The Tucson City Council has clearly lost its way

A City Council that goes ahead and OKs Rio Nuevo bonds while cutting vital services like police and fire academy classes is a City Council that's clearly lost their way. It is as out of touch as those AIG execs that still held their conferences at luxury resorts after the bailout, or the Big 3 Auto CEOs who flew into Washington in Nov. on Learjets looking for a bailout.

Public safety is one of, if not, the most vital function of local gov't. Before you cut police and fire, a municipality should make every other cut possible to non-vital services. So why weren't things like Channel 12, Access Tucson, and numerous arts programs eliminated first? Those are nice to have, but not essential community services.

Cutting $1 million from new vehicle purchases is a step in the right direction, but let's not stop there. The city needs to integrate economy of scale into every aspect of its financial decision-making. In short, it must get into the habit of making sound economical decisions in every aspect of its purchasing that will pay continuing dividends adn create a culture of efficient purchasing and sound management of the public's money.

For example, when it buys new vehicles, it needs to buy the cheapest, most fuel-efficient vehicle that will get the job done, not the trendy but costly Prius, or the SUV that never goes off-road. I want to see city officials driving Civics, Cobalts, and Yarises, not Priuses and SUVs. You can buy 2 of these compacts for every Prius or SUV. Even at $5-6 a gallon, a Civic or Yaris has much lower life cycle costs than a Prius.