Menlo Park budget dips into reserves

The next comment here will be to the effect that this city needs people running it who understand how to manage budgets and make hard decisions.

What they won't say is that the two council members quoted in this article have more business experience than most council members who have served over the past ten years.

It is silly really, to expect this forum to change. This is all about politics and elections.

Just wait for it...(and for the record, I did not vote for Boyle but I have enough respect for what he brings not to be childish).

Enough Kelly


The City Council should work on cutting expenses before going into OUR reserves. Cutting some highly paid positions is a start.

Such an important story for the hometown of the Almanac on the Tues meeting - so why the heck does it take the Almanac three days for the story to show up online!

Taking half a million dollars from a $25 million dollar reserve during a recession doesn't sound unreasonable or irresponsible to me. From what I've been reading, it sounds as if the city really is trying to get costs under control, including the fastest-rising costs: employee compensation. I just hope they can put the brakes on that spending fast enough to save services that are important to the community.

I would be interested to learn to what extent services have been cut. I think certain ones have reached an unacceptable level as it seems that many of the streets in town are in bad condition (a safety issue) and others quickly deteriorating. Often the city balances the budget by postponing needed maintenance and repairs, and it appears that this has been going on for too long.
ANother possibility is that the city's specifications quality standards are inadequate for the amount of heavy traffic that our development-crazed city allows?