City Council Meeting Tonight - Tuesday May 1

Please come to tonight's City Council meeting and be heard!  

DEBT

Tonight's agenda includes a revised debt obligation report (Item 3) showing the City's Redevelopment debt at $625,165,719.  MORE THAN HALF A BILLION OF DEBT!  This gem is in the Consent Calendar which means the report can be approved with other actions in one motion.  Ask for Item 3 to be pulled from the consent calendar so that we can tell the City Council that $625,165,719 is too much debt.

BUDGET

Also on the agenda is the Revised Budget for Fiscal Year 2012-13.  The revised budget relies on using City reserves to close the structural deficit of at least $1.5-million and make the broad assumption that your water bill will remain the same or go up.  It addresses the 10% cut by the City Council when they halted the illegal water tax however it assumes that there will be two new "fees" in the tax's place to "recover costs" that do not exist.  You and I will continue to pay more and as soon-to-be-Recalled Councilman Dick Jones suggested, the illegal water tax has two new names: Right of Way Impact Fee and Property Lease Fee.

You would think after the backlash over these artificially created "costs" that they would have forgone the fees and dealt with reality.  No.  Business as usual.

SOCIAL ENGINEERING

The General Plan Update or Fullerton Plan is also on the agenda (Item 7).  Depending on your view of social engineering, the General Plan Update may be great or terrible.

I don't like social engineering and therefore am inclined to disagree with the update.  The update incorporates many of the far left's goals to get people walking and cycling by penalizing those who operate gasoline powered  vehicles.  The word "sustainable" is used about as often as "green".  And we know how well these "green" initiatives have worked for the City with the installation of the Library's solar array.

As the name implies, it's all about "cap & trade".  CAP or Climate Action Plan makes the broad assumption that man has changed the Earth's climate and laws like this will change it back.  For that matter, there are several issues with the CAP but I'll focus on just one today.  The software used to dream up the plan's data for cap and trade, greenhouse gas emissions, and other statistical data was developed and disseminated by the very organization that lobbied for AB32 (the Global Warming Solutions Act- as if we can solve the world's problems with one law in CA).  That sounds like a conflict of interest but I'll let you do your own homework and figure out the particulars.

Tow Trucks and Commercial Routes

After a barrage of complaints of selective enforcement that favored one tow company over another, we have  the issue of "Truck Routes" back on the agenda (Item 8).  According to the staff report, some revisions to the municipal code should resolve the problem.  However, the revisions are minor and do not address the larger problem: are tow trucks "commercial vehicles" and therefor required to adhere to the truck routes?

The revised code references the California Vehicle Code's definition of "commercial vehicle".  Here is the actual language:

260.  (a) A "commercial vehicle" is a motor vehicle of a type required to be registered under this code used or maintained for the transportation of persons for hire, compensation, or profit or designed, used, or maintained primarily for the transportation of property. 

(b) Passenger vehicles and house cars that are not used for the transportation of persons for hire, compensation, or profit are not commercial vehicles. This subdivision shall not apply to Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 6700) of Division 3. 

(c) Any vanpool vehicle is not a commercial vehicle. 

(d) The definition of a commercial vehicle in this section does not apply to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 15200) of Division 6.

This means that all tow trucks, delivery vans, maid service cars, ice cream trucks, plumbers, general contractors, electricians, or any vehicles that advertise a company or service and weigh 10,000 pounds or more are not permitted to travel in the City except along designated truck routes.

Of course there is a nice exemption for any vehicles being operated by city contractors, such as their contract tow company.  I see no changes that will resolve the issue of selective enforcement.  The municipal code gives tacit approval for Fullerton Police Officers to chase tow truck competition out of Fullerton and disenfranchising private business.  Only the City's contractor has free reign over Fullerton.

Conclusion

Clearly we are faced yet again with an agenda that supports a select few and contains little connection with the reality facing Fullerton's residents and business owners.  

Voters will have an opportunity to make a difference on June 5th by RECALLING Jones, Bankhead, and McKinley.