Questions I hope council members ask

In my last post I mentioned that 6 of the seven council members seemed interested and engaged and asked good questions; but that they didn't ask some questions I would like to have answers to.  That wasn't a criticism, but I hope i can convince one or two of them to share my curiosity in one area.

I often wonder how the city manager and his staff make financial decisions.  I wonder because I never (or at least very rarely) see the analyses that (I hope) go into those decisions.  On a macro level, I can point to the decisions around investment in the First Baptist Church property -- not just the initial acquisition, but the decisions to turn it into  expensive performance and office space.  Whether or not those were sound decisions, I feel safe in saying that very few people know how the decisions were made.

On a micro level, take a look at Consent Agenda item CA-14 on next Tuesday's council agenda.  The city is leasing some mowing equipment over the next 3 years for a little over $100,000.   The questions I hope the council will ask would give everyone a better idea of how the city makes one kind of financial decision: whether to buy or lease:

1. What were the alternatives to acquiring the equipment?
2. Why was it better to lease the equipment rather than buy it?
3. What determined the length of the lease?  Why was 3 years better than 2 or 4?

I'm not picking on the parks department.  I would like these kinds of questions to be asked routinely.