Help Historic Fort Wayne!
I understand that there are many needs that require attention with the City budget. However, if you are interested, please read below a message regarding Historic Fort Wayne Detroit. More information will be following, should you be interested in helping pursue a more positive end to this historic site.
"Dear Historic Fort Wayne Coalition Membership,
This is a preliminary note for a message from Tom Berlucchi, Chairman Historic Fort Wayne Coalition. His note will be forthcoming upon completion.
The situation with the status of Historic Fort Wayne is tremendously precarious due to the current proposed Detroit City Council budget and Mayor Bing's veto. The budget recommendations, as written, will strip enough money from the Department of Parks and Recreation to result in the closing of Historic Fort Wayne.
Within the Chairman's message will be information for you to contact the Detroit City Council to advocate on behalf of the Department of Parks and Recreation. Speaking for the Chairman at this point, I can only urge you to contact via phone, via email and to disburse this information to anyone willing to advocate for Historic Fort Wayne. Preservationist, living historians - it does not matter. Please forward the following Chairman's message to your respective groups to express your concern in this matter.
PLEASE - DO NOT HESITATE in voicing your opinion about the proposed budget cuts for Parks and Recreation that may result in the closing of Historic Fort Wayne. I cannot express the urgency or the need for your support in this matter whether you are an active member of the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition or not.
I am sorry to have to write to you regarding this at this time. I will submit to you the Chairman's message as soon as I receive it and look forward to your support with this.
Regards,
Thomas Steele
Secretary
Historic Fort Wayne Coalition"
Message from the Chairman - Historic Fort Wayne Coalition
Here is the message from the Chairman of the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition, Thomas Berlucchi.
Within the message is information with which one can send along an email to the City Council voicing discontent with the budget cuts proposed to be levied on the Department of Parks and Recreation. Also, at the conclusion of the message are several A.P. articles regarding the budget cuts and amounts being discussed at the special meeting tomorrow.
Regards,
Thomas Steele
Secretary
Historic Fort Wayne Coalition
"Good Evening to All Members,
As Chairman of our Organization I am asking you to assist our partners the City of Detroit Recreation Department in their struggle to maintain an efficient operational budget. On Friday, June 4 at 7:00 pm the Detroit City Council will be voting on over-riding Mayor Bing’s veto of the City Council Budget. I have petitioned the City Clerk’s office today to be allowed to address the Council at this meeting pertaining their purposed budget cuts to the Recreation Department and how it affects the operation of Historic Fort Wayne.
I am asking you all to contact the City Council Members to consider that their budget recommendations to cut another $1 million from the Mayor’s budget for the Recreation Department will have adverse effects on many programs provided through the existing Recreation Centers and Historic Fort Wayne. This additional cut to this department will greatly affect the standards of programming for the kids of the City of Detroit. Since FY 2004 the Recreation Department has experienced close to 1/3 of it operational budget to date declined.
The vote on Friday will determine the fate of Fort Wayne. I have spent the last 9 years working with the different City partners to keep the Fort operating to achieve sustainable levels of revenue. The Historic Fort Wayne Coalition was founded to keep the Fort open, operating safely for visitors through proper restoration and preservation programs and to bring first class events to the site. The City of Detroit Recreation Department was given site control without additional budgetary funding for the site. They have relied on us to assist them in keeping the Fort operational and providing a positive image for the City. We have accomplished those tasks given many difficult times. I have attached below for you news reports and a statement of what the City Council Budget will do to our partner but I also want you to see the cuts that are being proposed to other City of Detroit Departments. I do not live in the City of Detroit but I am proud to tell people I am associated with the City of Detroit through Historic Fort Wayne. I urge you all to contact City Council Members to deter them from over-riding the veto. The City Recreation Department cannot provide the programs to the kids of this City with the closing of two more recreation centers, cut back in additional educational programs, the loss of youth programming.
Remember, when the Fort was closed in 1991, it took until 2001 for us to get it back open! We need to voice our concerns to this issue with council even if you do not live in the City. We are committed to keeping open one of our State’s greatest historical gems- Historic Fort Wayne. Please step up and contact the Council and voice your concerns. Also please forward any of this information to anyone that you know.
HERE is the Link to City Council: http://www.detroitmi.gov/legislative_old/complaints/complaints.asp
This is an online form you’ll need to fill in. Be sure to fill in at least the spaces with text titles in red. In the column “Send Complaint To” please choose “All Council Persons.” In the next box below, “The Complaint is about” choose “Other” and then fill in your thoughts on closing Fort Wayne. Encourage them not to over-ride the Mayor’s veto. Let them know you want to see the Fort stay open!
Yours in the Fort,
Thomas G. Berlucchi
Chairman Historic Fort Wayne Coalition
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DETROIT [[AP) -- Mayor Dave Bing has vetoed a proposed budget by the Detroit City Council. Bing says Wednesday in an e-mailed statement that the council's budget "would impose service cuts that run counter to the priorities of" his administration.
The council wants to cut $32 million more from the budget than Bing has recommended, including $6.7 million from police. General services also would have gotten $9 million less in funding than what Bing has proposed. The budget has to be approved by the start of the fiscal year July 1.
A super-majority of the 9-member council is needed to override Bing's veto.
Bing says his budget reduces a $300 million deficit to $85 million. A council analyst says that figure will be closer to $125 million.
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has vetoed the Detroit City Council’s changes to his proposed budget.
Bing’s $2.9 billion budget, down from fiscal 2009-2010’s $3.7 billion budget, didn’t go far enough, the council said.
Bing said his budget cuts the city’s ongoing deficit to $85 million from more than $300 million. The council’s fiscal analyst says the number is closer to $125 million.
Bing said that the council’s proposed changes don’t line up with his administration’s priorities.
“Council’s budget would impose service cuts that run counter to the priorities of this administration, leaving me no choice but to exercise my veto power,” Bing wrote in a statement.
“I remain committed to cooperating with our City Council to attack our fiscal crisis however we must do so without compromising our ability to provide public safety, support job creation and maintain financial stability in the City of Detroit.”
The council can override Bing’s veto with a six-vote super-majority.
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing vetoed the City Council's 2010-11 budget on Wednesday, warning further cuts to the spending plan would jeopardize city services.
"Council's budget would impose service cuts that run counter to the priorities of this administration, leaving me no choice but to exercise my veto power," Bing said in a statement. "I remain committed to cooperating with our City Council to attack our fiscal crisis, however we must do so without compromising our ability to provide public safety, support job creation and maintain financial stability in the City of Detroit."
Bing, who presented his $3.1-billion proposed budget to the council on April 13, trimmed $101 million from the city's financial plan. The mayor insisted that his budget was a well thought out and strategic approach to addressing the fiscal instability that has long plagued the city.
Still, council members said Bing did not make deep enough cuts. The body approved its version of the budget on May 21, cutting an additional $31.8 million from what Bing proposed. On Wednesday, Bing exercised his line-item veto power for more than 65 items in the council's proposal.
The council, among other cuts, defunded the 311 call center, and reduced appropriations of $9.1 million from the General Services Department; $6.7 million from the police department; $3 million from the fire department; $2.39 million from the Department of Health and Wellness Promotion; $500,000 from the subsidy for the People Mover, and $216,000 in car stipends and cell phones.
Council members had anticipated a standoff with a Bing veto when it sent the budget back to the mayor last month.
In recent weeks, before and after the council sent its budget amendments back to the mayor, council President Pro Tem Gary Brown has said the council would have the votes to override a veto.
On Wednesday, Brown said he still planned to vote to override the veto, but didn't "have a sense of whether or not we have the votes."
He said the council's cuts are part of a four-year strategy to pay off the city's $124-million deficit, a figure projected by the council's fiscal analyst. He also said the council is willing to adjust the budget if the $40 million in revenues projected by the Bing administration are realized.
"We just don't think he cut [[the deficit) enough," Brown said. "The council is being a little more conservative in our approach."
In his veto letter to council, Bing charged that the body made the reductions with "no apparent rationale or substantive data."
"The items of greatest concern are the drastic reductions made by your honorable body in our public safety and frontline departments," he wrote. "The police and fire departments justifiably represent the largest portions of our budget... To compromise that at a time when we need it most undermines our basic responsibility and ignores our reality."
Administration officials said the council's cuts could require layoffs in the police and fire departments; the closure of some recreation centers, and the elimination of youth and senior programming.
Council is to hold a special session Friday to decide whether it will override the veto. It would need a super-majority of six votes to override any veto.