25LINKBUDGET(FULL) - Flipbook - Page 18
City of Plymouth 2024 / 2025 Budget
key element to the overall quality of life, which again is highlighted in the Strategic plan, and
which is why we routinely participate with these organizations as members and in leadership
roles. Both the Lions club and the Rotary club have authorized matching grants worth hundreds
of thousands of dollars to the city for improvements in our neighborhood parks.
We must continually invest in or cultivate our employees to have them ready to take over
additional duties or to shift priorities as needs arise. The City Commission set as a part of their
strategic plan that Employee training and development is critical to our ability to have staff that
can handle a broad scope of work projects. At the same time, we need to recognize that our staff
is a valuable commodity in this labor market, and we often find that they are being recruited by
both the private and public sector. However, the current family or collegial atmosphere of our
administrative team makes Plymouth a very desirable place to work. In addition, we have a wellknown reputation for having a strong work culture and work environment.
The Recreation Department has finally got some much-needed help as we hired a backup person
to Steve Anderson and we have seen the expanded energy that Brandon puts into the operations.
Steve has a wealth of knowledge of our sports programs and building operations. Having a
backup to him is extremely critical. Having the ability to send staff to the Mparks and the NRPA
conferences also makes us a desirable place to work. We also need to be aware of the negative
impact of those people who are interested in creating an additional layer of bureaucracy in this
department. The City Commission is the board that authorizes funding and policies for the
Recreation Department. There is no need to create another layer for policy appeals, when the
current program of having the lead city board, the City Commission adopt recreation policies
that are in place and working for the betterment of the community and the city.
Our greatest challenge is that we have proven that we are able to cover and deliver a wide range
of visible governmental services with a limited staff and limited delivery failures. Our success
makes it very difficult for people to understand the stresses placed on our operations and why,
when priorities get shifted, some projects are eliminated or fall behind if the project cannot keep
pace with the flow of work and priorities. Again, we are a results-based organization, not a
process-based organization which is why when a project gets bogged down with process, we
tend to move resources to other priorities that deliver visible results quickly. The effects of
Proposal A and the Headlee Amendment, along with high inflation rates will continue to challenge
us as we maintain our efforts to reduce tax rates while delivering high quality services.
I would like to commend Finance Director John Scanlon, who is our team leader in developing
this budget. John and his staff have produced award-winning budgets, and our incredible group
of department heads has worked together to meet the goal of maintaining services. Our budget
is more than just a small group of numbers. Our budget is award-winning, because we have an
extensive amount of detail within the document in an effort to be fully transparent.
We need to be extremely aware of the actions of the various boards and commissions making it
clear that meetings are arranged and led by staff, as they are the people responsible for
compliance with various rules, regulations and policy set by the City Commission. Appointed
boards and commissions need to be fully aware of, and in compliance with, the City Commission's
strategic plan, as the other boards and commissions are subservient to the City Commission.
There are other “outside” influences on our operations. In particular, the status of the Plymouth
Canton Community Schools as they continue to use school of choice to fill vacant seats. The loss
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