You have to hand it to Santa Ana’s “Usual Suspects.” They are busy trying to get our fellow blogger Sean Mill kicked off the Santa Ana Planning Commission, and are continuously pestering the Mayor of Santa Ana, Miguel Pulido, and the City Council members. In the meantime, Pulido and company are trying to figure out a way to get out from under a budget deficit that may be as high as $40 million dollars!
Is Sean Mill REALLY the biggest problem in Santa Ana? This reminds me of something that Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante said to a friend of mine during the recent City Council campaigns. He told her that the real problem in Santa Ana is the “bloggers.” Never mind the ongoing crime and violence, economic malaise and huge budget deficit – we have to stop the “bloggers!”
If only the fake million dollar bills that Pulido supporter Alex “Swap Meet” Vega passed out at Pulido’s Election Night party (see graphic above) were real. The City of Santa Ana could sure use the revenue just about now!
Will the “Usual Suspects” ever get a clue? They continue to plot against Santa Ana’s Latino residents, against bloggers, and against anyone that gets in their way. But most if not all of them supported Pulido this year, even though we had viable alternatives in Councilwoman Michele Martinez and community activist George Collins. You have to wonder when Pulido and company will tire of these bigoted, bitter whiners and just tell them to go away?
As for our buget crisis, here are a few thoughts:
- Fire Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream and most of his overpaid administrative cronies. Replace them with younger, cheaper, less burned out college grads. They can’t do any worse!
- Stop funding Com Link and the Santa Ana Neighborhood Associations. Let them use city facilities, such as community rooms, free of charge but do not provide city staff to oversee these meetings. And do not advertise Com Link meetings via expensive U.S. Mail. Let the Com Link crowd advertise themselves on the City of Santa Ana’s website and via email.
- Speaking of the website, the city still needs to upgrade it. It won’t cost anything to add translation links from Google or Yahoo. And the City should set up an email feature that allows residents to sign up to receive emails about city meetings. The cost for this will be offset by the benefit of getting more residents involved in our city.
- Sell advertising space on the stupid city medians that we didn’t need in the first place. That revenue can pay for the upkeep of the median landscaping.
- Get rid of most of the City Commissions or merge them together.
- Stop paying City Council Members hundreds of dollars to attend meetings.
- Take away the car allowance and any other benefits from our Mayor and City Council members.
- Get rid of the attendants at the city parking lot at city hall. We have automated equipment now that should make the attendants redundant.
- Outsource whatever city employees you can!
- Start reserve fire and police programs!
- Stop funding the Bowers Museum. Let the rich folks who are on their board pay their own way. Most of our residents cannot afford to go there in the first place.
- Announce a “planning holiday” so residents can fix up their homes without paying all those fees. The kicker? They have to hire Santa Ana based contractors and buy all their supplies at local stores.
- Lower the cost of business licenses to $50. This will encourage more new businesses. That will increase our tax base and create more local jobs.
- Make hookah bars and massage and tatoo parlors legal again. But oversee them via inspections and put in place regulations to control them, just like the cities of Anaheim, Orange and Irvine do.
Readers? Any more budget ideas?
Dump the streetcar to nowhere (actually, Garden Grove, but isn’t that the same thing?).
Regulate marijuana dispensaries, that should also stop the vatos from killing each other over who’s the dealer of the week.
Bless the bloggers.
Bustamante is such a whiner. You don’t hear President-elect Obama crying that the problem with our credit crisis is the bloggers of this nation. And you didn’t hear Sen. Clinton crediting her primary losses to the bloggers.
“Outsource whatever city employees you can!”
Won’t that mean more people without jobs? I don’t know if I like that idea. But you got some good ones on here.
Em,
Perhaps the laid off city workers can take advantage of the $50 business license deal and start a new venture? In fact they could become contractors and bid on the same work they used to do!
THIS IS HOW YOU SOLVE SANTA ANA’S BUDGET CRISIS. JUST GET RID OF OLD DUSTY DAVE WEAM! HE AINT WORT
THAT KIND OF MONEY …..
COLA’s
Never called raises, but cost of living increases. (Government employees and retirees have been soaking up colas like so much gravy on potatoes during a thanksgiving feast)
City employee salaries kept going up without raises. Then city employees get large raises before elections.
Raises on top of yearly increases called COLA’s.
I expect that 30 to 50 percent of city employee pay are from accumulated COLA’s over the last 2 decades.
(60.3 percent) (http://inflationdata.com/inflation/)
Now that the country is in a recession and deflation is rearing its ugly head, I think the city, and county, state and fed’s too. Can do a lot of budget balancing just by using the COLA’s.
In the last two decades, each and every year, COLA’s added increases to pay and retirement accounts as an adjustment for inflation. Now with many indicators show a fall back to 2003 levels, and still falling. I think there should be a COLA adjustment downward (deflation) of? 14.5 percent in January 2009.
A 14.5 percent adjustment downward would balance the books for the cities, counties, and states. And would help a lot with the out of control spending of the US government. (Without raising taxes)
Whatever goes up, will come down. Oil, Housing, auto’s, everything’s dropping. Maybe it is time for the sky high costs of government employment to adjust downward with everything else.
Many prior societies have dealt with this problem in the past. Usually with the collapse of the government and anarchy. (The French cut off the heads of current and retired government members in the 18th century to find equilibrium.) What should US society do? (I think a COLA decrease is better then loosing ones head)
I HEAR THAT IT IS FORMER OJ BLOGGER THOMAS GORDON THAT IS STIRRING UP MOST OF THE TROUBLE. I HEAR THAT HE WAS EVEN TEXTING MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL DURING LAST NIGHTS MEETING TRYING TO GET THEM TO SUPPORT THE ATTACKS ON MILL. HE AND THE OTHERS ARE PESTERING THE COUNCIL LIKE CRAZY. I HEAR GORDON IS USING PRIVATE EMAIL CONVERSATIONS AS HIS WEAPON OF CHOICE. HE IS STILL BITTER OVER HIS BOOTING FROM EPIC THAT THE COUNCIL GAVE HIM LAST YEAR.
MEMO TO ALL THOSE THAT ENGAGE IN EMAIL CONVERSATIONS WITH THOMAS GORDON: STOP!!!!!!!! HE SAVES THEM ALL AND THEN TRIES TO USE THEM AGAINST YOU IF HE FEELS IT WILL GAIN HIM LEVERAGE DOWN THE LINE. BEWARE!!!!!!!
Art-
You can’t just go into business if you have no capitol. You can’t bid work if you’ve got nothing to work with. A lot of people who live paycheck to paycheck would never be able to do such a thing as you are suggesting even if a business license was $50. I just can’t see supporting an idea that would put more people out of work than are already currently out of work.
But like I said someone of the others are great ideas!!! I especially like numbers 1, 7 & 11. Not that I don’t like the others these just stand out to me.
Here’s a cost saving idea:
Instead of having ON DUTY (some on overtime)firefighters trim the trees of neighborhood residents, have them do some preventitive maintenance in the parks.
Sure, it will piss off the WFPNA but, who cares.
Em,
Not true. It depends on the type of business. Sometimes businesses are not capital-intensive. And sometimes a fellow can scrape together money from friends and family to start up a new venture. This sort of thing happens all the time.
Look at it this way, sure some city workers lose their jobs. But they can go work for the contractors who win those outsourcing bids. Or they can learn a new trade. Why should local taxpayers keep overpaying these city workers?
Many of us in the private sector often find ourselves in similar situations. And guess what? We roll up our sleeves and get to work! Overpaid unionized city workers should not expect us to keep footing the bill – not when our city budget is over $40 million in deficit.
The ostriches speak! OC and the Reg, libertAryan dinosaurs, your days are over. It’s the 21st century and we live in a socialist, centrally governed world. Get used to it. The Repubs have made this a truth! W did what Marx could only dream.
Rintrah – WTF does your comment have to do with this article ?????
“It’s the 21st century and we live in a socialist, centrally governed world. Get used to it.” – Only until you commies f**k it up.
Art’s “solutions” are recidivist drivel and plz, profanity just makes you appear weak. Look at the Socialist Party platform from the 1920’s- it’s all in place- world-wide Socialism in our lifetimes! History is a cruel mistress.
I could not be more than agree with commentator #11. make firefighter more productive by make them do preventve maintenance work and by that justifying their high pay!. We the TAX PAYER deserve better use of our money!.
We will have to agree to disagree on this one Art. I am not for putting people out of work a lot of the outsourced work is done by union shops and you have to be in said union and schooled by said union so you really can’t just go get a job from them just like that. Its more people on unemployment and I just can’t see that as a good thing.
I know people that have been looking for jobs for 6 months or more in any field they can they are not being picky and still no jobs. Losing your job in your field doesn’t just mean you pick up can jump into a job somewhere else I’m sure know that its just not that easy.
I am sure you will tell me again that I am wrong and that you can do this this and this, well after they do that and nothing then what?
When it comes to getting rid of people, why stop at David Ream? Can Paul Walters, too. They’re joined at the hip. Both on overtime. Ream can’t balance a budget and Walters couldn’t convice a cop to get a shopping cart returned.