Don’t Shoot the Messenger-Just Refuse to Pay Him « Thegardeningsnail's Weblog (because not every critter is hiding under a rock…)

November 2, 2009

Don’t Shoot the Messenger-Just Refuse to Pay Him

Filed under: Uncategorized — thegardeningsnail @ 5:54 pm
Tags: City Council, City of Livingston, Colton Read, Crab Feed, Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial, Rotary, Veterans, VFW, Water Rates

First: a short note to my “tea bagging” friends and allies across the Twitterverse

My little town of Livingston seems to be experiencing the trauma of “political crap hitting the fan” because certain deficits that previous administrations allowed to grow unchecked have finally ballooned to the point that “stopping the financial bleeding” in the Enterprise Funds has meant Rate Increases for Water, Waste Water and Sanitation: much higher than the average person expected. This has led to protest rallies in the park and at City Hall.

However, these protests can’t really be classified as that of the “teabag variety”, that is..protests against expanding the size and scope of government, against increasing the number of government programs, and against expanding the amount of deficit spending.

In my view these are “after the fact protests” against the unfortunate consequences of deficit spending going on over a period of several years: Deficit spending which was not addressed by earlier administrations, when the pain would have been much less, until it can’t really go on much longer without the City ending up in Bankruptcy.

At least, that’s what it looks like to me

Warning (a la “Lemony Snicket”) To Everybody Else

Do not read this post if you have friends on the City Council and you don’t like to see them insulted, criticized, critiqued, made fun of, satirized, snarked at, “put down”, “talked down too”, or otherwise talked about in a way that might damage your or their delicate sensibilities.

Read on at your own risk—you’ve been warned!

A couple posts back, (maybe more) I alluded to the “dismissive way” a couple of council persons seem to be treating Staff and Other Professionals who do work for and/or otherwise advise the city.

The most recent example being the Tuesday the 20^th City Council Meeting in which the City Auditor was kept cooling his heels on the sidelines due to a lack of a quorum. Although he had made the effort to be On Time at the Appointed Time of 6:45, because only 2 members of the Council showed up, the Auditor could not give his presentation as scheduled, he had to wait until darn near 11 p.m.

Now, from what I understand, Councilman Vierra had an excused absence for the whole night. As far as I am concerned, he is not the one at fault for there not being a quorum

I’m talking about the other two who breezed in late, just a couple minutes before the 7:00 Regular Meeting was about to start.

And no—I don’t care if one of them may have been hanging out with “the people” at the protest rally going on in the parking lot outside and a couple of the other Council Persons had excused absences for the Redevelopment Meeting. That still left 3 able bodied members of the Council which adds up to an available quorum.

There was a Civic and Professional Obligation to be at that previously scheduled and Legally Noticed 6:45 Redevelopment Agency Meeting and unless they were so sick they needed to stay home in bed, s/he should have been there on time!

To force the Auditor to wait and wait and wait until darn near 11pm to give his Audit Report on the Redevelopment Agency is just plain Rude!

And Preventable.

Unless…someone really doesn’t give a rat’s rear end about the value of an Auditor’s time.

And…, to top it all off, these same two “late arrivals voted against accepting the Independent Auditor’s Report on the City of Livingston, for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2009.

Can you believe it? Make the poor guy wait for hours then tell him his Report on the City’s Financials is “for %$#@” by voting “NO!” (And I can’t help but wonder. Will they vote against paying him too)?

After all…they also voted against paying the City Attorney (again!).

(In a future post, I hope to go into more detail as to what I think is the root cause of this constant “voting against paying the attorney thing”, with the “Grand Jury Report”, The City Response to “The Grand Jury Report”, The Grand Jury’s Response to “The City’s Response to the Grand Jury Report”, and voting against paying the “old lawyer” and “voting against paying “the new lawyer”, ad nauseam.)

But for now, I think I have a handle on why two council persons voted against accepting the Auditor’s Report on the City’s Financials.

· Accepting the Audit Report means also accepting The Water Enterprise Fund had a net operating loss of $454,506 for the last fiscal year.

· Accepting the Audit Report means also accepting The Domestic Waste Water Enterprise Fund had a net operating loss of $108,439 for the last fiscal year.

· Accepting the Audit Report means also accepting The Sanitation Enterprise Fund had a net operating loss of $146, 494 for the last fiscal year.

Accepting the Audit Report means also accepting that the City has been burning through cash from the General Fund in order to subsidize ever growing deficits in the Enterprise Funds.

Accepting the Audit Report means also accepting that some painful rate increases were a necessary evil to prevent the City from having to slash other public services, or continue on a rapid downward spiral into bankruptcy.

And with their friends, family and neighbors protesting in the parking lot

Accepting the Audit Report was just not Politically Acceptable.

The annual Rotary Crab Feed will be held at the Portuguese Hall

Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 pm.

Menu and open bar are the same as last year.

Meal tickets are $40 and raffle tickets are $1.00.

First prize is $1,000,

Second prize is a mystery prize donated by True Value Hardware,

Third prize is a recliner.

Over 100 prizes to be raffled.

Hope you got your tickets already!

All proceeds to fund local scholarships and fight polio.

VFW Ladies Aux. Quilt Raffle

The Livingston VFW is raffling off a hand made quilt. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5.00. For more information contact Denis or Sue Wells at 394-2059.

Special Needs Bingo Day

November 14, 2009

Elk’s Lodge, 1910 M Street, Merced CA 95340

Hours to be determined

Please register in advance for this event. Space is limited, so if you don’t register you might not be able to attend.

Contact Bryan Behn, Recreation Superintendent (209) 385-7426