On The Agenda – August 3rd, 2010
Get this! The Fullerton City Council’s ONLY Regular Business for Tuesday’s meeting is…drum role please…to designate a voting representative and alternates for the League of Cities annual conference!! View the agenda.
That’s it, right? No. That is the only “Regular Business” item but I didn’t mention the Consent Calendar.
Item 4 of the Consent Calendar is a $2,705,000 bond for irrigation at the Fullerton Municipal Golf Course. You read that correctly; $2.7 million for golf course sprinklers! Apparently “staff” has identified this as the most “shovel-ready” infrastructure project.
The background on this item is interesting for those following President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The Act includes provisions for bonds issued by agencies in designated “Recovery Zones” and Fullerton has been designated as one of those Recovery Zones or RZ.
The eligible uses for RZ Economic Development Bond proceeds according to the staff report include: 1) capital expenditures for the acquisition or development of property within a Recovery Zone by a public entity; 2) expenditures for public infrastructure and construction of public facilities; and 3) expenditures for job training and education programs.
This is when the veins on my neck begin to pulse and I run the risk of bursting a blood vessel! Our Congress has given local agencies certain bonding authority to raise money to fix their infrastructure and our beloved City Hall staff decides to use this authority to grow our indebtedness and fix golf course sprinklers!
I may not be much of a golfer but I do know they charge as much as $35 per person to play. If that isn’t enough to cover the cost, I suggest they charge more or get out of the golfing business altogether.
I hope our council has the wherewithal to vote NO on this but I doubt it. It is spending like this that makes me want to run for city council. But the race is already full of rich would-be spenders chomping at taxpayers’ checkbook with pen in hand. How will Bankhead vote? How would McKinley or Burbank vote? Tomorrow we will get to see how Bankhead, with 22 years of experience on the council, will vote. I am quite certain he will vote YES and waist $2.7 million watering the grass while ignoring our roads, sewers, water system, and sidewalks.
Oh but the grass will be green and a council member will get to go to the League of Cities Conference in September all on our dime. Not a bad gig if you can get it.
The nickname of that golf course has been “The Stone” for at least 30 years. I’m assuming that the irrigation system was somewhat better 30 years ago. Almost three million on a credit card to turn The Stone into the moist Stone? But…alas, we will hear that we have to fight for Fullerton’s fair share. Fullerton’s fair share of hemlock.
What a waste of money!
The stimulus funds was suppose to “stimulate” the economy and it isn’t doing shit.
Where can we get our pitchforks and demand to take back our government. This insane nonsense has got to stop NOW!
If uve ever been to Fullerton Golf Course, u would know that it is always crowded and used by many in the community as an affordable place to play golf. Its no different then if this project was for a public park. Often times rates are as low as 15 dollars which makes it one of the most affordable 18 hole course in Orange County.
Christian, thanks to the internet and easy access to blog sites, cash-strapped political candidates’ art of persuasion may triumph over political connections and contributions. So, christian, throw your hat into the ring, and many will support your intelligence, insight and integrity.
Unfortunately, this form of municipal government stupidity occurs when it is given others money. Like the Nixon adm., the Obama adm. hands out tax dollars as block grants to cities with the same admonishment “only spend it on public good things”. Nixon adm. stood behind Beverly Hills decision to build a tennis court just as the Obama adm. will support fullerton’s reinvesting our precious tax dollars into water sprinklers for its golf course.
As a Fullerton lifer who pays property taxes, I have never used Fullerton’s golf course because my time is too precious to waste it hitting a ball with a stick over green lawns. an aside, I thought SoCal is facing water shortages.
van thats a ridiculous statement, u could say that about any hobby, u guys are so two faced its disgusting.
u rite like a harry sidhu supporter.
kid, which one of my statements is ridiculous?
In the end, it just goes to show you that our roads and city utilities haven’t been the only thing neglected for 30 years or more – add a golf course to that growing list!
The fees to play golf at our municipal golf course should be sufficient for the contracted management company to maintain the greens, including the irrigation system. If they are charging too little, they should consider cutting costs or raising fees. That’s how it works in the real world.
Just because we can spend other people’s money doesn’t mean we should.
It seems like every time there is a matching-funds source, staff jumps on it. The problem is, we still have to pony up the other half. Then there is the question of necessity. Does Fullerton NEED whatever the earmark is.
Kid:
When the parks start charging a fee to enter and play on the grass is when we as taxpayers become free of the maintenance costs associated with them. Until then, the municipal golf course is not a park and there is a fee to enter. That fee should cover the operational costs which include maintaining the facility to a level that attracts business. The fee also designates the uses of the facilities exclusively for those willing to pay the fee.
So Mayor Bankhead just used Obama’s stimulus funds to water a golf course.
Jane Rands was right… that one ought to make some kind of “worst stimulus project” list.
listening to the news, here a few more stimulus (tax dollar funded) projects sanctioned by obama adm.: studying effects of cocaine on monkeys, $700,000 window replacement for mt st helens visiting center that has been closed since 2007, subsidizing purchase of public transportation buses for a small town with the average of 3 bus riders per bus per trip, 2 million dollars to study ants that live on Indian Ocean islands, $89,000 to replace newer sidewalks in a small oklahoma town that lead to closed businesses and a ditch in this town, $762,000 to a college to study choreography with electronic sensors and fullerton’s very own 2.7 million dollar golf course sprinklers
Just shows you what can happen with no Nelson and Quirk-Silva absent.
Didn’t your city council vote to eliminate the travel budget for things like the league of cities meeting? Are the attendees going to pay their own way or did I miss something?
How about you abolish the league of cities? Save more money.