Balanced City budgets and fiscal discipline

By Gordon Siebert

My experience includes balancing city budgets and improving municipal efficiency. My business background includes running my own successful businesses and managing large consulting firms as a partner/owner.

We are in a better financial situation than many other cities because we have saved for a rainy day. And there is no doubt that the rainy day is upon us. I believe we should prudently use our reserves now to prevent cuts to the bone that will be impossible to recover from in the future.

We need a balanced approach that leaves us in the best position to recover and make Morgan Hill even better in the future.

Every Council candidate will tell you the importance of balancing the budget. I've actually done it. In 1990, while serving as Morgan Hill's interim Finance Director, I worked with staff to advise and inform the city manager on the budget. Left unchecked, it was projected to have a 25% deficit at year's end. My recommendations were used that year to balance the city's budget.

Morgan Hill currently has a $25 million General Fund budget, most of which pays for vital public safety services for our local police department and contracted fire department. Current projections show its cash balance dropping over the next five years. So it's up to Council to reverse that trend. It's not enough to know that it must be done. It will take the knowledge and experience I've gained in 35 years of local government public service to know HOW to do it.

I will explore greater efficiency through job sharing, increased use of technology, and pursuit of lower benefit costs in cooperation with the City's staff. In addition, the City should grow revenue through strategic efforts by helping local businesses expand and new ones to locate here.

While the focus must be on the General Fund, bear in mind that it is only one-sixth of the $150 million corporate enterprise that the Council controls.

Having managed municipal budgets and private enterprises, including over $500 million in capital projects for San Jose as well as Morgan Hill's water, sewer, refuse, streets and parks operations, I not only know what needs to be done but also know HOW to do it.

MY BUDGETING and FINANCIAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Worked with the City Attorney in Morgan Hill to collect over $2 million in damages to offset costs of repairing failed water pipes
• Reorganized city departments to reduce costs and increase productivity while serving as City Manager of Palos Verdes Estates
• As Budget Director in Rockville, MD, lowered the property tax rate 3 years in a row
• Established sewer rates in Morgan Hill to fund the construction of an environmentally superior sewer plant in cooperation with Gilroy
• Competed for and won grants that brought in millions of dollars for capital projects and to initiate desired new programs
• Raised over $40,000 for the local American Public Works Association chapter in fees and sponsorships for a one-day storm water seminar