Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Fund Games and Property Management


Tucson, Arizona. The city of Tucson provides taxpayer dollars to numerous outside agencies to provide a variety of services for the community. In most cases the outside agencies and consultants are listed in the budget, such as the following (all dollars are per fiscal year):


Southern Arizona Regional Science and Engineering Fair $12,510
El Tour de Tucson $30,000
Pima College Job Fair $9,610
Tucson Gem and Mineral Society $32,450
88-Crime $16,580
Community Mediation Program $54,830
Crime Prevention League $14,980
Elder Shelter $52,000
Humane Society $18,030
Metropolitan Education Commission $70,840
Pima County - Tucson Women’s Commission $51,750
Temple of Music and Art $100,000
Tucson Botanical Gardens $54,070
Tucson Children's Museum $86,860
Tucson Museum of Art $85,790
Tucson - Pima Arts Council $691,030


For cloth associated activity they create a "Non-Departmental General Expense." The italics are directly from page 210 of the budget detail.

GENERAL EXPENSE Services
The General Expense program provides centralized budget capacity and accounting and management control for expenditures that are not directly associated with the programs of city departments.


For reasons one might guess, the city does not itemize who gets this money, about $30M per year. Word is that the following are among the recipients:

Agency (Accountability) Funding Amount

Twiddledee (Fondle self) $110,000
Twiddledum (Twiddledee’s Assistant) $45,000
Schneederpuss (Meeting Coordination) $95,000
Schnoppinuttin (Rio Nuevo Public Relations) $125,000
Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities (Cloth PR) $1.2 million
Metro Tucson Convention Visitor’s Bureau (Resort PR) $4 + million
Twoddlehurf (Economic Development Consultant) $385,000
Nootinwad (Rio Nuevo Consultant) $400,000
Schleppinlode (TREO Travel Consultant) $85,000
Dickindurt (Strategic Planning Committee Selection Consultant) $210,000
KMS (Blueprint Planning and Publication Consultant) $315,000
Parkinflubber (Furniture Consultant) $70,000
Flabbinwoven (Wardrobe Consultant) $65,000
Weevinthred (Economic Development Consultant) $35,000
Powerdigm (Strategic Planning Consultant/Facilitation Services) $330,000
Cheesefinders (Cloth Consultant Selection Services) $270,000


I can’t speak for the rest of the cloth in terms of the county, but word is that it cut TREO’s funding by $320,000. As a result (in a twist of irony readers of Something Else will find positively exquisite) TREO is going to LEASE SPACE, i.e. rent as many as possible of the dozens of empty cubicles in their facility. Wesley Mouche himself is going into the property management business!!!.

I am so disappointed, Mouche. Why don’t you charge for those job training grants that were going to make a $1M+/year for SAIAT? If you were providing anything of value for the community, you would be self-sufficient. Requiring public funding is a reflection of bad management decisions.

REMEMBER?

3 Comments:

Blogger TexPatriate said...

Karma bites are the worst, even worse than pit bulls.

*giggling*

6/18/2008 7:18 AM  
Blogger Liza said...

The list of "general expense" recipients is so funny.

What do you have to do to become a beneficiary of one of these programs? I could certainly be a "cheesefinder" if called upon to do so and compensated so well.

I hope that TREO got a cut. Too bad the City is too wimpie to take their 1.2 mil and effectively kill the beast.

6/18/2008 1:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hilarious.

I particularly like the furniture consultant "Parkinflubber."

Your humor and way of hitting the nail on the head is refreshing.

Of course they hide the funding of foolishness and unproductive buffoons so it is less subject to scrutiny and criticism.

Would YOU want it in limelights that you gave millions of dollars to the characters funded under that line item?

6/18/2008 3:52 PM  

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