Protect South Shore Homeowners and Business from overburdened property taxes while ensuring necessary services by:
- Find economies of services and proper audit of county departments
- Demand fiduciary oversight of county government
- Provide proper oversight of the requests from the county executive office
- Use public/private partnerships where appropriate for county services
- Continue to redesign employee benefits including pension and health care plans.
- I serve as the Chair of the Long Range Strategic Planning Committee. The stated mission of this committee was to find ways to reduce the structural deficit that has been plaguing county government. Our committee successfully wrote two very important Resolutions that will lead to a healthier budget: the first is to downsize the facility holdings of government and make better use of county space, the second is to over-haul the human resource function of government.
Using audits is a good way to get specific departmental oversight and information. I sponsored several resolutions to require audits. Most recently I asked to audit the Sheriff’s department. I wanted to find whether we were making the best use of forfeiture money that the sheriff receives in his budget to support the role of the deputies, and not just purchasing the newest in bells and whistles. These kinds of audits can give board members very good insight into the details of individual departments.
I have sponsored and supported an overhaul of employee benefit structures. Since my first term in office, we have increased the health care deductions for both employees and retirees. We have also required that employees now pay ½ of their county sponsored pension plans. I continue to support a thorough review and change of the pension backdrop plans that were so controversial in the early part of the last decade.
Our strategic planning initiative will continue to overhaul our employee benefit structures and at the same time put succession planning into focus. We must insist that our county wage and benefit structure is in line with both private and public sectors.
