Health insurance is negotiated for union employees (police and fire make up the vast majority of the City's payroll), and there are State regulations involved which severely limit what the City can do.

Middle management IS being evaluated very seriously. Many of the 22 positions which have been eliminated would fall into that category.

I forgot to include the baseball stadium site, the new YMCA building, and the empty lot next to the new police station.

Are there others anyone can name?

For decades the Cities unions, FOP, IAFF, AFSCME have negotiated in good faith . Year after year the City claimed that they couldn't afford more wages. To make up for that the City always threw bones to it's employees. How about an extra vacation day? Calculating that many of the employees wouldn't be eligible for that benefit for some years . The city offered health care years ago as an alternative to higher raises . Each negotiation the unions asked for and often received some increase, some improvement in benefits. Many years the unions took paltry raises to keep benefits already gained. For years the City benefited disproportionately to it's employees . Now as some would say, the chickens have come home to roost . The employees have something that the City can no longer afford and they want to whine . If the City really feels that this is an undue burden . Maybe they should offer each employee a rebate of what they could have received at each negotiation had the unions gone for wages rather then taking increases in health care . If costs have increased as much as the City says to where each employee is costing 19 g's per annum then maybe the City should give each employee 19 g's as a raise and forego providing health care. I suspect many of the employees could find health care for far less then the City pays.
As to what prior administrations have done. The nail was struck directly on the head when grants were brought up as a partial cause of todays woe's . The administration involved knew very well what they were doing. When the former Fire Chief, Pierce approached the City about receiving and using grants to hire additional firefighters he was told rather bluntly. That it would be a unfair financial burden that the City couldn't afford in the future once these funds dried up . In a act of benevolence and caring the administration claimed that they couldn't in good conscience hire someone that they knew would become a financial burden , that they would eventually need to eliminate , etc. Yet that same administration hired what ,50 Police Officers because as they claimed "the citizens were willing to bear any burden or costs for Police protection" and it was at the citizens bequest that they would seek funds anywhere and anyhow w/o a thought to future consequence to bring on these additional Police .
The City Hall has created this mess on it's own and now it's time to ante up.
They also need to reign in their agencies and face the fact that while they may be heavy in middle management they are gaining too much weight at the top as well. While they are continually losing weight at the bottom . Suffice it to say that Chiefs have never fought a battle . The braves do . Maybe it's time to eliminate some of those top branches. To prune the tree without harming the bark to make the whole tree healthier.

Thanks for the correction. I read that in the paper and thought it was a done deal. Silly me.


The other components politicians and business leaders will talk about. This one? Not so much. There is a price tag and we have no idea what it is.

With as easy as it is to be interconnected with people all over the world why would people continue to rely on insurance companies to connect us financially to cover medical expenses? It's time to think outside the box as you just did. If you really want to supercharge the creative juices read the update version of Ben Franklin's biography as he and his friends were as innovative as we need to become.