By Tom Grace
Ed Keator Jr. of West Oneonta, Republican candidate for Otsego County treasurer, has sent the county board a list of suggestions for preparing the 2010 budget.
Dan Crowell, Keator's Democratic opponent, applauded his effort Monday, although he disagreed with some of Keator's suggestions.
Among the ideas in Keator's e-mail to members of the Otsego County Board of Representatives are to:
Remove contingency items from department budgets and place them in the county's contingency fund.
Lower department budgets to what was spent last year.
Reduce printing costs and investigate refilling toner cartridges rather than buying new ones.
Shift an information technology position to the Otsego Manor budget to see if it will be eligible for state and federal reimbursement.
Re-examine expenses paid with bed tax.
Require more specific information from departments on additional budget items.
Bring accounts in line with historical spending.
``My recommendations to the board are based solely on my observations,'' Keator wrote to representatives. ``My recommendations are also (made) with the best interest of our county and our taxpayers and are not meant to be an indication of performance by any specific county department.''
On Monday, Crowell wrote to The Daily Star to say he has made similar suggestions in meet-the-candidate forums and conversations with department heads and county leaders.
``It's good that Ed believes these things are required as well. I would only add that I think the treasurer should not only be `recommending' but taking the lead on implementing such initiatives,'' Crowell wrote.
However, Crowell said he does not believe that reassigning departmental contingencies to a general contingency account is wise as it ``dilutes accountability for those expenses and diminishes our ability to assess those expenses in the future, erasing it from institutional memory.''
Crowell added a few suggestions he would like to bring to the board, including:
Rigorous testing of any proposed MOSA successor model so the county does not pay for garbage it doesn't produce.
Analyzing the cost and causes of employee grievances with an eye toward reducing them.
Analyzing information on how the Herkimer County Sheriff's Office ``saved $400,000 by using GPS anklets to track nonviolent offenders at their homes, rather than paying the costs of room and board for them.''
The two candidates are slated to participate at 7 tonight in the Craven Lounge, Morris Hall, at the State University College at Oneonta in a forum organized by the League of Women Voters of the Oneonta Area.
