08-09-10, Al Hofmann Questions Whether All Issues Raised by Herbert Molano are Lies and Distortions as Stated by Mayor Najarian

With all the articles appearing in the local newspapers about the compensation abuse in the City of Bell, and the resulting pension crises it spurned for most cities throughout the United States to meet their commitments for retired government employees, it seems that many of the articles appearing on the issue, were written by the notorious Gadfly, Herbert Molano. Such quotes as "The absence of transparency is a breeding ground for waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars", as written in the CalPERS article in the LATEXTRA section of the August 4th edition of the Los Angeles Times. How many times have we heard Mr. Molano preach those words at city council meetings over the past few years. Also, in the same section of that edition, in an article titled "Pension Costs projected to grow to 1/3 of the city budget" referring to LA, the words "For every dollar you're paying into your pension systems, you're not paying into libraries, parks, and other city services". This is another plea heard over and over from Mr. Molano at so many city council meetings. In that same article, a city official responds to an objection raised about cutting police pensions; "We can no longer sustain the pension and healthcare plan that presently exists". Many speakers at city council, including myself, have raised this issue during the budget planning meetings.

Are all the issues raised by Mr. Molano week after week really all lies and distortions as the Mayor wants you to believe? Now, we have another councilman questioning Mr. Molano's repeated pleas for park space in south Glendale, stating that he holds a share of the responsibility for the lack of park space because he purchased an apartment building in south Glendale. What the councilman fails to recognize, the city council(s) in power during the time of the multi-family explosion in this part of town hold the ultimate responsibility for the condition that we are now experiencing, not the buyers of the apartment buildings which the city wanted for revenue purposes.

The crises which erupted in the City of Bell clearly points out the lack of transparency of public officials, and salary and pension levels approved by elected officials who were trusted to be financially responsible. This does raise the question, "would this have happened if the City of Bell had the Herbert Molanos, Mike Mohills, Bruce Phillpots, and other concerned residents of Glendale who took the time to bring issues of public concern before their city council?" Something for our city council members to ponder when lambasting Herbert Molano.

Al Hofmann