Chuck, no one could possibly have a good reason for budget tracking of $15,000 worth of items related to drainage and ignore drainage total as an item in the budget.

Why track a $15,000 budget item but not a $400,000 budget item.

I have no doubt Public Works and/or Art Carmine can calculate total drainage expense for the budget, as well as how much of highway funds are spent on drainage as opposed to paving.

However, the board has an OBLIGATION to review and approve the budget submitted by management. How can any board do a proper budget review when many specific large dollar budget items are all just lumped together in the budget with no breakdown? What's more important for a review of a $10 million budget? Knowing Public Works will spend $15,000 on a few supplies, or knowing Public Works may spend $400,000 of its $1 million labor on drainage?

The board budget review is a joke, and has been a joke for a long time.  The board essentially accepts all these lumped together big items and spends its time debating relatively minor budget items --- typically those with some political ramifications but no substantive impact on the budget.

For example, a great deal of time was spent debating electronic signs. Why? Not because $75,000 or so was any substantive impact on the budget, but because the board saw these signs as a political hot potato.