These two articles came from last Wednesday's candidates forum:
Making Things Work is the subject of this Manteca Bulletin article, California's RDA Law.
Public Safety is City's Primary Task in this Manteca Bulletin article on police officer rehiring.
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This is my submission to the Manteca Bulletin for an upcoming publication of all the candidates' stump speech and stand on these five questions:
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One driving force in my campaign for a city council seat is my conviction that "governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man" and that "all governments necessarily require civil officers and magistrates to enforce the laws of the same; and that such as will administer the law in equity and justice should be sought for and upheld by the voice of the people..."
I have voted in almost every election for the past 30-plus years. I hold a B.S. in Accounting from Utah State University, an M.S. in Business Administration from CSU Sacramento, a CPA license, and have worked for a wholesale grocery distributor in this area for 20 years. My four grown children have married and presented seven grandchildren, with an eighth on the way. I have made my home in Manteca for the last 3½ years.
Manteca’s local government and some of its citizens need some tough love. Parents of willful or wayward children know that often only the full weight of natural consequences can teach the necessary lessons. The administration of a city must be run the same way.
After becoming a resident, I received an alternative education in Manteca politics and operations. Improvements in some key areas of city administration are mandatory in order to better serve the needs of Manteca citizens. Strong and effective code enforcement of the minimum standards of citizen behavior adopted in the Manteca Municipal Code will pay dividends in law enforcement, making it easier, safer, and less utilized. Especially needed are putting police and fire protection on solid financial footing, making desperately needed technology upgrades, and giving city managers flexibility in staffing. Some persons need to be shown the door. Roads, water and sewer will be monitored closely. My biggest task will be to ensure city finances are managed conservatively, making them and RDA projects open and understandable.
New development will be controlled, not eliminated, and redevelopment will be made to serve its stated function of revitalization. Despite the last explosive growth cycle and fabulous returns to certain interests, broad swaths of the existing city have been allowed to deteriorate and many civic amenities have been ignored as the population grew. I will see that the latter projects are given priority - right behind the policing functions of city government.
There has been talk at city council meetings recently about policies and procedures being written up for some departments, but that task must also cover the vital policing departments of the city. For too long, administrative decisions have been made on whim rather than reliance on law. As Ayn Rand put it, “Under a proper social system, a private individual is legally free to take any action he pleases (so long as he does not violate the rights of others), while a government official is bound by law in his every official act. A private individual may do anything except that which is legally forbidden; a government official may do nothing except that which is legally permitted. This is the American concept of ‘a government of laws and not of men.’ ” In terms of accountability, it is virtually impossible to measure performance against procedures that are not written down.
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Manteca Bulletin's Five Questions:
1. What do you see as the city's biggest challenge, besides public safety, in the next four years?
Manteca's biggest challenge in the next four years will be developing its means and living within them.
There is more to life than a tax base and the "means" are much more than tax money; they are the health, safety, morals, volunteerism, and self-reliance of the people.
A respected jurist this year suggested five responsibilities appropriate for all citizens, whatever their religious or philosophical persuasion: 1) Understand the Constitution; 2) Support the law; 3) Practice civic virtue; 4) Maintain civility in political discourse; and 5) Promote real patriotism through "the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." Some civic virtues are obeying the law, limited government through citizen self-reliance, military service, jury service, political participation, voting, and being moral in our conduct toward others.
At the same time, in terms of money, this means leaders should be wise in spending public funds for the greatest good. A tax given to the government is right because it is for a common good, but the government does not have a legitimate claim on the remaining property. This also means not relying on so-called sin taxes, such as marijuana legalization, to pay for essential government services. Some activities are simply not within the proper sphere of any level of government, such as "welfare programs, schemes for redistributing the wealth, and activities which coerce people into acting in accordance with a prescribed code of social planning."
President John Adams declared, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
2. In the constraints of the current budget, would you favor hiring back police officers and, if so, how would you pay for them?
The policing function of any city government is its primary task. The people cannot outsource this "use of force" and the people cannot use force individually except for very limited circumstances. The individual right of self-defense is collectively granted to a government's policing departments. Until the City of Manteca can satisfactorily perform the policing function, namely law enforcement, code enforcement, animal control, fire protection and building safety, it should not perform any other function, operate any other program, or build any other government facility.
Every general fund program, including administration and support, as well as the enterprise and debt service funds for infrastructure, will be closely examined for cuts, closure, or true transfer to private enterprise. Staffing will shrink, labor contracts will be restricted to very short terms, and pay and benefits will be brought into line with the private sector. Sales tax revenues will increase along with the general economy (using the same theory as RDA increment taxes), as long as the city does not bribe big businesses with tax offsets, and as long as the city does not strangle small businesses with taxes, fees, undue regulations and mandates.
President George Washington warned, "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master!"
3. Your thoughts on the current level of city employee compensation - pay and benefits such as pension. Is it too generous, about right, or not enough? Please explain your rationale.
The overly generous practice of comparing city worker's pay and benefits to the average of a "shopping basket" of neighboring cities is exactly the same thing neighboring cities do! The built in bias is to always increase pay, never decrease it. The practice must be discontinued, or at least tied to similar positions in the private sector. Also, defined benefits pension plans disappeared from the private sector a generation ago for the simple reason that the unfunded liabilities (contracted retirement payouts without the money to pay them) threatened to put even the biggest of businesses out of business. The math works the same for government, only government has been infinitely slower to react to fiscal reality, thinking taxpayers will always bail them out. Think again.
There must be huge increases in public employee contributions toward their own retirement plans - or all-out conversion to defined contribution plans (such as fully funded IRA's, 403b plans, etc.), where one receives in retirement what one paid into the retirement investment system.
Much of the fault for this mortgage on future taxes stems from public service unions (or call them associations, or collective bargaining units, as you will) and their role of ensuring inflexibility in staffing, pay, and benefits. Especially offensive is the concept that public employee unions, especially public safety, hold taxpayers hostage for money with the monopoly power (state use of force) granted to them by the citizens themselves. Think again.
4. Should Manteca have a separate redevelopment agency commission appointed by the council?
Yes. The California Community Redevelopment Act (H&S Code, starting at Sec. 33000) expressly authorizes the two options of an appointed, 5- or 7-member agency with a commission, or the city council as the agency. An appointed agency has some distinct advantages over the current setup: 1) The members would be one step removed from favor-seeking campaign contributors; 2) The members could be specialists in RDA law and application, or at least more knowledgeable than the generalists on the council; 3) The members would be able to focus, undistracted by other city business, on the RDA projects underway and any proposed ones; 4) Considering the sheer size of the fund, and the scope of the projects, it is time Manteca government outgrows its parochial approach to accountability; and 5) This move would help, a little perhaps, to remove election politics from the equation when considering the revamping of Manteca's albatross intersection and its surroundings.
5. If elected, what would you like to look back on four years from now as your best accomplishment?
I would like to look back and say, “The people of Manteca make the best neighbors in the world!” because we and our city hall know and trust each other to do the right thing when needed. Being good neighbors translates into seeing our streets, schools, library, shopping centers, parks, and homes as clean, safe, inviting places to be. Being good neighbors translates into a robust local economy, helping to drive a regional economy, where people can work in productive jobs near to where their families live. Being good neighbors translates into realizing that “postage stamp” property rights are not absolute; what we can and cannot do has to be tempered by courtesy, sacrifice, some civil laws, and a long history of jurisprudence. Good neighbors keep their unwarranted noise, nuisances, and intrusions to themselves; they accord respect to those who live around them; and they abide by the rules adopted by this community as minimum standards of behavior. In fact, good neighbors are free and able to perform well above minimum standards – and usually do.
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