Subject: Grand Terrace
Date: Friday, August 20, 2010, 10:57 AM
I read with interest your piece on Doug Wilson. I am a candidate for city council. I think we need to reform RDA in the entire state. Sales taxes should be collected by state and given to cities on a per capita basis. Call me a "crazy reformer." RDA is at the heart of the decay in our cities. It has become too lucrative for developers to pass up. The literature proves it does not create jobs. The debt incurred as incentives cancels any revenue gains. The housing bubble created a bubble in RDA increment. This what we citizens get, 3 days to review a agreement of a "done deal." Stater Bros is a great employer, but I just believe private ventures should be borne by private capital. We need money for youth services and parks. I do not see any coming out of here. Key features: TARP (Taxpayers) to pay $2500 x 77 full time equivalent jobs(22 actual full-time/76PT) years= $192,500x 5=$962,500. CALTRANS/TAXPAYERS to pay $49,000 x 5 years for 45 parking spaces for park and ride=$245,000. Grand Total: $1,2075,500 RDA Assistance to Stater Bros Mkt for new sales taxes on $17 million new building : $35,000 p/yr to General Fund $ 70,000 p/yr to RDA Agency $105,000 new revenues 5y=$525,000 RDA Assistance: $1,2075,500-$525,000(new revenues)= negative $682,500 in revenues to City and or Taxpayers. Who is not paying? Jack Brown and Doug Jacobsen. Questions: 1. How are we gaining revenues for city programs? 2. Staff report claims increase of 22 percent in sales taxes; what are they now and what are the projections? What is the debt service on the funds we have to give Stater Bros. 3. Why were the residents affected by negative emissions scheduled to meet with city staff August 31st, after agreement executed? Believe me I want a new Stater Bros, I just do not want to pay for it. Sylvia Robles ************************************* Friday, August 20, 2010 San Bernardino County Sentinel Planning Commissioner Wilson Seeking GT Mayoral Post For the second time, planning commissioner Doug Wilson is vying for the elected mayor’s post in Grand Terrace. Wilson is seeking the mayor’s post for the second time. In 2006, he ran against Maryetta Ferré, managing to pull in 36 percent of the vote to Ferré’s 64 percent. Ferré, 73, who was a fixture on the city council for a decade and was the principal at Grand Terrace Middle School for more than a decade before that, is not seeking reelection. Wilson is joined in the race for mayor by councilman Walt Stanckiewitz, Sally McGuire and Denise Centy-Sternberg. Wilson emphasized that he is not seeking to radically transform the city or its government. “I’m committed to try to make it better for the people who live here. I’m not a reformer. I’m a let’s-build-on-what’s- good type of guy. First of all, we have a nice small town atmosphere. We have good people who are hard working and have a good median income. I have been on the planning commission for 18 years. I’m familiar with what we have been trying to do. We have a nice little enclave that’s fairly crime free. We have 353 businesses that are not always recognizable. I’d like to be able to grow those. We need to grow the commerce section of the city to be able to cope with budget restrictions. The city’s budget will get tighter. By bringing in more business we can enhance the lifestyle of the citizens of Grand Terrace.” In addition, Wilson said, “I’d like to expand our youth programs. We already have a lot of good sports programs but there are not too many places in town to go unless you are involved in sports. We could have other programs for our youth that are not based on sports.” As mayor, Wilson said he would serve as a catalyst for getting others involved in their community. “We have a large group of volunteers available but don’t take advantage of that much,” he said. “We have put a lot of money into enhancing the city and beautification efforts. We have a lot of volunteers available for projects. We already have numerous volunteer programs in Grand Terrace. They need to be coordinated and directed. I am a member of the Lion’s Club and am also on the board.” From his work on the planning commission, Wilson said he is aware of how Stater Bros. will move out of its current location into a much larger building in the recently approved Grand Terrace Town Center. That will create a vacancy at the current Stater Bros. location, he said. “We are going to have to work with the owner of that property,” he said. “She has an idea about what she wants in there. She understands that property to be valuable from a commercial standpoint and she is confident it will be leased as soon as Staters walks out the door. But if it remains vacant for any time, it will substantially affect the community. We have to work on incentivizing the situation to modernize and clean it up and get the highest and best use in there.” That property, located at the southeast corner of Barton Road and Mt. Vernon Avenue, is a major crossroads in town, Wilson said. The city already saw that corner marred by the vacancy of the market located on the diagonal corner of that intersection, he said. “We put up with a property that was abandoned and vacant at the northeast corner of Mt. Vernon and Barton for ten years,” he said. “We don’t want the same thing at the southwest corner.” Wilson said his professional experience as a consultant on development projects gives him a leg up in understanding the dynamics of development and negotiating on issues relating to private investment and ventures that will improve the community. “I’ve been in the business arena for forty years and handled budgets of $100 million and more for public and private companies,” he said. “I’ve lived here for 29 years and been on the planning commission for 18 of those years. I have my finger on the pulse of this community from stem to stern. I think I can build on what’s good. I ran for mayor against the current mayor. This is not my first rodeo. I think I understand business in the overall and I have the ability to negotiate to get people to move forward and bring people to the table. I’d like to encourage business to come to town and locate in areas that are compatible with their surroundings. “I’d like to bring more job opportunities to the area but preserve our small town atmosphere,” he continued. “I want to maintain our policy of safety and enhance our service levels without increasing the cost of those services. We are going to need to deal with traffic congestion. We are going to have a new high school that will have to blend into the neighborhood. That is going to take special attention along Michigan Avenue. Local government is a covenant between people and their representative that is different from the government at the state level or the federal level. There is something closer there. You have to build trust by consistent performance and by fulfilling the vision of the community. The only way you can make things work is identify what priorities the community has and then you have to budget accordingly. You have to work to get the business element into it to get the tax revenue to fulfill the community vision.” Wilson said he can make a commitment to being mayor. “I’m semi-retired and can be a full time mayor,” he said. And he will include all perspectives in the formulation of a consensus,” Wilson vowed. “As planning commission chairman, I never had a 3 minute rule for those who wanted to come before us and provide their input,” he said. “I think everyone is entitled to take part and be heard, even the naysayers. Everyone should be encouraged to communicate frankly. I believe in individual rights.” He has shown his willingness to work through differences, he emphasized. “In having to deal with the Colton Joint Unified School District and the state, I have felt it better to create a team situation rather than an adversarial situation,” he said. For the community, Wilson said, “Prosperity is more than money. It is a community thriving together.” But whatever his tolerance for dissent, Wilson said, he is not himself some wild-eyed radical bomb thrower. “There are others that are engaged in degradation of the community,” he said. “I am not. Others have a pervading sense that they have to reform everything. I am not convinced that a whole lot has to be changed. I believe we have had a lot of good stuff in relation to the city. The city and its people do a lot of things well. I see a lot of neat things here. It is a good little community. I just want to make peoples’ lives easier and better.” Wilson said he thinks there are other good candidates in the race, including those running for mayor and each of the two council positions. But, he said, “I’m not running alongside anybody. I may share some perspectives with others but I’m not aligning myself with anyone.” Wilson, 56, was born in San Gabriel. He graduated from Chaffey High School in Ontario and attended Chaffey college and the University of California at Irvine. He is married with one grown daughter and a granddaughter. ********************************** Gramps Reads the Sentinel Article and Thinks: Wilson does not have to declare an alliance with other Candidates. He has already aligned himself. He is for No Reform of the past policy and practices of the Schwab Berry Administration. He was an active participant in the promotion of that administrations planning, policy and practices. Schwab is running for City Council. Denise "De De" Sternberg, Salley McGuire, and Doug Wilson are tainted by the same association. Because they are also "NON REFORMERS" or past appointments of the Schwab/Berry Administration or close friends with them. Running for City Council you have Tom Schwab him self, who continues to agree with his past actions, Bea Cortes who voted for those actions, and Richard Loder who is also a non Reformist. These folks are running for the same seat as Bernardo Sandoval who is a Reformist and who is more likely hurt by the vote splitting effects of having 4 people running for 1 seat. For the SHORT TERM SEAT. Darcy McNaboe a Schwab/Berry Planning Commission Appointee is running against Sylvia Robles a Reformist. What we have here people is a flock of Schwab/Berry Administration Devotees who do not want to learn from the past and REFORM the ERRORS. You don't build on top of a foundation that is damaged, you FIX the Damage then build. They may just be plants to split the votes so that REFORM does not happen. Wilson implies that one or all of the others running for mayor are "wild-eyed, bomb radical bomb thrower(s)". This characterization should be criminal. So who are you talking about Wilson? Is it Walt Stanckiewitz, Denise "DE DE" Decenty Sternberg or Sally Mc Guire, you are characterizing this way? Or should I say slandering? Wilson seems to think the RDA or City of Grand Terrace should insert power over a property owner who has a vacant business space. EVEN if that vacancy is by the property owners choice in waiting for a price they desire for a piece or lease of the property. It would be appropriate to say that the RDA's help to relocate Stater's from their current location and creating an empty space and added competition to the local restaurants may be a financial liability the RDA must assume responsibility for. Compensation to businesses hurt by RDA actions is or should be a factor in the "Planning" of such ventures. BUT: NEVER should an RDA or CITY GOVERNMENT tell a land owner what to do with their property, other than to keep it in a condition that is SAFE. BACK OFF WILSON this is not RUSSIA or CHINA. Wilson has cut off people from participating in public discussion at Planning Commission Meetings. He uses the tactic of narrowing down the agenda or item to be spoken upon to a point that it chokes off public comment. He has also cut off speakers several time in his ten year on the Planning Commission. His only saving grace on this matter is that the minutes of the Planning Commission are so poorly done it is difficult to prove how he conducts the meetings unless you happen to be some of the few in attendance. That is what Gramps Thinks about Wilson's Interview. What do you think? |
