American Rescue Plan – Change My Mind

Like my colleagues, I’m sure, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to spend the $9M I discussed in my Christmas In July post.

I’ve received dozens of messages about this. Many are very detailed proposals showing a concern for civic life that is seriously wonderful.  And they spread the gamut. “More police!” to “no police!” to “spend it all on relief programs!” to “rebuild the downtown!” to “fix my road before people DIE!” (four of those so far.)

Money decisions used to be so simple…

One good thing about being a typically strapped small City. It usually makes money decisions simple. Since there’s usually no money, there’s no decision. Simple. 😀

All these people who write care deeply. Many of their ideas are just wonderful and seem so reasonable. Unfortunately, they are also, totally impossible.

Sorry. I should be more sensitive when bursting the balloon. But one reason I wanted to join the City Council is because I’ve had such a great experience in this area over the past quarter century. And, like many people, instead of things getting progressively better, I’ve started seeing it slip away from the next generation. I look at everyone’s Laundry List of ideas and I think, “Why aren’t all these things possible?” I mean, people aren’t asking for wild Louis XIV shit like:

“Ferraris and Unicorns: for everyone!”

They just want normal stuff. Traffic calming. A charging station. A shuttle bus. A park. A community center. A cop on the beat. A market. A sidewalk next to a school. Some trees. Not a lot to ask, right?

I whipped out a cocktail napkin and totted up just the things I knew the general price of and stopped at $50M. No lie. To do all the reasonable stuff people asked for… stuff that probably sounds like standard equipment for a successful mid-twentieth-century city… is in the “if you have to ask you can’t afford it” price range.

I’m not trying to be depressing here. I’m just telling you that since everything you’ve suggested seems so reasonable, it also seems impossible  to ask the City Council to choose based on ‘reasonable’ or ‘worthy’. They’re all reasonable things; not extravagances.

The clock is ticking…

The City Manager asked us to hand in our suggestions by tomorrow. Which seems ridiculous to me and it’s made me realize that I simply don’t have enough information to recommend anything. I’ve called various agencies and asked them, “How much do you need?” And they also need time to provide a number.

I’m watching how other cities are doing surveys, of business and individual needs and that makes a lot of sense to me. But those take time to do.

Frankly, I don’t want to commit to any idea without (my favourite word) ‘data’. I don’t want to say “$100,000 for business grants” without knowing why that particular number.

My first two ideas

So as of Sunday night, I’ll just tell ya the only two ideas I’ve come up with so far that make sense to me. I guess both will appear ‘extreme’ or at least unsexy. But the more I look at your list of ideas, the smaller $9M looks. And the more I look at the City Manager’s ideas, the more ‘meh’ they look to me. Don’t get me wrong. I mean, most (not all) seem like ‘responsible’ things to do. But since this is a one-time deal, I was hoping for more than that.

#1 Do nothing

So since I have no burning inspiration at the moment, if it were up to me, I’d direct the administration to get to work on some surveys of businesses, non-profits, individuals and come back with some numbers, maybe in September. Then we decide. Or not. Maybe we take even more time.

Several people have asked about a Town Hall, and I’m fine with that. But I’m reluctant to even do that until we have those numbers. I don’t want to us to talk with the public without being able to share what is possible.

#2 OK, But if you had to choose?

You little arm twister, you. OK, if I had to choose, I mean right now, I’d probably throw the entire $9M into replacing the Marina docks. I don’t mean restrooms or multi-purpose buildings or anything on the land side. Just the actual docks. Also known as ‘those things that bring in money’.

Yeah, that might seem extreme, or at least unsexy, but the docks must be replaced. And going all-in does a few things you might like:

• First, it’s cheaper. A lot cheaper. Spreading the project out over 15-20 years (the current plan), adds seriously to the total cost.
• Second, the quicker we get docks replaced, the quicker they start bringing in more money than they do now. A big part of the dock replacement involves re-sizing the slips to accommodate larger boats. Larger boats = More money. The quicker that happens, the more money we generate. And the more money we generate, the faster we can complete the whole shebang. It’s a virtuous circle.
  
• Third, it could buy us time; many years of time for better planning. It completely removes any pressure to start developing the land side now. We could use that time to get the public input we needed in the first place and have a real discussion as to what the entire town wants the Marina Floor to be for the next fifty years.

As I said, I know this sounds about as sexy as a flannel night gown, but at the moment, I’m having difficulty thinking of a better strategy. It addresses an imminent need, it helps us achieve our long term goals, it saves a ton of public money, and all that fiscal responsibility jazz aside, it avoids doing the wrong things to the Marina Floor.

In our short history, we’ve made a number of really big planning errors–things that have kept us from becoming the ‘waterfront town’ we all like to dream about. I really want to find a way to slow things and get that right.

It was all a dream

OK, none of that is going to happen, so remain calm. 🙂

I know many of you want to use as much of this money as possible for immediate relief. I hear you. But I also look at some of our neighbouring cities, who are doing so much better financially, and I see how they are now able to do a lot more for their communities on an ongoing basis. And I want us to be able to do that as well. Not just this one year. I mean every year. Because the truth is: yeah, it’s been horrible, but we have growing and unmet human services needs every year. If there was a way to use this money to improve our permanent human services budget, I would be inclined towards heading in that direction.

Also, there are traps to almost every line item on the draft proposal. Just one example: I know how much many of you want more police. But I look at the City Manager’s draft and it funds new police for only two years. So I ask myself, “then what?” We’re currently spending well over half the City’s budget on public safety. So as much as I also want safer neighbourhoods, I don’t want to start down that road without knowing we’ll have the money.

Again: there are gotchas like that with every line item on the draft proposal.

Show me the money…

What Des Moines needs, what Des Moines has always needed, is more money. More sustainable money. Not grants. Not one-time permit fees. There are all these things residents have always wanted and will always want: human service programs, sidewalks, housing, education, infrastructure, restaurants. Things that we can never afford. We just can’t.

The current majority balanced the books largely by maxing out Utility Taxes–which I despise for many reasons. But even if you love them, this is as far as they go. Des Moines has to find a new way to get generate more ongoing revenue in order to face the future.

And in closing…

Anyhoo… it’s a choice. Or rather, a spectrum of choices: Somewhere between short term relief or planning for the future.

And I guess those are the two edge cases my mind wandered to this Sunday night:

• We need more time to decide.
• How could we use this money to make money?

But as that guy at the park says: Change my mind. 😀