Csaba Kulin on the facts & figures behind Taxpayers' Blues over Hallandale Beach City Hall's destructive spending habits

My friend and fellow Hallandale Beach activist Csaba Kulin wants everyone here who's paying attention to start getting ready for Hallandale Beach's FY 2012 budget, and provides some hard-to-believe financial numbers to chew over.

That is, if they don't make you choke first.

During the June 1st Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting, City Manager Mark Antonio mentioned that the first version of the 2011-2012 Budget will be on the City's web site by July 1, 2011.

That will give us very little time to prepare for the Monday July 18th and Tuesday the 19th budget workshops in Room 257 at City Hall, starting at 4 p.m.

In preparation for that meeting, I prepared a spread sheet from the data of the September 2010 (final version) of last year's budget. I hope the columns are self explanatory.

The bottom line tells the whole story.

The average salary of the 476 employees, from the CM to the clerks (including about 30 temporary part-time employees) is $56,158.

The average benefit is $37,825 or 67.35% of the payroll.

The AVERAGE cost per employee is $93,983.

Just a casual look at "Police, Uniformed Patrol, Dept. 2130" (page 120 of the Budget) has 1 Major, 3 Captains and 11 Sergeants for 10 police officers.

Is that a bit "top heavy"?

And that's NOT even the whole story.

Look at the disparity between the safety forces and most of the other departments.

How did the City get here and how can the City afford it?

I hope this will help you a bit to see the big picture.

HBPension_Benefits_&_ReformGmail.doc 32K View Download

------

As usual, Csaba has done his research.

Below, the schedule for HB City Commission/City Manager Workshops and Special Meetings as it appeared at Hallandale Beach City Hall when I snapped this photo of it on June 20th:

Click on the image to see it more clearly.