How about shutting down city buildings a couple of times a month and saving on power costs, etc??

Collect garbage 2x a month, once a week is too much...also get rid of the Nurse and that staff, there is no reason why we should be paying for that nonsense

If DPW and Forestry workers did an honest days work of 8 hours, a lot less workers would be needed. They spend too much time at Ted's & McDonalds !

Tarzan says cut the Council in half. Tarzan says do not cut any trees.

The City doesn't need to cut anything. It should pursue the collection of unpaid citations. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in uncollected fines. City officials should confer with their Court people to find out exactly how much there is! Again, management is always looking for the easiest way out instead of talking to the people who do the work to make the system more efficient.

Twice a month garbage collection works for me. In fact - once a month is good too. We just don’t contribute o the waste stream in a significant manner. If I had to guess – that wouldn’t work for most Tosa families though. Plus all the garbage would get pretty ripe during the summer months. We’d have to hire a Commissioner of Flies and Rats or the equivalent, right? I see an interesting pattern playing-out. Our Mayor is a conservative, correct? She is the darling of Jay Weber and the rest of day time angry radio. And the nattering conservative blogosphere too. So here she is borrowing and spending and blowing the lid-off the bonding cap in the process and we all of a sudden have a budget crisis at City Hall? I sure hope we don’t have a real emergency crop-up like all of a sudden the city’s plumbing breaks or the streets crumble. In the mean time the Mayor garners effusive praise from the Tosa GOP, she advances her political career and the next generation of taxpayers is stuck with the bill. The silence from the far right is deafening. If Stepaniak was the Mayor and doing the very same thing those conservatives would be peeing all over themselves over this. I gotta admit - they sure know how to keep their traps shut when told to do so. Pretentiousness raised to an art form. How pathetic.

How about instituting some rationale thought in public works projects. We just received new pavement, sewers and some curbs along with a PVC 'submarine' of a stormwater collector which cut across every yard, required rebuilding every drive, destroyed a dozen gardens and not one home is connected to it, nor do they plan to, nor are they required to do so. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars are sunk in my front yard under that oddly-colored stripe of cheap sod?

We should cut Phil Ertl's salary and administrators in the the Tosa School District. Ertl is one of the highest paid administrators in the State. Pay the teachers, police and firefighters and dump Ertl.

I think that cutting garbage collection in the cooler months makes sense. It has to be collected weekly in the summer, but not in the winter. I'd rather have weekly garbage collection and restore spring clean-up than continue with weekly collection. I agree with the individual who suggested that City Hall hours could be cut. I believe he was talking about Milwaukee City Hall, but this could be done in Wauwatosa as well. Employees could work from home on days when it was closed. Library hours might also have to be cut as there would be little point to closing part of the building and keeping the rest open.Trimming a little from every department's budget might help. Personally, I'd rather see job cuts through attrition than through layoff and I'd prefer solutions that focus on cutting things like office supplies to those that involve cutting staff. My employer is taking small measures like cutting the Christmas bonus, eliminating styrofoam cups for coffee (they still supply free coffee, but we bring our own mugs), and campaigning to have us turn out lights and computers that aren't in use. Budgets for equipment and supplies are being cut. We've been encouraged to find the least costly vendors, even for basic supplies, and to find cheaper alternatives to what we use. The objective is to avoid cutting staff. I agree with much of what Gas Pains has posted and would not like to see staff sacrificed in favor of expensive projects. In this economy, keeping people employed is more important than renovating Hart Park (which I support, but not at the expense of staff).

MR A TAXPAYER! Maybe you spend to much time at Ted's and McDonalds! I can't wait to see the MR TAXPAYER reaction to the poor customer service and untimley refuse pick-up for the typical family in this city...my garbage cart is full every week and of course...we could go to bi-weekly pick-up, but, then again...we live here in a nice, clean, lowcrime city for a reason! I don't want my neighborhood to smell like old trash and look like Milwaukee streets! I am aware of a poor economy and changes need to be made...I really like the idea of 'James Harris' entry, but, there is no way for the individual departments to do that without adding or changing the current job duties of the current employee's. What I want to know is this...didn't we just just go through this 4 years ago??? Did the Council and City Administraters learn nothing from the people that lost their jobs then...

I wish we could edit posts. I meant to say that I'd rather have bi-weekly garbage pick-up and restore spring clean-up than continue weekly garbage pick-up. My family of three adults generates a bag of garbage a week and we completely fill the recycle bin every two weeks.

You need to take a look around and see all these high paid administrators that sit around and get paid big bucks for making poor decisions. From my experience and comments of others they do not respond to the needs of the community anyway. Getting rid of a few of those people would surely help. Why is it always the first thing to look at is the cutting of jobs for teachers or programs in the schools (like the arts or the recent decision of the Wauwatosa West Band Director). Did you forget that the economy is hard for everyone, not just the City of Wauwatosa? Cutting jobs affects families lives and well being. Those that were placed in these high paying administraton jobs should use their brains and come up with other solutions that don't have impact on the financial well being of Wauwatosa families. How about taking a look at cutting the big bonus that you pay out each year. You always seem to cut where it seems easy but don't take a look at the overall impact. I agree with a previous post. Get out there and collect on unpaid fines. In addition stop letting people off so easily when they are pulled over. Individuals go to court for violations and either the fines are reduced or dropped completly. Just think of all the additional dollars you could add. Come on, use your heads and work for the big paycheck you get. Remember it could be you whose job could be cut. What kind of impact would loosing your job have on you???

We could delay of new police cars back a year or two from its normal scheduled replacement unless it is damaged. Horticultural pickup could go to 1x a month. Layoffs and cuts will probably have to go deeper than expected. I know of a couple maybe 3 homeowners facing foreclosure who have not paid property taxes yet. And that might be the tip of the iceberg. That shrinking number plus less state money probably has not sunk in yet. but the mayor and her sheep will get hart park built.

The other side of budget gaps is increasing revenues. How could the city do that?

I think it is important to note that the school district and the city budgets are two very different things.

How about taxing politician's paycheck every time they mention raising taxes or fees?

Cut teacher benefits and pay. Other people have made sacrifices as well.