I read your article about the Deerfield Beach 2008-2009 budget, and I waited for an outcry. I’m amazed by the apparent lack of opposition to this irresponsible budget.

In the article, Mr. Mahaney says “We have been frugal.”

After five years of raising budgets by ridiculous percents, maybe a 6.7 percent increase seems frugal by comparison. But I see that Dania Beach REDUCED their budget by 10 percent! I would call that frugal. Most other south Florida municipalities are reducing their budgets.

My description for a 6.7 percent increase in today’s economic environment is “irresponsible,” not frugal. What efforts did they make to trim the budget?

Well, I did not see any layoffs. There were no cuts in programs. There has been no effort to outsource those activities that are commonly done by contractors, or are not economic. We should outsource as many services as possible and end those that should be provided by private companies.

How can he describe a 6.7 percent increase as frugal? Really, it’s insulting. We, the taxpayers, are dealing with a difficult recession, and our city managers are not responding.

Everyone who is concerned about this lack of responsibility should come to the Sept. 8 meeting at the town hall and voice your opinion. Keep in mind that the sources of revenue for Deerfield are getting weaker, not stronger, and I think we need to act now, not later.

Joseph Doherty

Deerfield Beach

Happy I found your website

To the Editor:

I found the Observer’s web site, not only user-friendly but very attractive and fun. Thank you for including Pompano Beach news in your darling newspaper. I look forward to every issue. And now that I have found your website I will visit it often. I would like to see a bar to click on that would take me directly to “city news,” either Deerfield or Pompano Beach’s or Lighthouse Point’s.

Melanie Salzgeber

Pompano Beach