I know my memory sometimes misses things, but in a search of
records and the website, I cannot for the life of me find when the City Council
ever had a public session and invited the public to come and discuss whether or
not to sell off prime property a block from the ocean. That property would be
the Civic Center, Lincoln Park, the Main Library, a parking structure and the
old Superior Court.
Now you’d think I could remember such a public session where
we invited the public to hear what City management had in mind for the not yet
39 year old structures. And I don’t ever recall the City Council giving
direction to City Management to proceed in planning on selling this property –
property that I might had has not had a public appraisal and is probably at its
lowest value in 10 years due to the recession.
That’s why I strongly objected to the City Attorney Bob
Shannon about the plan to put this discussion into a closed session out of
public view and hearing this week. Apparently the City Attorney agreed because
he pulled it out of closed session and opined it had to go into open
session. Unfortunately the item is not available
for public review even though we have in place a rule that council agenda items
have to be submitted 12 days in advance of the meeting so the public has time
to review and to have notice if they need to come to City Council. But I do
understand it will be submitted under the deadline on Friday and the public
will get to have 3 days to review.
I am not sure who on the City Council or if it is the Mayor
that is pushing City Management to start the process to sell off the City
assets. But you have to ask yourself why? It does not make sense economically.
The City cannot afford police services and just removed a fire engine from Gary
DeLong’s district in Belmont Shore. We can’t maintain our parks right now. Our
libraries don’t have enough funds to update materials. Real estate values are
the lowest in 10 years.
So say we sell all this valuable property at dirt cheap
rates, then what? What are we going to do to replace the buildings and pay to
move everyone out and then back in? Where are we going to get the money to
purchase or to lease new properties? Right now the buildings are paid for so
why would we incur these costs?
Don’t even mention a public-partnership because everyone of
those are nothing more than sweet deals for private developers that leave the
taxpayer holding the bag for paying the costs. Take for instance the new
courthouse in Long Beach. It is magnificent. However, the independent
California Legislative Analyst's Office has found that the public-private
partnership now building the state's $490 million Gov. George Deukmejian
Courthouse in downtown Long Beach is costing $160 million more than it should
because cost estimates were flawed. This money is being taken out the court
system statewide.
No one seems to care about the taxpayer in these flight of
fancy ideas to sell off public assets or to build new Taj Mahals.
It does not matter that the Mayor hates the design of Civic
Center because the external appearance can be altered significantly for less
than a new building. If it has design defects it is only 39 years old and the
designer and construction company are both still around to be held accountable.
Keep in mind when a former Director of Public Works, who by
the way was named the top Public Works professional in the U.S., wrote a memo
showing how the Main Library and City Hall could be fixed and did not need to
be replaced, she was promptly removed. She then left to head public works in
Santa Barbara.
This is your city hall, your main library, your Lincoln Park
and your courthouse. You should decide what happens to all of them. This
Council and this Mayor won’t be in office when their plans get implemented. You
will still be here paying taxes on whatever folly they put in motion.
Come on down to City Hall on Tuesday, February 12 at 5pm and
let us know what you think about this plan.