Good move
Fike right to drop survey We’re glad to see the Uniontown Mayor Ed Fike has dropped his plans to survey city residents on whether they would rather see a cut in services or in increase in taxes.
The mayor had proposed the plan, but firefighters objected to some of the wording in the questionnaire. The mayor then decided that trying to make everyone happy was impossible and junked the survey.
We feared such problems when Fike proposed the idea. In addition to the wording, there would have been questions about residents stuffing the ballot in favor of either choice, how the surveys would be distributed and in the end who was counting the surveys.
It all would have added up to one big mess, which would have resolved nothing.
City residents did not elect Fike and council in order for them to serve as a polling center. While it is imperative that the mayor talk to the residents and get the feel of the community, relying on a survey to make decisions for you is not what voters had in mind when they sent Fike to city hall.
After all, the mayor and council were elected to make such decisions. They ran for the office, saying they wanted to do the job. Now, they just have to make the best decisions possible, and only time will tell if they’re the right ones or not.
There’s no doubt, though, that there are some very difficult decisions to be made. Faced with a $220,700 deficit, council must find a way to come up with a balanced budget by the end of the year. With city taxes already sky high, raising them even more is simply not an option.
No, the only way out is to trim expenses and city officials will have to do their due diligence in coming up with cuts that cause the least harm.
It’s interesting to note that three former mayors sent Fike a letter asking him to avoid laying off firefighters at all costs. While that’s an admirable sentiment, it’s not particularly realistic. We hope that firefighters are laid off only as a last resort, but they must be in the mix. They are city employees and must come under the microscope as their fellow city workers.
One thing for certain is that any layoffs at this point can’t come as a surprise to city employees, particularly firefighters. The cutbacks have been discussed at length, and anyone paying attention knows that some furloughs are certainly coming.
Let’s hope that Fike and council can find way to balance the budget without any layoffs, especially firefighters. But if there are no other alternatives than Fike and council must be prepared to do whatever is necessary to get the city back in the black, no matter how unpopular the moves are with some city residents.
Shelving the survey was a good first step, but it was also the easiest. Now, the hard part comes in making those tough decisions Fike and council were elected to make.