MIDNIGHT: THE BEST TIME TO PASS A TAX HIKE

Dan Stegink op-ed

Comments

[Erin Macias]

The thing that concerns me most is that the tax is not based on actual discharge; it’s based on consumption with a small percentage allocated for landscaping. To challenge your discharge is nearly impossible.

[bill collins]

City Manager hardly had to explain the need for more taxes. Council is too easily led.

And for Tygar, midnight is early -- he made a motion to adjourn at 12:45 AM!

[Peter Loeb]

Correction, Jay Bird: Mike O'Neill will not be up for re-election in November. He is termed out. Three districts will elect City Council members in November 2022: District 2 (no incumbent), District 3 (Mayor Mary Bier is the incumbent and can run for re-election with the districting map currently in force), and District 5 (Sue Beckmeyer is the incumbent and can run for re-election).

[Jay Bird]

HOW WILL VOTERS RESPOND?

VOTE THIS CITY COUNCIL OUT OF OFFICE?
Will this council be voted out of office for secret meetings supporting the largest tax hike in Pacifica history (November 2022 ballot), and its support of a $12 MILLION development project that the city has no money for? How is it this project was put forward without fiscal accountability reporting?

Two on council are up for reelection in 2022: Sue Beckmeyer and Mike O'Neill. They plan on raising your taxes for fiscally irresponsible decisions -- DO THEY DESERVE YOUR VOTE?
https://www.cityofpacifica.org/government/city_council/default.asp

[Christine Boles]

This coming fiscal catastrophe was not even discussed before approving the $12 million Civic Center project. Isn’t the job of the city manager to hold the big picture so he can advise City Council? It was crazy to have them move city offices before they had a permit and funding in place. They could have easily done repairs to the roof and cleaned the superficial mold while offices were closed during COVID.

And what about all the money we’ve spent to defend the city against the RV ban lawsuit, and now the settlement costs since we lost? That was Beckmeyer’s doing, too, as she’s the one who pushed to separate the issues of the ban from the issue of the lack of safe parking locations for the unhoused. The city was warned that it would be sued because we have no other options to house our poor and vulnerable, so the ordinance was discriminatory. And the ban was enacted in March 2020, just as COVID was hitting hard, so we’re not just poorly managed, we’re also outright cruel.

It’s also not fair to the public or to the council members that these meetings regularly go so late. It’s not good governance. And yet City Manager Woodhouse got lots of compliments and a nice raise recently.

It’s time for some new leadership and oversight, and it’s time to get outside real estate money out of our elections.

[Dan Stegink]

City of Pacifica should immediately cancel the $12M new Civic Center project. Not only can't we afford it, it has essentially bankrupted us.
___________________

[posted on Riptide yesterday]

Midnight is always the best time for passing tax hikes.

This past Monday, Valentine's Day at midnight, Pacifica City Council approved polling to crowbar the largest tax hike in Pacifica history onto the November 2022 ballot.

And they did it again the next night, holding a secret meeting attended by zero members of the public to consider raising wastewater rates.

So what's prompting this? Ex-Mayor Sue Beckmeyer's folly, a $12M new Civic Center construction project passed with no oversight or knowledge, has virtually bankrupted the City of Pacifica.

Beckmeyer was concerned that the new taxes would coincide with her re-election attempt.

City Manager Kevin Woodhouse opened the meeting by stating that "the can has been kicked down the road as far as it can be kicked down the road," adding that Pacifica is less than 24 months from a $2 million annual structural deficit and that the city is being kept afloat only by American Rescue Act (Covid-19) funds.

Woodhouse's pledge to run a "transparent process with robust public input" was belied by the fact that there was only a single public attendee, who pointed out the irony of this statement, suggesting that the council ask former San Carlos City Manager Brian Moura about the impact of a 20% Transient Occupancy Tax(TOT) or immediately canceling the $12 million Civic Center project, but those questions were not asked.

Council heard recommendations by Moura, now with RGS, before directing staff to immediately retain a polling agency to poll on a 15.5% TOT (hotel tax), a new citywide sales tax, and an increase in what are already the highest user utility tax rates in San Mateo County, intending to put the possibility of three new taxes to a June approval for the November 2022 ballot.

The meeting ended at 12:32 a.m. or 32 minutes past midnight.

http://www.smcfree.com/tax/ppt.pdf

[Wm. Boyce]

Yeah, I remember that L & L assessment disaster. It led to the majority of the council being recalled and then we got real incompetents as replacements.
That was another world, 30 years ago. Much more civic participation, even if it went in the wrong direction.

[Wm. Boyce]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued a new report on sea level rise coming in this century.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/sealevelrise/sealevelrise-tech-report.html

The first conclusion:
Sea level along the U.S. coastline is projected to rise, on average, 10 - 12 inches (0.25 - 0.30 meters) in the next 30 years (2020 - 2050), which will be as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years (1920 - 2020). Sea level rise will vary regionally along U.S. coasts because of changes in both land and ocean height.

Not only do they predict this, they also write that there is no reduction in emissions that will affect this initial rise in sea level. You can read the rest yourselves, but I think this calls for a general rethinking of ANY civic plans or ideas right now.

A new civic center in a flood zone? A hotel in the quarry?And what will we do if the water disables the wastewater treatment plant? It's time to get real, people.

[Julie is tired of corruption]

Anybody remember the landscape and lighting tax recall?

I do.

Seems far less serious than the rumored Brown Act violations, and these council members, and staff. Who appoint the planning commissioners.

This is why they had to smear Keener out of office.