Taxpayers, lax mayors?
The taxpayers don’t want to be told what is good for them by people who have ruined the City’s financial future, cared little about infrastructure when they were in office and elevated public employment at the demise of services the citizens of Long Beach had paid for.
During contract negotiations for the Aquarium [of the Pacific], Mayor [Beverly] O’Neill promised that the people would have no future financial responsibility for the project. Today, the taxpayers are responsible for $3 [million] to $5 million a year to supplement its costs!
The pension increases, which were ushered in by Mayor O’Neill, were never debated. She did a huge disservice to the citizens of Long Beach by her passive behavior and not vetoing the increases. Even though the city council voted on the most expensive pension package, Mayor O’Neill said nothing.
Mayor O’Neill claimed in 2002 that the City was on the “right track.” A few weeks after, she announced the City was in a fiscal crisis and that its spending exceeded revenues by $100 million. This caused a reduction in library hours, reduced school crossing guards and an increase in city fees. Funds that provided these services, including police, were less important than a 33-percent increase in pension benefits. This was after the City financed a $100-million Pension Obligation Bond in 2002.
Mayor Foster repeated many of Mayor O’Neill’s financial blunders. He immediately gave raises between 12 percent and 27 percent to the employees, even though the City was reeling from Mayor O’Neill’s irresponsible financial decisions. He was unable to properly staff the police department because of the pension spike. The Kroc Community Center’s demise was caused by City Hall’s inability to provide $15 million of its $80-million cost.
The people could [sic] care less about the legacy of politicians, but we will have a new City Hall complex for Mayor Garcia. The cost for the new complex has already cost us $450,000 more in consultant fees than budgeted, and the additional cost to the taxpayers has already escalated from $12 million a year to an estimated $15—$20 million a year.
There are many more reasons not to support Measure A. Among them are: pension increases causing a $1-billion unfunded pension liability; giveaways of land to developers; management raises of 15 percent; pension costs outpacing infrastructure costs by $60 million a year; massive payment to consultants when we have an existing staff at City Hall, i.e., spending $550,000 on management partners, while their suggestions are ignored and not implemented; raises to employees to supplement their mandatory pension pick-up; and, just as important, the City’s refusal to divulge the truth as to why we don’t hire more police. The plain and simple truth is, we can no longer afford more public-safety personnel because of their salaries, overtime and benefits.
Kathy Ryan and Tom Stout
Long Beach Taxpayers Association
