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Firestorm 2003 Archive

City Manager Responds To Reports

Mayor Demands Answers Regarding Fires

POSTED: 5:14 pm PST November 21, 2003

City Manager Michael Uberuaga said he has always been forthcoming. He answered questions Friday, from the City Council and the media.

Video

Mayor Dick Murphy asked Uberuaga, (pictured, right), to gather reports from several city departments involved in responding to the latest wildfires. Some of those agencies are concerned that what they have submitted in the past, never made it to the City Council.

How does the system work? Who decides what's important and what's not? Those are some of the questions the city manager answered Friday.

Uberuaga has had better days, 10News reported.

"As city manager, I take full responsibility for putting the budget together," Uberuaga said.

At the mayor's request, Uberuaga collected reports about Firestorm 2003 from various departments. Uberuaga will issue a final report soon.

But Friday, he reacted to claims that he "waters down" pertinent information before presenting final reports to Council.

Earlier this week, after learning that some information in previous reports had been filtered out at the city manager's discretion, Councilman Jim Madaffer said he would rather judge future reports for himself.

"Mike Uberuaga is a trustworthy and an honest man. My issue is, don't hide from us things that we ought to have so we can have the full picture," Madaffer said.

Mayor Dick Murphy defended Uberuaga and said the more information is better but the city still had to cut $30 million from the budget.

The city manager said if there are still concerns, he suggested that he sit down with the Council and discuss -- not the budget items -- but the unmet needs.

The completed reports regarding the wildfires will likely be presented next week or in early December.

View the proposed budget submitted by the Fire Department to the City Manager's Office.

View the edited proposed budget from the City Manager's Office to the City Council.

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