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03082005
Erie County Budget Mess - Your help needed!
As you know from my prior two emails, at the urging of our 3,000 members, we are starting a thorough analysis of Erie County’s finances and services.
With that review about to get underway, we have a need for volunteers – and that’s where I hope you can come in.
Please consider volunteering yourself – or passing this email along to someone in your organization – to lend expertise to our effort to produce valuable, independent information that will be used during 2006 budget deliberations. Our goal is to avoid the mess we’ve seen over the past few months, and at the same time, to take advantage of the situation to bring about a better balance of county services and taxes.
Here’s what we’re looking for:
The earliest need – for the next 6-8 weeks – are people with budget and audit experience, and expertise in legal and personnel matters. We also need volunteers who work in the areas of health care, human services, public works, public safety, community/economic development and internal operations. These volunteers are sought to begin now, but the bulk of their time will be needed May –October.
Volunteers will be asked to commit to an average of two hours per week for the duration of the project (March – October), and to sign a confidentiality agreement.
Potential volunteers are asked to email BudgetVolunteers@thepartnership.org this week with their name, employer, phone number, address, email address and area of expertise. We’re forging ahead quickly, and want to put together work groups as soon as possible.
We’ve stepped up to take on this effort because Erie County’s financial health is directly linked to our region’s ability to grow – and your ability to do business here. Moreover, if the business community does not step forward now, we know, from the experience of the past few months, that the public sector is completely incapable of doing so.
I’m appreciative of all of the support you’ve demonstrated in your emails to me on this matter, and, more generally, through your membership. Please consider extending that support by becoming actively involved in this project.
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Andrew J. Rudnick
President & CEO
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03082005
