And he won't even need clean underwear

"We've tried to tailor the budget process to my schedule, such as it is. Because I'm on medical leave from my job until at least Oct. 24, I cannot attend any public meetings before that time (not to mention the chairs in Council chambers would probably discloate [sic] my new hip). So as far as I'm concerned, my public involvement in the budget process is on hold for the best part of October."

"That said, it did seem like you and other council members were trying to force a change in the process without my involvement, and I just had to hold up a red flag as chair of the committee in charge of the process. My approach may not have been most tactful, but at the time tact was a quality difficult for me to muster."

–Councilman Kirkner, writing to Councilman Wagner


Council consists of eight members. It takes five of the eight to conduct business. This system exists precisely so that our local government can continue to function without all Council Members present.

Councilman Kirkner not only clings to the delusion that he is indispensable, he has apparently decided that his personal participation in the budget is the most important objective, even if it means the exclusion of the six Members other than Mr. Messina and himself. And the public, of course, can be disregarded entirely.

The choice about Kinker's participation is, in any event, a false one. Has anyone considered just putting a speakerphone in the Council Chambers and letting Mr. Kirkner participate from home while Council does business in public as usual?

He said it himself

To see Council Member Kirkner's December 2006 eloquent praise (or is it self-congratulatory posturing) of an open public budget process go here.

A Pulitzer for the pusillanimous

Only in Phoenixville would the local paper run a column suggesting that the public needs to “get over” the fact that the government is intent on hiding the annual budget just as long as it can.

Lots of heads are better than none

The Manager's own schedule calls for having a first draft ready for the Council President and Finance Chair during the week of October 15.

Just distribute that material to the remaining six council members. (Hint: you just add the six addresses to your email.)

Indeed, why not put the draft on the Borough's official/semi-official/unofficial (your choice) website? (Hint: you just add one more address, the webmaster, to your email and ask him to put it up.)

Sooner or later trash is gonna getcha

The quarterly trash fee will revert to $55.25 for the fourth quarter, due to Council's failure to address this issue properly in June (or earlier).

That will result in a shortfall of about $90K from what the Borough needed to collect.

Where's the cash going to come from?

What will the Council need to do in January to fix the problem?

Call your Council Member and ask him or her to explain it to you. Contact information for the Council Members can be found at the Borough's unofficial site.

In the market for a corrupt, nightmare budget?

“Last year’s budget sheets are corrupt,” [Borough Finance Director Nease] said. “We’re in the process of reconstructing all of it. It has been kind of a nightmare.”

By the new schedule, Borough administration budget recommendations would not be submitted for final review by finance committee chair Rich Kirkner (D-North) and Council president John Messina (D-North) until November 5.

All Council members would not see the results until November 13.
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[Borough Manager DiGirolomo] said further that Council “will have a ‘Chinese menu’” of policy and budget alternatives before them at the November 13 meeting. Besides, he said, he expected that Kirkner and Messina would “be working with you guys behind the scenes” well before that meeting.

–The Phoenix, September 26, 2007


It’s been a nightmare, all right. And the new budget process seems to guarantee that the nightmare will only continue.

Stand up and be counted

Last year, public meetings for discussion of Phoenixville’s budget started at the end of August. In response to the obvious success of that undertaking, the Council President has decided to prepare the first drafts in secret, not only outside the public eye, but hidden even from the other Council Members.

Council Members do not have to accept this. The Council can direct that the budget be taken up in public and can direct the Manager to furnish the draft budget to all Members.

Council does not have to wait until the October 9th council meeting to press the point. The written request of one third of the council is all that is needed to convene a special meeting (53 P.S. §46006).

Are there three Council Members who will stand up for the public they have been elected to serve?