When the Mayor and Commissioners of Lauderdale Lakes rolled out the red carpet for Kelvin Baker on September 28th, he had two days to prepare a budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2015.

As City Manager, the first thing he did was make sure his total salary and benefits package of approximately $205k was included in the $35.2 million dollar budget, which was approved by the commission, no questions asked.

At Tuesday night’s commission meeting, the Mayor and Commission asked him to cut $2 million from the same budget they obviously forgot they voted for less than four months ago.

On a positive note, they also voted to increase the city’s fiscal year funding of the Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative Contract by $35,556.24.

So there’s that.

Not surprisingly, Kelvin Baker may have started off his new gig with a fresh slate, but he’s still up to his old tricks.

In an article yesterday, Lauderdale Lakes seeks $2 million budget reduction,   the Sun-Sentinel reported, “Baker put together a proposal earlier in January to take $2.8 million out of several reserve accounts to pay for numerous planned capital improvement projects, which would have pushed the overall budget over $38 million, but it didn’t pass muster with commissioners.”

After years of (mal)practice at the cities of North Miami Beach and Opa-locka, Kelvin Baker’s Traveling Circus is now performing his famous Magic Budget Balancing Act at the Lauderdale Lakes City Hall.

It should also not surprise anyone that the city’s Director of Financial Services is none other than Kelvin’s fellow Traveling Circus co-star, Susan Gooding-Liburd, who followed him from North Miami Beach to Opa-locka, and now to Lauderdale Lakes.

This would also be the same former (and fired) NMB Finance Director under whose watch the biggest embezzlement heist in the city’s history took place.  (See: Marty King.)

This would also be the same former NMB Finance Director who, while delivering a budget report to the NMB Mayor and Council, had no clue about the interest rate being paid on pension contributions and who made a million dollar mistake on the financial statement.

And this would also be the same former Opa-locka Finance Director who helped put that city into near bankruptcy before she and Kelvin took their show on the road.

And now they pitched their circus tent in Lauderdale Lakes.

Unfortunately for Kelvin, the almost-all female Commission might be “talky,” and have an aversion to gas station proliferation, but they’re not quite as dumb as he had hoped.

They also get brownie points for recognizing their own limitations.

Vice Mayor Eileen Rathery acknowledged, “We’re not supposed to use our fund balance, at least I know that much.”

Good for her!

At the meeting Commissioner Edwina Coleman expressed annoyance that the City Manager had not already removed from the budget the “$50,000 for office supplies and $10,000 for commission expenses,” as the commission had previously directed.

Ms. Colman saw no irony in her “concern about high salaries,” despite the fact that she had no problem approving Kelvin Baker’s employment contract.

Nevertheless she explained, “We’re not talking about eliminating positions. We’re talking about eliminating fat from the budget.”

Her remark was in response to Kelvin’s typical doom and gloom forecast of “layoffs and substantial reduction in services” if he were to cut $2 million from a budget that is actually higher than the previous year’s budget of $33.6 million.  Amazingly, the Mayor and Commission didn’t fall for this Sleight of Hand Trick.

In fact, according to the Sun-Sentinel, even before Kelvin was hired, the city had already amassed a $6.7 million operating reserve in the general fund at the start of this fiscal year due to increased property tax revenues.

Commissioner Gloria Lewis was perplexed how that could possibly have happened when the commission voted to cut the tax rate last year.  Ms. Lewis is obviously unclear on the concept that property tax revenues increase when property values increase.

Then again, considering that Ms. Lewis equates hiring a consultant who is “not my color” with “going back to slavery days,” her confusion should surprise no one.

In an effort to keep his padded budget intact, Kelvin performed his tried and true Cigar Box Juggling Act.  He proposed an “effort” called CARE, which stands for “Comprehensive Assessment of Revenues and Expenditures.”

Which is really just highfalutin bureaucrat-speak for “Budget.”

Kelvin’s “effort” included the proposal that “the city could reap possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars by keeping its reserves in interest-bearing accounts.”  This concept actually does make fiscal sense because, as he noted, “currently the city earns no interest on the millions of dollars it is holding.”

Commissioner Gloria Lewis, however, rejected CARE, said hell to the no, and emphatically declared, “I’m not going with no care, no bear!”

Even I am now speechless.

Nevertheless, the Mayor and Commission of Lauderdale Lakes directed Kelvin Baker to slash his budget, and slash it now!  He announced he’ll get back to them “within the next few weeks.”

I have a hunch they mean it.  They expect results.  Or else.

But no worries.

If this gig doesn’t work out for Kelvin, there’s always Plan B.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”