Commissioners or Consultants?

At the last City Council meeting, a problem arose in refining the City's utility users tax. There was some problem because the language for the new ordinance seemed to be changing the treatment of certain taxpayers. This was an error and got squared away, but the City Attorney mentioned that the City pays a consultant to monitor changes in state law in order to update municipal taxes. Of course, the consultant did not pick up the fact that the City could charge a Quimby Fee of more than $5,000 (rather than the old $300 fee) for park aquisition and improvement. The consultant did not pick up on the fact that AES is not a utility and should have been paying Utility Users Tax that has now caused a $23 Million dispute with the city. It seems that this consultant is not doing much good. Meanwhile, we have members of more than a dozen city commissions who are anxious to volunteer their time for the city. Perhaps it would make more sense to focus on the volunteer commissioners than the expensive consultants.