"Having a Financing City Services Task Force is all well and good. Disclosing salaries in the Tribune is all well and good, too. However, we need to keep in mind that in 2007 the council fired the city's Finance Director and replaced her with the Human Resources Director. A citizen's task force and a Human Resources Director do not equal the expertise of the Finance Director that was fired. No matter how much we 'Oooh and Aaah' over the salaries of our civil servants, we probably don't have any insight, on a professional level, as to what to do about it.
What impacted me
most from the Financing City Services meeting was the graph that showed
the downward trajectory of our city's reserve account. After reading
past letters stating the need to hang onto various programs, it hit home
that if the downward spiral goes downward more than predicted, there
may be no option to choose which programs to keep and which to end.
There may be no choice as to whether we continue having our own police
department or not. If things get bad enough, all our choices could be
moot.The statement that some writers made about Measure L* not being an option is not just wrong, it's in denial. It's a paradigm that has helped to dig the hole that buries us. If we want to be proactive, then we need to keep not only that option but many others open as well. It's time to do more than just cutting city services and raising taxes.
A good place to start is to balance the planning commission. Several months ago we witnessed the planning commission unanimously approve motions that were made while violating the Brown Act. The one planning commissioner who wasn't present at the meeting, an attorney, later made a comment with words to the effect of, "what's the big deal?" The big deal is that we need commissioners that see the need for economic development, not the need for more parks. We need a planning commission that has a respect for the laws that respect the rights of all, not just the interests of a favored political faction. We need a planning commission that can realize that an expeditious planning process is not just in the best interests of a builder, it's in the best interest of us all."
* Measure L was the the 2006 mixed-use quarry development proposal vote which barely failed to pass.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
12 comments:
Gil had me rooting for him in the first paragraph but after that you dropped off a cliff.
The issue is and will remain payroll not development.
It's both payroll (costs) and development (revenue).
To say it's only expenses is like telling someone who's broke and out of work that all they have to do is buy less. They also need to be told to go out and get a job in order to bring in some money.
True that.
The previous finance director should never have lost her job. Her expert and forthright advice has been sorely missed. Her departure was Pacifica politics at its slimiest. Typical Pacifica strategy--global financial war breaks out and we show up with blankets and beads.
Didn't Ritzma come up with the Cafeteria Cash Program that Council benefited from the same time they were looking at both their jobs? MMMMM YUP! Guess who got the job. Yes, very slimy. Ritzma better be careful. The more outsourcing of Labor in the City, the less we need her to negotiate contracts. She just might outwit herself.
Heard on NPR that Greece's new rail system has more employees than riders. It would actually be cheaper to send each passenger by their own taxi.
overpaying compensating government workers only ends in a Greek tragedy.
Hint, San Mateo is Europe
oh anon@903 you sound like you could tell some stories. Yes, reliable people say Ritzma floated in atop that cafeteria cash bonanza for council. I know, it's despicable, but careers have been built on far less. About that time her biggest supporter had a problem with the finance director being a little too realistic, ie, she rained on his parade once too often. Shazaam! Finance director is "axed" and we sail blindly into the perfect storm. What do you think, does that kind of behavior take a toll on people?
Steve laments, "To say it's only expenses is like telling someone who's broke and out of work that all they have to do is buy less. They also need to be told to go out and get a job in order to bring in some money."
Unfortunately Steve that argument has no baring here as senior staff has negotiated salaries/benefits and pensions for all that they knew where not affordable so it's more like robbery than sloth.
The correct analogy would be something more like thieves demanding their victims earn more so they can continue to steal at a level that maintains a life style for them that is great than that of their victims.
Development has nothing to do with it, Steve, it's just about payroll.
While pay is an issue, a very large part of this city's problems can be laid firmly on the back of Todd and his merry band of NIMBYs who prance around in circles repeating "Development has nothing to do with it".
Yep, the city is not structurally sustainable, and has gone the wrong direction for 10 years (thanks again to city council majority).
At minimum had Beach Boulevard and the quarry been built, these locations would be part of destination planning. With more tourist friendly and local activity, travel sources such as TripAdvisor would be more kind to Pacifica.
Another way to think of it, some NIMBYS could ride their bicycles to work.
Blaming the council for pigs not being able to fly because they don't have wings.
New logo for Pacifica. A pig with big, beautiful wings riding an old, beat-up bicycle up a really steep hill.
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