Voice of the People: Dear Editor by Tom Schwab - City News Group, Inc.
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Voice of the People: Dear Editor

By Tom Schwab, Retired GT City Manager, 1989-2009
October 1, 2014 at 09:39am. Views: 59

Dear Editor, I have read articles in your paper, as well as a flyer hung on my gate from our mayor. I would like our mayor to tell the residents the truth about our financial budget problems. The mayor boasts of “balanced budgets." This year’s budget was balanced by selling our sewer collection system to Colton for a one-time cash payment. The year prior we were told that Grand Terrace needed a utility tax or more police would be cut and the parks and the senior center would close. The tax, which I supported, failed because nobody told the truth about our real budget situation and after the failed measure not one promised cut was made. The mayor’s touted “transparency policy” means very little when it appears to be just lip service without anything substantial to back it up. The mayor says the city will implement the vision and strategic plan. I heard the city paid almost $30,000 for a consultant to write it. We need to get our money back. I ask the residents to read it, it’s available online. It appears to be nothing more than a fluff piece that has goals and visioning statements but it is not an implementation strategy. There is nothing to implement, except partnerships between civic and business organizations. An implementation strategy would be to create development of $100 million in taxable sales in retail to generate the million dollars a year we need to fund a viable Grand Terrace community. I'll give the city council props for cutting the budget but our largest and most critical service is our law enforcement contract. It is well over a million dollars a year and goes up by eight percent or at least $80,000 annually. We are on our way toward bankruptcy. Mayor, please tell us the truth. The residents deserve the truth, or as you call it, transparency.

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