I think what’s most confusing to me at this point is how Santa Rosa and SSU both looked at economic peaks in the last decade and banked on those not only continuing but growing. How is it possible that a city and a public college are both run so poorly that they based their budgets on high points?
At this point the city should already be making serious cuts to staff and programs. The police should not be receiving any new equipment that isn’t absolutely essential and any existing newer equipment should be sold off. The article mentions not wanting to have what happened to SSU happen to the city, but almost all the bloat in the city comes from payroll and the police system. If you aren’t planning on cutting either, then it’s just three or four more years in fairyland until we have to cut even more in the end.