10-10-10, Greg Wilkinson Comments on the Proposed Water Rate Increases

Bell kept raising taxes and fees to sustain its lavish public spending on a bloated, self aggrandizing management structure and look what happened -- they finally got caught in their own web of greed and corruption. If I'm not mistaken GWP honcho Glenn Steiger doesn't even reside in the State of California, let alone live in Glendale, so what else could local residents expect but rate increases when their locally owned utility is run by an out of state hired gun. Put a badge on this guy and he's a porcine version of Glendale's last highly touted out-of-towner department head Randy Adams.

Who does City Manager Jim Starbird and his puppets on the City Council think they're kidding when they keep hiring these yes men who only know one management style and that is business as usual. This city and the rest of the country is in the middle of the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression and they can only come up with more of the same in the form of increased borrowing, possibly illegal transfers to the general fund and customer rate increases when hard times demand new, creative solutions and more belt tightening from our elected and appointed officials.

With City Council elections approaching in April 2011, incumbents seeking reelection have a whole lot of explaining to do before the citizens of Glendale can be expected to endorse this kind of governance. Hard times call for creative choices and new leadership -- something that is sorely lacking from the current crop of executives and officials in Glendale. And before I forget, what kind of cushy golden parachute pension and retirement plan is Glenn Steiger expecting at our expense? Maybe it's time the citizens and ratepayers of Glendale take a peek at his employment contract before it's too late.