The City of Fullerton unveiled the proposed budget for fiscal year 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.
The budget appears to be largely a rearrangement of the deck chairs with no real cuts proposed. There are proposed cuts in certain projected spending to help make up for significant increases in employee benefits.
There were no explanations about the benefits increasing which Councilmember Whitaker took issue with.
Councilmember Quirk-Silva reminded staff that last year there were several ideas proposed for generating revenue and increasing fees such as the tow franchise which will be heard by the Council later this year. Quirk-Silva expressed appreciation that the tow franchise was moving forward but would like to know about the other measure proposed last year.
One of my major concerns continues to be the infrastructure. As Public Works Director Hoppe pointed out, we still have a nearly $150 million dollar paving deficit to deal with. The current paving plan does not adequately address this nor does this proposed budget. I hope the council members and City Manager Joe Felz will give serious consideration and address our infrastructure with this budget.
Below are the summaries for the proposed budget. (click on image to read) The big question remaining in my mind is how does $274.9 million in taxpayer expenditures next year benefit my family, my neighborhood, and the quality of life in my community?
The election to fill the vacancy caused by 3rd District Supervisor Bill Campbell’s 2012 departure is starting to shape up as a slugfest between Todd Spitzer and Chuck Devore.
Um. no thanks, I've already eaten.
An interesting choice, but one that may cause some to wonder if a better choice isn’t available to succeed Campbell. The departure of latter, who has been just about as liberal, big government a RINO as is humanly possible, presents an opportunity for some real small government conservatism.
That would not be me.
Enter Todd Spitzer. Fired by the DA last August for, well forget what for, it hardly matters anymore, Spitzer brings a huge campaign bank and an equally monstrous Board of Supervisors legacy as one of the green lighters of the disastrous retroactive 3@50 that has saddled the County with a huge unfunded pension liability. When he was on the Board, Spitzer developed a well-earned reputation as a megalomanaic media hound and shameless self promoter. He’s backed every measure designed to separate the police from accountability for what they do. The unions, particularly the cops, just love Todd to death. He’s one of theirs.
The Eagle Scouts are breaking 2-1 for Devore.
Then there’s Chuck Devore, the former assemblyman, whose earnestness and willingness to engage his constituents is commendable; he’s also been pretty good on fiscal issues although apart from budget time he wasn’t able to do much in Sacto. Devore also believes that permitting gays to get married will open the floodgates of Gomorrah as the degenerates seek to marry their pets and potted plants. Also Chuck’s neo-con blather is pretty typical of the misdirection of American foreign policy. Fortunately as a supervisor the last two points are virtually irrelevant.
How would Devore do as one of the overseers of the vast County welfare machine? Hard to say. He has zero experience on a five person executive board where politicking happens every day and where the shifting sands of alliances make things a little uncertain over a four-year term. Spitzer has been there and done that. He’s a known quantity. And that may be his biggest problem.
See that guy over there? I mentored him until I fired him.
The really fun part about this potential match-up is the way the repuglicans will break. One wing of OC repuglicanism, the Schroeder-Rackauckas-Mike Carona crowd will back anybody but Spitzer and will do it loudly and financially. Others will no doubt follow Spitzer – like Supervisor Pat Bates and the unspeakable Janet Nguyen have already appeared to do. And Spitzer has signed up ‘pug lobbyist John Lewis to work his camapign – and that speaks volumes right there. How will the Campbell/Pringle club go? I don’t know. But the Third District has been their little playpen, and Spitzer has ruined their plans to hoist and foist the mannequin Carolyn Cavecche.
The possibility of two well-supported republicans may suck in a Dem from Irvine or Anaheim to take a shot at the brass ring and maybe even take the top spot in a primary. And then there’s the clown-like Will-o’-the-Wisp, Harry Sidhu, who may just try another ego trip even though he has zero chance of ever being elected anything again, even in a district in which he actually lives.
Then there’s the fact of decennial redistricting. Some lines are bound to redrawn, but which ones? Will it matter?
The authors have come to some disturbing, but not unexpected conclusions beginning with “The Controller found no reliable means to measure the impact of redevelopment activity on job growth because RDAs either do not track them or their methodologies lack uniformity and are often arbitrary.” No one who follows the travails of redevelopment in our state should be surprised by this revelation.
The full report is replete with examples of agencies in different cities improperly filing required reports or not filing them at all as well as using funds improperly. Chiang concludes that “The lack of accountability and transparency is a breeding ground for waste, abuse, and impropriety…”.
Even this short term study confirms what many people in Fullerton and elsewhere have maintained for years, that redevelopment law in California has allowed local agencies to abuse their mandates with impunity from the very start with the dubious establishment of the areas themselves.
“The report notes that the 18 RDAs share no consensus in defining a blighted area.” The definition of blight was, of course, at the very crux of challenges against the unjustified expansion of the Fullerton Merged Redevelopment Area. It is encouraging to see the state government challenging agencies to define the blight in their cities in clear terms instead of allowing laughable images of gum wrappers and aluminum cans in a vacant lot to stand as justification for the wholesale diversion of tax dollars away from vital city services.
Our friends over at the the Voice of OC(EA) are reporting on yesterday’s California High Speed Rail Authority meeting. And if you’re one of the repuglicans or make-work junkies supporting the unsupportable, the news ain’t good.
Everybody now admits that the LA-Anaheim link is the most impractical and least effective segment of HSR. In fact, if it is ever built, it may not be “high speed” at all! Hiding behind euphemisms like “phase-in” the reality is that this segment has been pushed all the way to the back of the CHSR bus.
Hilariously the HSR-ocrats are paying lip service to the Will O’ The People who voted a multi-billion dollar bond to support this extravagant boondoggle. Oh, that’s right. The People. The ones who were given false information at every step of the way and who were never presented with a business plan as required by the initiative. And the People, these miscreants are quick to remind us, voted for a system that would come all the way to Anaheim! No prize for guessing who got the Anaheim language into the initiative.
"A" is for...
And speaking of Der Pringle, he provides the best quote of the article when he cautioned not to use the word “splippage” since it might undermine confidence in the whole gig. Hooboy!
Meanwhile Pringle’s glassy monument to himself, the egregious ARTIC 200 mil bus barn continues to loom in our collective psyche, promising to suck up $100,000,000 of Measure M revenue that is supposed to bring HSR to an expanded Metrolink station. Of course ARTIC does neither, but as we have already noted, that means nothing to the small-town drones on the OCTA board. And this reminds me of a poem:
One of Chris Thompson’s first challenges on the Fullerton School Board may be to oppose the approval of a resolution by the Fullerton School District to support the extended tax increases in California.
The district typically has supported anti-taxpayer, pro-union resolutions like this forwarded by self-serving organizations like the California School Boards Association. With the highest state taxes and entitlement expenses in the nation, let’s see if this 5 of 5 Republican School Board has nerve to insult our intelligence with this resolution.
Here’s the details on tonight’s edition of the Martha Montelongo show. Listen live Saturday night on AM870 at 11PM or online at KRLA870.com.
Steven Greenhut, CalWatchDog.com‘s editor in chiefand former deputy editor and columnist for the Orange County Register and author of Abuse of Power: How Government Misuses Eminent Domain, joins Ron Kaye, publisher, editor and columnist for RonKayeLA Blog in a discussion on Redevelopment.
And on Education, a Superior Court Judge ruled this month in favor of the ACLU versus The Los Angeles Unified School District over the district’s last hired first fired layoff policy. It is a landmark decision hailed as such by education reformers, but teacher’s unions denounce it as a step toward dismantling tenure policies.
Larry Sand of the California Teacher’s Empowerment Network joins Martha to talk about this ruling, the firestorm it has caused statewide, and you can be sure nationally as well, and what happens next. He’ll also speak with us about a little known law that was passed by the legislature last year, as part of a move to capitalize on the President’s Race to the Top financial incentives for states to adopt certain education reform measures.
According to an article in today’s LA Times here, the cloudy jewel in Anaheim’s ex-mayor-for hire, Kurt Pringle’s tarnished crown, ARTIC, may not be eligible for $99 million in special Measure M funding. The money had strings attached. However those strings seem to have come loose. And by loose I mean really loose. You see, “Project T” Measure M funds can only be used to “expand” existing stations to accommodate high-speed rail, not build new ones that don’t.
So far the OCTA has pitched over $40,000,000 bucks into this glorified bus station and at this point nobody can show that the high-speed rail choo-choos can even get to it; or that high-speed rail will ever even come to Anaheim. Of course the City of Anaheim (that isn’t paying for any of this) is now saying ARTIC is a “stand alone” facility, which is great, but it ain’t what the voters approved back in 2006: a stand alone facility doesn’t qualify for the $100,000,000 (yes, you read that right) Project T funding.
The hot light of public scrutiny is bound to have interesting environmental effects. The great ARTIC melt-down begins this morning at an OCTA Transit Committee meeting, where newly re-elected Supervisor Shawn Nelson is going to ask members to start reflecting upon their complete lack of responsibility in funding this Pringledoggle.
As part of its project mitigation planning, the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Measure M program has sequestered a huge pile ‘o cash, something in the neighborhood of $200,000,000. The purpose of this dough is to procure sensitive habitat from private property owners who might have development plans.
Naturally, the West Coyote Hills property was on the initial list, until removed by its owners last year. Chevron likely thought their plans for development were in the bag in 2010.
It wasn’t, and now it’s 2011. And apparently the OCTA is re-opening consideration of applications for the first funding from the mitigation fund. Chevron has until Jan 13, to file an application to the OCTA if they want to participate in the program.
Chevron may believe they now have 3 secure votes to approve what the Council denied last June. And they may still prefer to face long years of entitlement, inevitable lawsuits, and two or three embarrassing economic cycles in order to make a big profit. Or perhaps upon further reflection, they might come to realize that selling part or all of their property for a big payday up front without mitigation cost and without dragged out development issues, is preferable.
The Fullerton City Council might want to consider this too, and help persuade Chevron to take this alternate path. Bruce Whitaker, for one, has an excellent opportunity to make this overture.
The generally non-partisan bloggers here at Friends for Fullerton’s Future have come up with a handy election guide for Fullerton voters. Whether you are a Republican, Democrat or independent voter, everyone hates to see public resources mismanaged and squandered by political opportunists, bureaucratic excuse-makers and drowsy incumbents.
These recommendations are based on a preference for candidates who represent the principles of limited government, personal freedom and courage to stand alone when necessary.
Fullerton City Council – 2 Year Seat
Bruce Whitaker
Bruce has always been independent and principle-driven, and he has proven himself to be a real tax-fighter. His past victories have already saved Fullerton residents over $150 million in unnecessary utility taxes.
Fullerton City Council – 4 Year Seat
Greg Sebourn
Greg’s platform centers around cleaning up waste in local government and bringing fiscal sanity back to Fullerton. He has already called out several wasteful projects and agencies on our blog and his own while proposing very reasonable alternatives.
Barry Levinson
Barry has shown courage in publicly denouncing Redevelopment boondoggles and he promises to rein in ridiculous public employee pensions. His background as an auditor may come in handy, too.
Fullerton School Board
Chris Thompson
Chris has courageously challenged the school bureaucracy on behalf of children more than any parent in the history of Fullerton. He will truly be a voice for children and taxpayers on the Fullerton school board.
Beverly Berryman
Beverly is easily the best of the current school board members, and has voted against bad policies and tax increases when necessary in the past.
Measure M – Term Limits
Yes on Measure M
Term limits are on the ballot as a response to Don Bankhead’s 22 years of representing city staff instead of Fullerton taxpayers. Measure M will help counter the often overpowering advantage of incumbency.
Orange County Supervisor – 4th District
Shawn Nelson
His opponent is a perjuring carpetbagger who sold out to the public employee unions.
47th Congressional District – South Fullerton
No Recommendation
Both Loretta Sanchez and Van Tran have way too many core faults to make them even mildly acceptable. One of our bloggers suggested a write-in vote for himself, but he is a dog. Consider choosing an alternative candidate.
This just came in from council candidate Barry Levinson:
Barry Levinson
Last Tuesday night was the vote on the issuance of housing bonds by the RDA in the amount not to exceed $29 million. The Mayor spoke and indicated that there will be no public comments on this issue.
The city attorney right before the vote was to begin, rightly reminded Mayor Bankhead that since the people cannot vote on whether or not to approve the bond issue, we should at least be allowed to voice our non-binding opinions.
Here are some of my comments I presented to the council:
Mayor and council shame on all of you for almost forfeiting our right as Fullertonians to speak out on this housing bond issuance.
We need better oversight over the RDA projects. The city council and the rest of the RDA should not be the ones policing themselves.
The RDA is the only taxing authority that requires no voter approval. We as taxpayers, S/B given more information and more time to review these bond measures before it comes to a vote by council.
Since there will be 2 possibly 3 new council members as of November 2, I suggested that this item be postponed to after the next election.
The council’s answers largely were defensive. No one touched on the third rail issue of no voter participation! Mayor Bankhead remained conspicuously quiet throughout the council’s responses to our objections.
And there you go; another council meeting where our rights as citizens were eroded and $29 million was obligated by the city council without a single vote cast by the people!
