and that half of the city is shouldering the entire property tax burden. I would like to know where this information is located as an analysis of this data might prove very interesting.
I would very much like to see the data you’ve compiled. Go ahead and email it to dwd@douglaswalterdrazen.com.
Information concerning city property can be obtained in the City Assessor’s Office.
I have correspondence by former Mayor Bucci June 1, 2003, stating that 42% of city properties are tax exempt. If that number had dropped dramatically since then, I think we would have heard. If anything, I believe it has risen, and that the Assessor’s information would confirm.
Doug, it’s too bad you’re clinically insane. I’d like to vote for a 3rd party candidate.
That I am “insane” has been the response for years from local party hacks on issues like gangs and child molesters. They denied the existence of those problems. Reasonable and honest people know who was being factual, and who was being fatuous. Speaking of fatuousness, I was not aware it was the practice of physicians to make “clinical” diagnoses, without having made an examination. There is no listing for you in the local phone book. So, I’ll go out on a limb, and posit that you are no doctor, and that you are definitely a jerk pretending to be one.
Doug great job!
I along with my neighbors will be out to vote for you.
People spreading the word to their neighbors is exactly what we need. Change is coming to Binghamton, in a big way.
You have my vote. I will spread the word. Hopefully enough people will realize how desperately this city needs someone who cares about the taxpayer. Goodbye cronyizm !
Word of mouth is how we’re going to win it. Thanks Gary. Hpoefully, we are on the cusp of a historic victory.
Doug,
What about leasing the golf course instead of outright selling it.
Leasing would require the same process as an outright sale, but would not bring in the immediate large cash infusion a sale would, and therefore no significant one time property tax cut, nor would it bring in a regular stream of tax revenue an outright sale would. So, I believe a sale would be a better arrangement for the taxpayer. Thanks for your inquiry.