Garland Voters Polled1

Garland Voters Polled The ‘ Garland Fire Fighters Community Interest Committee’ commissioned a survey on Monday, August 24th to ascertain the views of Garland voters on a number of issues facing the City of Garland . The survey was conducted by the firm Conquest Communications Group in Richmond, Virginia and overseen by veteran public relations and political consultant Joe Counter whose firm, FACT (Firefighters Advocacy Corporation of Texas), works with eight of the ten largest firefighter groups in the DFW area. The methodology of the survey included the random sampling of 300 known municipal voters with a margin of error of 5.77% with geographical (council district) controls in place. The findings confirmed that a number of the cuts in the upcoming budget year are contrary to the priorities to citizens of Garland . The key findings show (see attached sheet for exact question wording and percentage breakdowns): •

a staggering 83% of voters feel that the city manager’s action (with council approval) earlier this year to pay out $72,000 of bonuses to the city manager and department heads was unfair given the fact that they are proposing an across the board pay cut for all rank and file city employees GFFA Note: These were paid out prior to the temporary pay cuts being discussed for 2009-2010 budget. However, there were projections in last years budget talks that the deficit for 2009/ 10 budget would be around $5 million.

•

An overwhelming 67% of voters support a counter-proposal put forth by leaders of the fire and police associations to use almost two million dollars of interest money from Garland Power & Light (GPL) in order to offset the need to cut city employees wages o

GFFA Note: This would require a Charter revision to allow the City Council access to these funds. Clearly, the majority of those polled felt that the funds should be allowed to be used for this purpose. This is not an option for the 2009/ 10 budget, but a revision of the Garland Charter could make this a possibility for future economic decisions.

- Better than half, 56% of voters do not want to see any cut in the pay of police officers and firefighters

Note: While other cities have made cuts in their budgets like the cuts proposed, the public safety departments have been spared. GFFA has proposed plans to defer pay cuts for all city employees not just Police and Fire. (key questions and findings) Q. Earlier this year, despite tight budget constraints, the City Manager (with council knowledge) paid out over $72,000 in bonuses to the City Manager and high-ranking departmental officials while rank-and-file city employees face pay reductions. Which of the following best describes your feelings on these bonuses? Believe it was wrong to pay out bonuses to just the top city employees 83.0 % Believe this is a decision best left to the City Manager and Council 12.7 % Unsure/Refused

4.3 %

Q. As you are probably aware, Garland owns its own power company, GP&L. GP&L currently has over 80 million dollars in a surplus interesting bearing account. This fund has been used in the past to stabilize other fund balances. There is a counter-proposal being discussed that calls for using $1.3 million dollars of interest from this GP&L account to prevent the proposed pay-cuts facing all city employees. Are you in ‘favor of’ or ‘opposed to’ using this money {to prevent a paycut for city employees}? In Favor of using GLP interest money to avoid pay-cuts Opposed to using GLP interest money to avoid pay-cuts Unsure/Refused

63.0 %

27.6

9.4 %

Q. The City of Garland is facing a budget shortfall this year. A proposal currently being discussed calls for no-cost-of-living adjustments or pay raises this year for all city employees as well as a 1% pay-cut for all city employees (including firefighters and police officers). Which of the following best describes your feelings on this issue: Make whatever cuts are necessary to balance the budget

25.3 %

Make whatever cuts are necessary, but don’t cut police and fire pay 56.7 %

Raise taxes if necessary to offset revenue shortages and maintain services 14.0 % Unsure/Refused

4.0 %

Contact: Chad Purcell [email protected]