16 Oct A Breath of Fresh Air: City Manager Does Bi-Weekly Reports
City Manager Bill Prokop is very engaged with the city council and the public as the Chief Executive of the City. Prokop oversees our many active projects. He also learns with his ears and not his mouth.
During Regular City Council meetings (2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month - 7:00 pm at City Hall), Prokop provides updates to council and the public about issues on which he and his staff are working.
The following is the most recent City Manager Report with my comments on each topic below.
City Manager Report 10/13/15
“Holiday Light Test – Please take a look outside and let us have your comments. Also, Mr. Mayor I would ask you to lead our drive to purchase enough new holiday lights to really make our downtown and waterfront park area look nice this upcoming holiday season. This can be done by people supporting our “Pride In Beaufort Program”. We really need to replace some of the old and worn out lights that we have. Thank You.” BP
As you may recall, when balancing a tight budget for this year, we wrote into the budget a plan to which city and not city residents could contribute to make our city even more beautiful. We created Pride of Beaufort. In the meantime, if you would like to contribute to our campaign to raise donations for the new holiday lights please let me know and click above. BK
“I want to again make you aware of our concern regarding the Indigent Defense that the State General Assembly included as a budget proviso in the current budget. Even though the State Office of Indigent Defense already collects 10.56% of every fine levied in municipal courts, and that our City residents also pay for public defenders through county property taxes. This proviso forces city residents to pay for indigent defense a Third time! Reason given for this proviso is that the Municipal Courts are profitable to the cities. We would like to know where and just like the discussion on Business License this is another cost that will only take away from the services we provide.” BP
As you have heard me say over the years, local governments continue to get squeezed by the state. Yes, we pay into the state indigent defense fund and as county taxpayers we also pay the county for this service, but the state is now requiring we pay yet a third time for services we have paid for. BK
“Project with the County –regarding Solar Design and Development Services. We are cooperating with the county to study the possibility of utilizing solar technology to reduce our cost and reduce our carbon footprint. The proposals are in and once the vendor is chosen they will study 5 potential sites within the county and we believe that at least 2 of them will be within the City. In addition, we will be having several sessions coming up for our citizens to learn more about solar and these sessions will be put on by Solarize SC a non-profit group. The first session will be at our next neighborhood meeting on Wednesday, October 21st.” BP
This is for me a very exciting endeavor because it is a collaboration between the City and the County. Ultimately, this could bring cost savings. BK
“We are working on several stormwater issues in cooperation with the State DOT, the County, and ourselves to address some street flooding and runoff issues. Unfortunately, none of these were anticipated or budgeted so we are trying to see what can be done with the minimal impact on all of our budgets. However, we all recognize that these issues have to be addressed.” BP
“We will have our quarterly report for you by the end of this month and we feel that much progress has been made in achieving our goals and in improving our communications with our residents. We also realize that we are just beginning and that progress is a slow process but we are looking to build sustainability and not just a quick fix.” BP
William Prokop, City Manager