The need for austerity is not theoretical. Residents are living it.
It is reflected in the 5.5% property tax increase, the consistent appearance of new fees, the current fees that multiply with every tax bill, and a municipal budget that shows a city spending roughly two dollars for every dollar it brings in. It is visible in aging infrastructure, flooding, deteriorating buildings, and departments that struggle to deliver basic services.
Against that backdrop, the City’s recent spending decisions deserve scrutiny.
$20,800 in Conference Travel
At the March 3 meeting of the Board of Estimate & Contract, the City approved five out-of-town conference trips totaling $13,800.
Those approvals follow another $7,000 in conference travel approved the previous month.
In two months, that is $20,800 in conference travel.
All approved unanimously. With virtually no discussion. Comptroller Darren Morton asked a few questions — but in the end, he did what he always does…
The “Free” Trip That Isn’t Free
One of the approved trips sends the Building Commissioner, Patrick Holder, to Las Vegas for four days to attend the Laserfiche Empower Conference at the Mandalay Bay Resort.
City officials noted that conference registration is covered by a third party. That does not make the trip free — far from it.
The City is still paying his salary, benefits, travel and lodging, and four days of lost work time.
The Building Department
The Las Vegas trip is particularly offensive given the condition of Mount Vernon’s Building Department, which residents and contractors regularly describe as a Kafkaesque nightmare.
- Permits routinely sit for months or years. I have personally been waiting an obscene amount of time to close a simple solar permit.
- Code enforcement is nearly nonexistent, and what enforcement does occur is wildly inconsistent.
- Buildings across Mount Vernon are literally falling apart. Just recently, a hole was discovered — by a resident — in the top deck of the Sidney Avenue parking garage, forcing part of the structure to close.
- And the Building Department itself — with its yellowed, crumbling, mold-infested walls — is a disgusting symbol of the City’s neglect. The condition of the office perfectly reflects the condition of the system it runs.
Under these circumstances, sending the department head — or any department employee — across the country to a resort conference in Las Vegas is not just inappropriate, it is outrageous. And it is one more slap in the face to the hardworking Mount Vernon taxpayers who are expected to foot the bill for a government that cannot even perform its most basic functions.
The Building Commissioner — especially this Building Commissioner — should be in the office fixing the department, not flying to Nevada for a four-day resort junket. The Building Department already has a Laserfiche contract. What it does not have is a functioning operation. And even if that conference offered something of genuine value, Laserfiche is records management software — not a tool the Building Commissioner should be running or overseeing in the first place. This is not a trip that required the commissioner. It was a trip the commissioner decided to take.
A Convenient Loophole
Another approved trip highlights a structural issue.
The Board of Water Supply received approval for a conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the ground that it operates outside the City’s austerity review protocols.
If austerity is real, however, it should apply everywhere our tax dollars are used, and the Board of Water Supply is most certainly wetting their beaks. In fact, Mount Vernon water bills just recently increased.
Austerity measures should apply not only to the Board of Water Supply, but also to the Mount Vernon Urban Renewal Agency and the Mount Vernon Industrial Development Agency.
At present, it does not. What sense does that make?
Meanwhile . . . a Portrait Ceremony
While approving travel under an austerity budget, the City is also planning a ceremony to unveil a portrait of former Comptroller Maureen Walker later this month.
That raises a simple question: Who is paying for the portrait?
If taxpayer funds are involved, residents deserve to know.
The ceremony also carries a certain irony.
Former Comptroller Deborah Reynolds has absorbed no shortage of blame over the past six years — from many of the very same officials now organizing this ceremony. But the problems did not start with Reynolds.
Maureen Walker served as Comptroller during former Mayor Ernie Davis’ tenure — a period marked by corruption and fiscal mismanagement that helped set the stage for the crisis Mount Vernon is living through today. The Comptroller’s job is to be a check on exactly that kind of behavior: to watch the books, flag the problems, and protect the public. Walker kept things looking orderly. What she did not do was sound the alarm. Whether she failed to see what was happening, or simply chose not to say anything, the result was the same.
So the ceremony carries a particular irony. The officials who spent years pointing fingers at Reynolds are now unveiling a portrait of the comptroller who came before her — the one who kept things looking fine while the foundation cracked.
So the real question is not simply whether Walker deserves a portrait. The real question is why Mount Vernon keeps honoring the very people who brought it to where it is right now.
This is performative nonsense. And it is exactly what we have come to expect from this administration.
Austerity Means Choices
Austerity is not a slogan. It is a set of priorities.
Mount Vernon residents are paying higher taxes, higher fees, and watching basic services continue to deteriorate.
City Hall is paying for unnecessary conferences, travel, and ceremonies.
If that’s what austerity looks like, it’s no wonder the City’s finances never improve.