A Lesson Before Dying Essay Example for Free

A Lesson Before Dying Essay The economic downturn of the past several years has been devastating to local economies and, by extension, their local law enforcement agencies. According to a report by the National Institute of Justice, the United States is currently experiencing the 10th economic decline since World War II (Wiseman 2011). The impact of this downturn will result in a change of how law enforcement services are delivered. As has been discussed by the COPS Office Director, Bernard Melekian, in a series of recent articles published in the Community Policing Dispatch, expectations will not be lowered just because an agency now has fewer officers, or because the budget is limited. Simply doing less while waiting for local budgets to recover to pre-2008 levels is not a viable option. Law enforcement leaders are faced with budget contractions that are in need to identified in different ways to deliver police services and, perhaps more importantly, articulate what the new public safety models will look like to their communities (Melekian 2011a). The effects of the economic downturn on law enforcement agencies may be felt for the next 5–10 years, or worse, permanently. These changes could be permanently driven not just by the economy, but by local government officials who determined that allocating 30–50 percent of their general fund budgets for public safety costs is no longer a fiscal possibility (Melekian 2011b). While it appears that the economy is beginning to recover on the national level, most economists agree that local jurisdictions are still in decline and will continue to be so, at least in the short term. Due to the decline of tax revenues because of Foreclosures County and municipal budgets tend lagging behind the general economy, which is one of the main source of funding for local agencies. Agencies are also faced with the budget realities, the current model for service delivery—which has been with us for the last 50 years—is already starting to change, and will be forced to continue to change dramatically and rapidly in the next 3–5 years. Police departments have been one of the affected by the current economic climate. Restricting revenues nationwide have forced local governments to make cuts in spending across the board, which has affected everything to include public safety operating budgets. However, while these budget cuts are threatening law enforcement jobs the responsibility to serve and protect remain. There has been no methodical way of measuring the effect the economic downturn has had on police agencies across our nation. A good example is how Nigeria has been experiencing difficulties in Budget implementation. The objective of the article was to present alternative forms of budgeting and after exposition on them, to recommend one that could mitigate budget implementation problem for Nigeria. Two types of budgeting addressed are incremental and zero-base. Under incremental budgeting, a certain percentage is added or subtracted from previous periods figures to arrive at new periods budget. Under zero bases, every program is reevaluated for its merits, as if previous budgets never existed. The starting points are the results hoped to achieve, and every debate about budget implementation is done prior to passage. Zero base budgeting is analogous to marketing concept in terms of information requirement and zeroing in on customized needs. To the extent that zero base budgeting plans, executes and controls, it serves as a management tool. Nigerias budgeting has been incremental, overly politicized and not carried out by experts, but merely based on benchmark price and quota of daily oil production. Factors militating against proper budgeting in Nigeria are distortions in fiscal transparency. Budget implementation in Nigeria is a critical problem. Many have blamed our poor socio-economic and infrastructural development on low degree of budget implementation, which is a result of incremental budgeting process. The paper therefore recommends zero based budgeting to Nigeria at all levels (GJSS, 2012). Sometimes inefficiencies result due to poor integration of the finance and strategy. Budgeting and performance are typically overseen by the finance department, whereas planning s coordinated by strategy department. Often, the two processes arent well integrated, resulting in strategies that are often dictated by the budget process instead of vice versa (Gary 2003). The reason for this could be that everyone involved may be attempting to accomplish the same goals, but also trying to make sure that the outcome will be beneficial to them, such as a substantial bonus or a reward. A budget cycle refers to the whole process from the commencement of developing a budget to the execution of the final charge on the budget. Since the majority of the budgets are prepared for a one year period, budget cycles cover the costs and expenditures for a period of one year. However, there are budget cycles that run for more than one year period. Government budgets have a budget cycle of at least 18 months from the conception of the various departments’ budgets to the time the appropriation bills are signed into law (Hyde, 2001). The initial steps of the budget cycle take place in the various departments and agencies. The program officers in the various departments compile all information that is necessary in the preparation of the budget. The budget cycle culminates with the president’s budget application to the Congress. This often takes place in February (USDOJ, 2011). A budget refers to a list of premeditated revenues and expenses. It represents a tool for savings and expenditure. A budget can also be defined as an organizational plan that is stated in monetary terms. It is used as a road map for conducting the activities, objectives, assumptions, and strategies of an organization. A budget cycle is comprised of various stages. Budget planning for the new fiscal year marks the first step of the budget cycle, while closing and carry forward activities mark the end of a budget cycle (Hyde, 2001). The steps outlined below are steps of a sample government’s budget cycle: Budget submissions: this entails the submission of the budget plans to the respective Budget Offers in various government departments. The budgets are reviewed and approved. Budget approval: this entails the executive committee approving the budget. The Initial Budget Authorizations are then submitted to the respective supervisors who address the respective cost items. Global Changes: the salaries are adjusted so that they reflect salary increases that are permitted by the Salary Subcommittee and the Human Resources Department. Closing: this entails the closure of the budgets at the end of the fiscal year. Carry forwards: it entails carrying forward all the unspent money to the following fiscal year. This marks the last step in the budget cycle. In most instances, law enforcement management prepares master budget for the coming year. The master budget includes the projected expenses and maintenance which is incorporated in the master budget and other smaller budgets such as training, overtime, marketing, administrative, and departmental budgets. By establishing an operating and financial budget for a future period, management can identify problems in advance. This can be maintained by forecasting for future predictions. A forecast is a reflection of the future. When forecasting is taken into account, two key aspects to consider are cash budgets and expenditure forecast. In most instances, budgets are and should be prepared for a future period such as an oncoming accounting or financial year. They are detailed by quarters or months. Typically, annual budgets are not altered once the year begins. However, budgets should not be rigid so as to prevent timely actions if need arises. Instead, budgets should only act as a guide rather than a restriction. However, there are rare circumstances when an annual budget should be revised such as due to a radical change in the business environment. Budgets are also important for obtaining funding since they portray an organization’s capacity to the lending institutions and financiers. Additionally, budgets are important management tools, they aid in setting milestones that need accountability to achieve, and aid an organization in identifying risks and establishing benchmarks. Thus, budgets facilitate the process of making adjustments to avoid risks, and to measure the benchmarks. Understanding the significance of budgeting marks the first step towards successful financial planning. It plays a significant role in the strategic planning process by an organization. It outlines the future financial goals and needs of an organization such as technological needs, overhead needs, financial requirements, and capital improvements. I have a very strong opinion that budgeting should not be scrapped, rather be modified to meet the current business environment. Organizations would have to restructure compensation programs so that managers no longer have an incentive to favors short-term goals over the longer-term. Budgeting will have to be flexible to be able to be adjusted from time to time to reflect changes in organizational goals and the economic environment. Again, accounting department should be responsible for compiling only budget information; they should not determine the budgeting process. Management, through the planning process should determine the budget, and all departments should be included in the process. Budgeting should be both top down and bottom up; i. e. upper level management and middle level management will both work to finalize a budget. We can streamline the budgeting process by developing a financial model. Financial models can facilitate what if analysis so we can assess decisions before they are made. This can dramatically improve the budgeting process. One of the biggest challenges within financial planning and budgeting is how do we make it value-added. Budgeting requires clear channels of communication, support from upper-level management, participation from various personnel, and predictive characteristics. Budgeting should not strive for accuracy, but should strive to support the decision making process. If we focus too much on accuracy, we will end-up with a budgeting process that incurs time and costs in excess of the benefits derived. The challenge is to make financial planning a value-added activity that helps the organization achieve its strategic goals and objectives. In order for department to compensate for dwindling budget, many law enforcement officer have had to learn how to focus on what can they can sacrifice from their normal lifestyle in order to offset the reduction in available spending. Some of these sacrifices have included families foregoing summer vacations, or shopping in discount stores instead of department stores they are accustomed too. However, today law enforcement agencies are faced with the difficult task of maintaining the same service that their communities expect despite the extreme reduction in available resources. And, in order for them to deliver the same high level of protection and emergency responsiveness that the communities depend on, law enforcement agencies must find new and inventive techniques to address those needs in cost-effective and maintainable way. Agencies must have a good understanding of how budgeting marks the first step towards successful financial planning. Budgeting has a significant role in the strategic planning process by any organization. It provides the framework for future financial goals and the needs of an organization such as technical equipment like laptops, radios, and side arms. It also shows the overhead needs, and departmental financial requirements. It can also outline the costs involved in order to get the resources that are required to meet their financial goals. Developing a budget is an important tool for determining the department’s performance, in motivating the upper-management, other members of staff, and measuring the results towards accomplishing the organization’s financial goal. References Gary, L (2003) Breaking the Budget Impasse. Pg 3, Retrieved September 30, 2013, Idio, U. S. (2012). THE BUDGET AS A MANAGEMENT TOOL: ZERO BASE BUDGETING, PANACEA TO BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION IN NIGERIA. Global Journal of Social Sciences, 11(1), 1-7. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/1036581432? accountid=32521 http://www. cops. usdoj. gov/files/RIC/Publications/e101113406_Economic%20Impact. pdf Melekian, B. , (2011a). Director’s Message. Community Policing Dispatch vol. 4, no. 3. http://cops. usdoj. gov/html/dispatch/03-2011/DirectorMessage. asp. Melekian, B. , (2011b). Director’s Column: July 2011. Community Policing Dispatch vol. 4, no. 7. http://cops. usdoj. gov/html/dispatch/07-2011/DirectorMessage. asp. Wiseman, J. , (2011). Strategic Cutback Management: Law Enforcement Leadership for Lean Times. Research for Practice, Washington, D. C. : U. S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, NCJ 232077.

Michelangelo Essay -- essays research papers

During the dates 1475-1564 there were many famous painters working all around the world. One of which was Michelangelo. He painted and sculpted many famous items that are still talked about today. Michelangelo led a very buisy life, as of which you will be reading about today. Michelangelo was born in 1475 in a small village of Caprese near Arezzo At the age of 13 michelangelo’s father Ludovico Buonarroti placed michelangelo in the workshop of the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio through connections with the ruling Medici family. About two years later michelangelo studied at the sculpture school in the Medici gardens. Shortly thereafter he was invited into the household of the Magnincent, Lorenzo de’Medici. Where he had an oppertunity to converse with younger Medici, which later became pope Leo X. As he was also introduced to humanists as Marsilio Ficino and the poet Politian, who were frequent visiters. By the age of 16 Michelangelo had produced two relief sculptures ,the battle of the Centaurs and the Madonna of the stairs, which showed that he had achieved a very personal style at a very early age. His patron Lorenzo died in 1492; two years later Michelangelo fled Florence,when the Medici were temporarily expelled. For a while he was settled in Bologna, where in 1494 and 1495 he sculpted several marble statuettes for the arca (shrine) di San Domenico. Michelangelo went to Rome, where he was able to examine many newly unearthed classical statues and ruins. He soon produced his first large sculpture the over life size Bacchus in 1496-1498. One of the few works of pagan rather than Christian subject made by the master, it rivaled ancient statuary, the highest mark of admiration in Renaissance Rome. At about the samr time period Michelangelo did the marble Pietà   in 1498. It was finished in 1500. It was one of the most famous works of art, the Pietà   was probubly finished before Michelangelo was 25 years old, and is the only piece of work he ever signed. In the piece the youthfull Mary is shown seated majestically, holding the dead Christ across her lap, it was a theme that was borrowed from northern European art. Instead of revealing extreme grief, Mary is restrained, and her expression is one of resignation. In this work, Michelangelo summerizes the sculptural innovations of his 15th-century predecessors such as Donatello, while ushering in the new monumentality... ...helangelo ultimately became responsible for the altar end of the building on the exterior and for the final form of its dome. The great Renaissance poet Ludovico Ariosto wrote succinctly of this famous artist: â€Å"Michael more than mortal, divine angel.† Indeed, Michelangelo was widely awarded the epithet â€Å"divine† because of his extraordinary accomplishments. Two generations of Italian painters and sculptures were impressed by his treatment of the human figure: Raphael, Annibale Carracci, Jacopo da pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Sebastiano del Piombo, and Titan. His dome for Saint Peter’s became the symbol of authority, as well as the model, for domes all over the Western world; the majorityof state capitol buildingsin the united states, as well as the Capitol building in Washington D.C., are dirived from it. Michelangelo died in 1564 and his body was placed in a fine monument in the church of Santa Croce. To conclude, Michelangelo led a long and very talented life. As a painter sculpture, poet and architect. He has many famous pieces of work still known and talked about today, all around the world. Many people knew him and loved him and those who didn’t know him personaly, knew of him.

Functional Skills †Literacy Letter Writing Essay

I belong to a group called ‘Community Concern’. We as a group provide volunteers for community projects. I have recently seen the advert in the local paper about the old bus station being redeveloped and our group have all decided that we would like to volunteer to clean up the area before the work starts We have a lot of our own equipment, and we do supply things for this such as; Gardening equipment; †¢ Shovels †¢ Lawn movers †¢ Chainsaws †¢ Rakes †¢ Garden Forks †¢ Hedge trimmers and †¢ Leaf blowers General equipment; †¢ Buckets †¢ Yard brushes †¢ Paint †¢ Litter Pickers †¢ Gloves However, although we do provide this equipment there is on vital thing that we may need from the local council and that is a skip to put all the waste materials into once we’re done with it. I feel that this would be something we could discuss at a later time. Our group Community Concern are committed to improving the appearance of the local area and we feel that this project will strengthen the community and maybe even bring new people into the local area. Our Volunteers take pride in the work that they complete and are an asset to the group. They have completed a number of renovation projects over the years, the most recent being the re-decoration of the leisure centre a few weeks ago. I would like to thank you from all of us at Community Concern for taking the time to read this letter. And will leave you with our contact number in the hope that it would be possible to set up a meeting to discuss all the issues I have brought up today and hopefully to finalise some details and start planning the work!

Klemens Von Metternich - 2477 Words

KLEMENS VON METTERNICH Statesman; born at Coblenz, 15 May, 1773; died at Vienna, 11 June, 1859; son of Count Georg, Austrian envoy of the Court of Vienna at Coblenz, and Maria Beatrix, nà ©e Countess von Kageneck. He studied philosophy at the University of Strasburg, and law and diplomacy at Mainz. A journey to England completed his education. Metternich began his public career in 1801 as Austrian ambassador to the Court of Dresden. Though he had for several years prepared himself for a diplomatic career, he was especially fortunate in being immediately appointed to so prominent a position. Only two years later he was made ambassador to Berlin. The emperor considered it very important to have a minister at Berlin who could gain the†¦show more content†¦Napoleon raged, threatened, and leaped up like a chafed lion. Metternich remained calm. Napoleon let his hat, which he was holding under his arm, drop to the floor. Metternich did not stoop to pick it up. The emperor also tried persuasion. Your sovereigns, he said, who were born to their thrones cannot comprehend the feelings that move me. To them it is nothing to return to their capitals defeated. But I am a soldier. I need honour and glory. I cannot reappear among my people devoid of prestige. I must remain great, admired, covered with glory. For that reason, he said, he could not accept the proposed conditions of peace. Metternich replied, But when will this condition of things cease, in which defeat and victory are alike reasons for continuing these dismal wars? If victorious, you insist upon the fruits of your victory; if defeated, you are determined to rise again. Napoleon made various offers for Austrias neutrality, but Metternich declined all bargaining, and Napoleons oft-repeated threat, We shall meet in Vienna, was his farewell to Metternich. Metternich gave the signal for war, and Schwarzenberg led the decisive battle of Leipzig. The Emperor Francis raised his beloved Count Metternich to the rank of Austrian prince. Your able efforts in conducting the department with which I entrusted you in difficult times are now, at a moment highly decisive in the worlds destiny,Show MoreRelatedPrince Klemens von Met ternich and Prince Otto von Bismarck Essay2472 Words   |  10 PagesPrince Klemens von Metternich and Prince Otto von Bismarck can be compared to the dual sides of a Deutsche Mark, a Deutsche Mark that has sported different faces when repeatedly tossed over the years. After 1871, the Prussian-friendly German historians hailed Bismarck as the national hero who had united Germany while Metternich was deemed a failure. Then after the loss of the two world wars, the coin was again flipped, and Bismarck was seen as a bloodthirsty power monger while Metternich still carriedRead MoreTwo Sides of the Same Mark: Bismarck and Metternich Essay599 Words   |  3 PagesPrince Otto von Bismarck and Prince Klemens von Metternich can be compared to the dual sides of a German Mark. A German Mark that has sported different faces when repeatedly tossed over the years. After 1871, the Prussian-friendly German historians hailed Bismarck as the national hero, who had united Germany while Metternich w as deemed a failure. Then after the loss of the two world wars, the coin sides were flipped and Bismarck was seen as a bloodthirsty power monger while Metternich was hailed asRead MoreThe Triumph of the Congress of Vienna Essay987 Words   |  4 Pagesthe foreign minister of Austria, Prince Klemens von Metternich (Beck, 238). 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