Down the Debt Path Again: This Council is Digging a Bigger Hole

This past City Council Meeting the Redevelopment Agency voted to barrow funds from Low and Moderate Income Housing Fund to pay the County for School Funds. This loan has to be paid back in 5 years and is a zero interest loan.

The justification for the loan was there was no other source of funds to pay for this obligation. What was not provided to the public is proof of any effort to identify any other funds, such as cut backs in Code Enforcement, Planning Department Employees, or Finance Department Employees. No investigation in cutting the Management's Income Expense to reflect the supportable levels closer to the incomes of the public they serve.

There was also no disclosure of where the money to repay the loan will come from in the next 5 years. There was no disclosure on how removing the funds from the Low and Moderate Income Housing fund will hurt those who should provided services under that fund, while the City Staff continues to be paid excessive incomes.

This City Council and City Redevelopment Agency has not gotten the point that they need to stop dipping into this fund to pay for that expense. They have not gotten the point that they need to follow the intent of the funding, and limit the cost of daily city / staff operations to the levels we can support without debt financing and dependency on Loans of funds from one fund to another, that will have to be paid some time in the future with revenue we can not be sure will exist.

While this City Council is better than those of the past, and City Manager Betsy Adams is better than Tom Schwab. Citizens must ask is this the Government we are satisfied with? Do we want continued Debt Financed, Redevelopment Agency Stranglehold on our community?