{"id":173,"date":"2010-01-28T02:35:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T02:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terragrafix.com\/blog\/?p=173"},"modified":"2010-01-28T02:35:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T02:35:00","slug":"opinion-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/?p=173","title":{"rendered":"OPINION"},"content":{"rendered":"

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DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/span>By Liz Altieri<\/p>\n

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Be prepared to reach into your wallets so your city employees don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to. <\/span>The City of Emeryville<\/span> \u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Finance Committee<\/span> (Nora Davis, Chair; Jennifer West, Member) is currently contemplating \u00e2\u20ac\u0153revenue enhancements\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to recommend to the full City Council. <\/span>This is due to the grim news revealed at last June\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s City Council \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Advance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (as opposed to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Retreat\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) regarding budget projections for Fiscal 2009-10, which started on July 1: <\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The current revenue base is inadequate in sustaining our cost structures.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span>While some savings are expected from freezing open staff positions, the City Council is looking to new revenues to address this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fiscal imbalance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c more taxes<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n


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The easy way out is a special \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Landscape and Lighting Assessment District\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (LLAD) which can be imposed on property taxpayers without going through a regular election. <\/span>A simple mailing to property owners \u00e2\u20ac\u201c residents and businesses in Emeryville \u00e2\u20ac\u201c can result in new property taxes which are weighted by the number of square feet owned, and if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t respond to the mailing, your vote doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t count. <\/span>Twenty commercial property owners<\/span> (count them: Wareham , Madison Marquette ( Bay Street ), Pixar, etc.) can sway this vote. <\/span>Hey, do any of these people have projects pending before the City? <\/span>Can you hear \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Make a Deal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in any of these back rooms at City Hall? And who will really pay this tax? Their tenants, that’s who – other Emeryville small businesses AND their customers.<\/span><\/p>\n


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You may have recently received a telephone poll, which was commissioned and paid for by the City, to find out how taxpayers would react to this new tax. <\/span>Couched in vague terms relating to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153quality of life\u00e2\u20ac\u009d issues, the bare facts of a new tax are veiled by threats of unmaintained parks and dim street lights. <\/span>No where mentioned is the alternative of cutting city employee costs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which currently consume 72% of the General Fund.<\/span> <\/p>\n

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Government employees, including Emeryville workers, have some of the most lucrative jobs around. <\/span>Paid medical, dental and vision benefits, 37.5 hours work weeks, liberal vacation and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153administrative\u00e2\u20ac\u009d pay, car allowances (where, in our “Green” City?), retirement at 55 with almost full salaries \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we are not talking fire and police here, but your average pencil pusher at City Hall. <\/span>With state and local governments<\/span> across California<\/span> requiring closures of government offices<\/span> and unpaid furloughs from employees, has Emeryville even contemplated further tightening its own belt before stretching out its palms for taxpayer silver? <\/span>No way. <\/span>Embittered employees might take a walk \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to where, Vallejo ? <\/span>Hey, can I apply for that job?<\/span> <\/p>\n

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It is time to demand that Emeryville<\/span> government look around its own house for ways to save money before grabbing at the public to continue financing its employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 extravagant salary and benefits packages. <\/span>We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to take it any more. <\/span>Contact your City Council members<\/span> before it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too late.<\/span> <\/p>\n


<\/span>Liz Altieri and her husband have lived in Emeryville for the past seven years, and own their Watergate residence<\/span>. Liz has worked in Emeryville since 1997. She is currently studying for her <\/span>real estate license<\/span> and working with All Emeryville Properties as a broker’s assistant. Liz is an emeritus Board member of the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce, and has been a member of the General <\/span>Plan Steering Committee<\/span> since its inception.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n