As I stated earlier, expenditures are included. YOU’VE GOT TO KNOW WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING AND WHY.

The unfortunate part of the equation is the fact that until now, most governmental entities were never zero budget based.

They are beginning to see the light and Sunrise is one of the first.

Yes there are times when unexpected expenditures arise and that’s what contingency budgets are all about. You expect to spend zero, but that’s not real life.

Some unions want to dip into those funds for raises. (Are you listening BTU?) It’ll never happen.

For city budgets to be efficient, they MUST compare both year to year and month to month. INCOME AND EXPENDITURE.

I once had an e-mail discussion with a student at Taravella high school who wanted to essentially burn Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer because of the “N” word. Here’s the message that he just couldn’t comprehend:

You’ve got to know where you’ve been before you can possibly know where you want to go.

It applies to history.

It applies to budgeting.

You actually can sit there and write with indignation about increased collection of fines?

Run a lot of red lights, do you?

Speeder perhaps?

Damn, the drugs you’re taking must be good…

Those fines where Stuart has been stepping up collections on are not so trivial. Not on residents, either.

$36,000 fine to a waste collection company interfering with our contracted hauler. Trivial? I think not unless you’re part of it (But I suspect not.)

$201,000 in forfeiture money from drug dealers and other highly illegal enterprises?

They turn into things like body armor and other police supplies. Protecting the citizens of Sunrise and all that…

You can’t possibly have a problem with that? Could you?

Apparently you either weren’t at Tuesday’s meeting or you were in the snack room down the hall.

Which one of us is asleep at the switch?

Please tell us who’s been handing you this crap.

As to the former West Broward Lawyer…

I’ve known Ilene for years and Stuart admittedly for a lot less time. But I’ve know him by reputation just about as long as I’ve known Ilene.

Everybody knows that Stuart is being monitored, especially Stuart. Knowing what I know, I fully expect him to cross the finish line well ahead of expectations.

What we have in Michelson is what Sunrise has needed since I’ve been a resident, and that’s a City Attorney who is not beholden to an authoritarian demagogue of a City Manager and a SPINELESS City Commission of which there is currently only one remaining member.

And if I could have replaced the School Board Attorney, I would have voted to choose somebody like Stuart and company.

I’m guessing there’s a reason why there’s past tense in your “worked in West Broward.”

For my book, keep it that way.

Also, the part of the increased fines being collected has alot to say about Stuart and your mentality. Why would you step up pressure and fines on residents in this downward spiraling economy. In case you were sleeping thru the last 12 months, millions of Americans have lost thier jobs and homes, and millions more are on the edge of the same consequenses.

So Marty, do not tell me what a great job Stuart and this commission are doing collecting fines. They have forgotten the very reason they were elected in the first place, which was to protect the citizens of Sunrise. Period and end of discussion.

Projections are made and month to month, data is compared with data from the same month in the previous year. Both income and expenditures.

Waiting a year to find out what the trends are is a fatal move for any entity new or established.

There is always the unexpected expenditure, but trends still map out month to month.

And posters in New Times and elsewhere were calling me an apologist for Sunrise…

Hmm… Apologies accepted!

Keep up the good work Stuart!