September 30, 2004

EDITORIAL

Moving forward on fiscal plan

If Village Council plans to fulfill one of its 2004 goals and complete a five-year sustainable financial plan for the Village, Council members are going to have to move forward soon with a mechanism to gauge public opinion about Village services.

Council’s goal is to create a plan that will help the Village increase revenue, reduce expenses and address a long and costly list of capital projects. Council has been working on educational material, including a brochure outlining information about the Village’s financial picture that will be distributed to households and businesses in town.

Council members have stressed their desire to receive feedback from the community before committing to a specific plan. Through a survey, Council wants to know what Village services Yellow Springers value and want to keep or reduce, and how they would pay for them. (Council has selected a limited number of items to include in the survey.) In addition, Council wants to gauge how much residential and business growth the community is comfortable with.

Council’s debate on the survey centers on the mechanism to use, with the help of Wright State’s Center for Urban Planning & Affairs. Council member Jocelyn Hardman has lobbied for a random telephone survey, which she calls “scientifically defensible” and would provide a “good snapshot” of what local residents think. On the other side is Council member Mary J. Alexander, who has argued for a mailed survey that would be distributed to every household in town. This, she has said, would give everyone in Yellow Springs a voice and a chance to participate in the creation of the plan. Other Council members, including George Pitstick, have said that they support doing both types of surveys, which, Mr. Pitstick has said, would give Council both scientifically based information and more detailed responses that often can come with “pen-and-paper” questionnaires. It also appears likely that Council will organize town meetings to disseminate and generate feedback on the survey results. All of these ideas have merit and any will help Council get the information it wants.

While Council members support the use of a survey, right now, Council is split on choosing a mechanism. This was evident at a special Council meeting on Monday that focused on the finance plan. As Ms. Alexander said of Ms. Hardman, “I’m as firm on my idea as Jocelyn is on hers.”

At this point, Council’s debate on what survey method to use is starting to feel like one of those meetings where the participants spend more time discussing the type of table at which they sit than their ultimate goal. Council had hoped to complete the plan by the end of the year, but that seems unlikely today. After months of debate, it is time for Council members to settle on a survey method, so they can move closer to the more important, and challenging, task of actually creating the financial plan. If Council members have such a hard time deciding what survey method to use, image how difficult it will be if, and when, they must chose to cut services.

—Robert Mihalek