Successful, or self-serving?
I recently listened to a radio host talking about government. He noted how people often complain about the way it spends our money. They say it needs to be run like a business, where those in charge are actually concerned that monies are spent wisely.
One local example of such improper spending would be half a billion dollars in escalating yearly payments on an unneeded new civic center. Or contracting for a new Gerald Desmond Bridge that was supposed to cost around $800 million but will ultimately be closer to one and one-half billion dollars. And claiming the added cost is due to unforeseen petroleum pipelines, etcetera when the area was once covered with oil derricks. Yet this wasn’t anticipated? Even thinking about spending over $100 million on a swimming pool is yet another example.
In spite of such egregious examples of absurd spending, Long Beach actually is run like a business– a very successful business.
The problem is we residents see ourselves as the stockholders– those whom the enterprise should benefit. But city management takes a far different view. They see City employees as their shareholders. Viewed from that perspective, Long Beach is a fabulously successful enterprise.
Until Governor Brown recently got a raise, there were 39 City employees making more than the governor’s just-under-$200,000-a-year salary. And 1,462 Long Beach employees are making over $100,000, with fantastic benefits and retirement.
This in a city that’s short almost 200 police officers and has two fire stations without a pumper able to put water on a fire. We have a growing homeless population and numerous roads that resemble a motocross track.
Would appear to be a failing city. Not at all. Get more taxes with Measures A and M and keep on giving raises to City employees.
Do we really want to make it easier for these city council members (who’ve gotten us in this terrible mess in order to serve their real constituents– City employees) to get four more years in office?
Richard Gutmann
Long Beach
Counting on the County
The independent investigation [by information-technology company IBM Security Services] has shown that the problems voters experienced during the June 5 election had nothing to do with foul play but were the result of a software error.
While I am relieved that this was not a cyberattack, what happened was unacceptable, and we are going to ensure that the Registrar-Recorder’s Office fixes this issue so that this never happens again. Now more than ever, we need to ensure the public’s trust in our election system.
Janice Hahn
Supervisor
Los Angeles County
Fourth District
An urge to merge?
We are most concerned that the [Long Beach] mayor and city council are proposing a major change in the city charter to merge the gas and water departments into a public-utilities department without any documented analysis of the impact of such a merger.
We have reason to believe that this merger is being proposed to remove the independence of the water department to make certain it is no longer “a rogue department” that makes actions independently of the mayor and city council. This merger will facilitate transfers of revenue without objection.
We also share the concern of some city staff who believe that the mayor, city council and major management are possibly being “lobbied” to contract out or to privatize the city’s utilities, which include water, gas, refuse, sewers and a City-run electricity service that is currently being considered.
All of these issues need to be brought out into the open before the proposal is placed on the November ballot so that the voters are clearly informed.
Diana Lejins
Gerrie Schipske
Tom Stout
Joe Weinstein
