Golf is a tricky thing to budget for because, every year, a new budget goes into place on July 1 in the middle of golf season. Finance Director Jerry Ambrose brought the Council an amendment to the deficit elimination plan put forward by the administration at the end of 2009, which included furloughs for city workers. The amendment asked the Council to approve a transfer of $55,382 out of the rent the city pays the parking fund for offices in the North Capitol Avenue parking ramp and into the Parks Department. The extra money in the Parks Department budget will be used to cure the golf fund deficit.

But, a few weeks ago, the state notified the city of another golf fund deficit from the last fiscal year discovered during an annual audit of the city’s books. A cure for that deficit was brought to Council at its Jan. 25 meeting. So, two golf deficits, two different fiscal years, two different solutions, but all during one golf season.

The Council has yet to approve last year’s deficit elimination program and still has some questions — including one by At-Large Councilman Brian Jeffries asking how much salary elected officials (Council members, the city clerk and the mayor) would have to give up to equal the furlough days. (Elected officials’ pay is controlled by the Elected Officers Compensation Commission.)

Monday night was also the first test of new Council President A’Lynne Robinson’s system of holding CoW meetings on Monday nights. Every other Monday, Council will start a regular meeting, but then resolve into Committee of the Whole. It appears as if Robinson will not allow public comment during CoW meetings, as has been customary in the past, in favor of the letting the public speak before the Council resolves into CoW. Her new system has essentially eliminated the legislative matters public comment section from CoW nights; this is so because the regular meeting has no legislative agenda, and thus no legislative items on which the public could speak.