We (the finance committee of the county board of supervisors) did eventually balance the county budget, although not without a fair amount of pain. And it won't be over until the November 12 meeting where the entire board votes on the budget, i.e, when 18 other supervisors get their chance to twiddle and tweak. I won't go into everything we had to cut because county business is not the focus of this blog. This blog is all about the knitting. And the people.
Welcome to our last budget meeting!
Here is Gary, who chairs the committee:
That is the look of a man who is tired. Very, very tired.
Here is Tonya, the county's finance director:
I suspect that her expression is the result of some incredibly stupid comment that one of us made. She has a formidable task: educating us about government accounting, ensuring we don't stray from the published agenda and possibly violate the open meetings law, AND making sure we don't attempt to do something really stupid with the budget, like throwing in a line item for expensively catered meals at all budget committee meetings. Stuff like that.
Mick is the senior member of the committee:
Mick apparently does not care to pose for photos. He also has rather less patience than others with a certain member of the finance committee who thinks everything should be photographed and blogged about.
Brian, on the other hand, is always ready for fun:
The other Brian on the committee was absent from this meeting.
Deb works in Tonya's department and has the unenviable job of taking the minutes of our meetings. She tackles this with a great deal of animation. Here is a typical Deb pose:
Last but not least, yours truly:
Here we are in action:
That is another board member in the peanut gallery. He -- and the chief deputy sheriff, who took this last photo -- stayed through the whole meeting. Maybe to be sure we didn't screw up royally. Hard to say, really. Once again, Tonya is trying to explain something to us. Imagine a thought bubble above her head: "Okay, one more time, in words of one syllable..."
There you have it. County government at its finest.
I understand that budgeting is easier if you don't have a "fetish" about balancing it. (Actual quote heard on an NPR program.)
Posted by: Carrie K | 27 October 2008 at 02:39 PM
Did anyone vote to spend any surplus on yarn?
Posted by: Miss T | 27 October 2008 at 03:18 PM
Did anyone vote to spend any surplus on yarn?
Posted by: Miss T | 27 October 2008 at 03:18 PM
I do not envy Tonya one single bit. Nope - am glad I am not Tonya.
Posted by: cursingmama | 27 October 2008 at 03:26 PM
Tonya has the same expression as my grad school accounting professor. I never really recognized it as "I can't believe you're so stupid" before. Although I'm sure I deserved it. (To clarify, yes, I'm a lawyer. But I also have a master's in government administration. Go figure. I didn't realize it involved numbers. Mea culpa.)
I'm glad I'm not Tonya, too.
Posted by: Suzanne V. (Yarnhog) | 27 October 2008 at 04:37 PM
Don't suppose you guys could come over and balance my budget for me? The nice people at Visa would appreciate it, I'm sure! ;)
Posted by: Sheepish Annie | 27 October 2008 at 05:48 PM
Behind the scenes!
Posted by: Chris | 27 October 2008 at 08:09 PM
You guys DO look like you're working hard. And late. And unappreciatedly (being the budget balancer is kind of like being the scheduler, you know you are going to tick people off, but it's necessary).
Yay for public servants!
Posted by: Cathy-Cate | 27 October 2008 at 08:27 PM
Maybe you could save some money if you got rid of all those extra chairs in the room?!?!
Posted by: deb | 28 October 2008 at 02:48 PM
I'm proud of you. The few, the tired, the budget committee.
Posted by: k | 28 October 2008 at 04:26 PM
What does it say that two out of six of your finance committee are bald? Please don't tell me they had full heads of hair when you started the process.....
Posted by: Diane T | 28 October 2008 at 07:21 PM