After last week’s monthly meeting of the Finance Advisory Committee, it can be reported that the just-organized nine-person body is proceeding methodically, as would be expected from ladies and gentlemen seeking to understand City Hall’s complex fiscal apparatus and the governing rules.
Chair Goran Eriksson said that by September, the committee expects to present a work plan to the City Council.
If the month of Labor Day, the end of summer, seems distantly in the future when the season has not yet begun, it really is not.
Bowing to the traditional distractions of summer, the Finance Advisory Committee will not convene in July.
That means that at their next meeting, Wednesday, Aug. 14, at 7 o’clock in the Dan Patacchia Room at City Hall, the committee will debate and polish their inaugural agenda for the Council.
By September, both parties will have a clearer idea of the role of Mr. Eriksson’s committee and its presumed practical applications.
“In the by-laws, we are required to present the work plan” within four months of organizing, Mr. Eriksson said. “That really is our focus now. A lot of approaches are being discussed.
“We will distill those ideas into a comprehensive plan.”
He offered an example of a work plan:
“We could say that we are going to study all revenue issues for the first six months. Of course it will be more detailed than that.
“We will go to the City Council,” said Mr. Eriksson, “and say ‘These are the things we would like to start looking at.’ Then the City Council will approve that, deny it, change it, and give us our marching orders.
“So that is our focus. What are we going to do before Christmas? And what are we going to do long-term?”
