Fullerton Police Department Open House - Oct. 20 10AM-2PM

Thievery or Smart Governance?

"Let's re-purpose the fruits of our crime!"

Last year when I was a member of the City of Fullerton's Water Rate Study Ad Hoc Committee I hoped to end the illegal water tax (done!).  I also hoped to take the money overcharged to rate payers from the General Fund and put it back in the Water Fund where it was intended to be spent.  This would help offset and suspend any immediate need to raise rates for infrastructure investment.  This seemed like the smart thing to do.

However, after many thoughtful discussions and meetings with community members, ratepayer advocates, and tax fighters I realized the error in keeping the money.  From an ethics point of view, it is wrong to keep something that was taken through deception.  It's also wrong to hang onto something that is not yours without the consent of the owner.  

In this case, the City took ratepayers' money and told them it was needed to fund the water system.  The City then raised water rates repeatedly while skimming 10% to cover rising pension costs and personnel benefits.  According to the City's own records 70% of the skimmed funds were spent on police and fire salaries and benefits.  About 10% covered other staff salaries and benefits with the remainder being spent on subsidizing other departments, like Parks & Recreation.  That's the simple but ugly truth.  

None of the skimmed funds were spent laying new pipelines, treating contaminated water, or building reservoirs.  

If your employee (think city council) had been overcharging your customers (think ratepayers) to prop up the employee's retirement benefits and pay for office supplies for their side business, wouldn't  you fire the employee (think recall election) and give your customers a refund equal to the amount which they were over charged?  What if...after getting caught the employee concocted a scheme to keep the money or at least most of it?  What if they were convinced that they could do more good with it than your customers could?  Would you really tell your employee to just hang on to the cash and use it more wisely?  Look at it this way, after discovering your child took a cookie out of the cookie jar without your permission, would you let them eat it or maybe give it to the dog?  Or would you make them put it back where they got it?

Opponents of the refund would like you to believe that a refund would drain the reserves and bankrupt the City.  While the burden would be great, this assumes that the City would not cut expenditures in other areas and would instead simply raid the reserves much like the previous administrations continuous raids of the Water Fund since 1970.  

A refund of $7,000,000 is not an insurmountable figure to overcome but it will require a change in the way we do business.  Also, let's consider how much money a "typical" ratepayer can expect to be refunded given that City staff had assumed that the refund was going to be $2,500,000 and not the full $7,000,000.  The difference is due to the "costs" which staff attempted to lay on the Water Fund but which the current council rejected.

Staff had calculated that a "typical" water ratepayer could expect a refund of around $45 per meter.  That figure assumes the refund is $2.5 million, not $7-million.  Ratepayers can expect to receive $120 to $170 each for their portion of the $7-million refund depending on how much they were actually over charged.

While I appreciate the notion of reinvesting the ill-gotten revenue, I believe the ratepayers should have a say in the matter.  Perhaps allowing them to opt out of receiving a refund is more appropriate.  I am open to considering how to manage the refund process but absolutely reject the notion that the City of Fullerton, the same agency that created this mess, should simply keep the money.  

198 Years Ago Today - The Battle of Baltimore

At the Battle of Baltimore Francis Scott Key watched as the United States Army fought off a Brittish invasion by land and sea.  Key, inspired by the defense of Fort McHenry, wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner".


 O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

’Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,

A home and a country, should leave us no more?

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.

Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: “In God is our trust;”

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Whitaker for City Council

Join us!

Fundraiser to re-elect

Mayor Pro Tem Bruce Whitaker

                             to Fullerton City Council 2012

Where: The Matador Cantina

in historic downtown Fullerton

111 N. Harbor Blvd, Fullerton, CA 92832

Just North of Commonwealth on the West side of Harbor

Parking and entrance in rear

When: September 10th, Monday evening @ 6:00 pm

for excellent cocktails and delicious appetizers

$25 Supporter

$100 Patron

$250 Sponsor

*there is no maximum contribution limit for City Council

　

Please RSVP to ElectBruceWhitaker@live.com

or Linda @ 714-981-7303

Unable to join us? Please mail contributions to :

Elect Bruce Whitaker 2012

P.O. Box # 1444

                                     Fullerton, CA 92836

Bruce Whitaker Campaign Committee - ID #1330388