So, the City Administrator had a meeting with the union represented employees today to discuss the City's financial situation. Somehow, between the Tuesday work session and today's meeting with employees, things have changed again.

Several of us left the Tuesday work session believing the decision had been made to accept all cuts put on the table by the departments a couple of weeks back in work session, except for the cuts to personnel in the Police Dept.

In today's meeting, employees were told that everything is back on the table. I understand that to mean staff, too. And, not just PD staff.

Is there no communication in this place? And, how long will employees be left hanging out to dry? What happened between Tuesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon? And, where did it happen? Behind closed doors?

No one seems to know the answers, but the decision to convene a special Council work session on Wednesday, December 10, at 4:00 p.m. leads some of us to believe it could be important to be in attendance. Maybe a show of faces--employees and citizens--will get these guys off the dime. Time for some decisions.

I suggest we all be there if we can. Pet projects (whine, whine, I know) need to be set aside and the good of the City as a whole needs to take precidence. Essential staff is just that: essential.

Maybe they should just "can" the Judge since earlier this year they seemed to think they could do her job better (and less expensively) than she does. And, maybe they can terminate some of the more frivolous staff positions while they're at it.

Maybe we just need a big, bad case of employee flu to see just how well the City runs without staff. It's a fair bet that SH would do better without three of the existing councilmen than wihtout existing staff. (I'd say four of the councilmen but Charles Grant has just flown the coop--sore loser or did he just never care?? Nice time to bail, Chas.)

One thing, for sure, I'm very curious as to what the delay is. They seem to all have acknowledged on Tuesday that they were finally aware there is a problem with the budget; how long do they think they can delay making some decisions?

And, lastly, just to stick a thorn in the sides of the three "pet project boys" I am sorely tempted to transcribe the minutes of the May 27 joint meeting between the City Council and the Budget Committee where Marilyn Peterson clearly stated the $1.2 million issue, and some Budget Committee members clearly indicated their understanding of the issues and asked the council to step up.

Maybe I'll send copies of the transcribed joint meeting minutes to Locke, Barlow, and Morten, and for good measure, to the Spotlight as well. Enough people in St. Helens will be struggling this holiday season, why shouldn't these guys feel a little discomfort as well?