THE RECESSION IS HERE!
Gentlemen I come before you tonight with a heavy
heart. Everyday the news of the economy gets gloomier and gloomier. And at last
week’s Budget Session on how to find new taxes, I felt that nobody on this dais
had been reading the newspapers, listening to talk radio or watching the
business news on television.
Councilman Weaver defended the city employees again by
saying how hard they work and have great pride in working for the city. Well,
Mr. Weaver, if I were over-paid compared to the private industry, I would also
work hard to keep this gravy train afloat. By the different city unions giving
generously to your political campaign and the other councilmen, the five of you
have continued this irresponsible behavior of overpaying these employees. But,
at least recently, Councilman Yousefian has seen the light and he no longer
supports giving generously to the city unions.
According to CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report ending June 2007) for the past 6 years the GWP (
Gentlemen, have you ever heard of PROP 13….? You know, the benefit you and I get for staying in our homes for
many years. By the city council increasing our utility rates and then transferring
that money to the GENERAL FUND, it is actually, in my opinion, against the
SPIRT OF PROP 13!!! YES, the City Council just skirted the law.
Mr. Weaver stated that council “criticism” was
“absolutely ridiculous”, noting that there was no way for anyone to predict in
June the financial turmoil local governments would be facing today. All
projections were positive, Weaver said.
Councilman Weaver obviously never reads financial news
other than what is good for the city employees, or taken a college class on
budgeting. Relying on “experts” to tell him that home prices were never going
to bubble out or that the gravy train of taxes from all sources would never dry
out was foolish thinking.
Buy now and Pay later has been the philosophy of you
and your colleagues these past 6 years.
Knowing that the city was running on empty, you and
your colleagues continue generously to over pay city employees with salaries
and pensions. Plus purchasing property with no planned usage or open space
without appraisals has been darn right irresponsible and child like.
Did you and your colleagues think that seeing the city
reserves dwindle from $600M to $430M, a shrinkage of
$170M, was PRU
In the past year I have seen this council not only
give generous city salaries, but spend $8.25M for the purchase of Rockhaven Sanitarium. Nowadays, talk in council chambers is
to build an
How sad it is to know that the largest employer in the
city of
NO, gentlemen, nothing is your fault for not having a
crystal ball. But you can show the general public that you plan on taking
immediate action by eliminating one of the major sources of expense for the
city. Yes, that is city employee’s salaries, benefits and pensions. I spoke for
an hour with Mr. Doyle, Mgr. of Human Resources, last week and he explained to
me how our city employees could be laid off and how by changing the
According to newspaper articles, the first
responsibility of our city council to the taxpayers is NOT to fix our sidewalks,
road repairs, parks, libraries, etc., but to make sure that the government
employee pensions are paid first…even if that requires increasing taxes. After
pensions and salaries are paid, then all the services one would expect from the
city will be handled.
Gentlemen, I strongly suggest you direct City Mgr. Starbird and staff sit down with Mr. Doyle and see how the
city can transfer itself from the strong arms of the employee unions. A Charter
change would be needed, but I am sure the local citizens would approve.
Approximately 70% of the employees of people in private industry today have a
401K and Social Security upon retirement. Only 10% of employees have a pension
upon retirement and most of those employees are government employees.
Government employment is a growth industry in the city
of
Every citizen will be looking at the city council on
the way the government will be handling this current recession. If the current
City Council will not make the necessary changes, then come April we will have
three new councilmen.
Thank You
Mike Mohill