Santa Paula
Re: The City Council, the SEIU, and the Taxpayers
To the Editor:
Regarding the controversy over outsourcing the solid waste disposal division; the city council has a tough decision and it should make use of its testicular fortitude and just say “No” to the SEIU! The Santa Paula City Council must reduce any and all costs to the city’s budget, now and in the future. These five gentlemen on the Santa Paula City Council, excluding the “Marxist”, should remember the promise they made to all the citizens of Santa Paula, not Santa Paula’s “ruling class” which is made up of the whiney liberal elite that are constantly at the head of the “public handout line”. The SEIU Union boss, Bob Schooner will whine and moan about Santa Paula losing local control but what he really should be saying is the SEIU will be losing control!
What will be the odds of the public union picketing if their demands are not met during all future negotiations and what are the odds of the city allowing a private contractor to refuse its contractual obligations and leave uncollected trash and rubbish on the city’s streets? Folks, look around to the county, state and federal level and you’ll see who is in “control” of the raises and the lucrative pensions. The SEIU union’s bosses are there for one purpose; expand SEIU membership not for the good of the Santa Paula taxpayer. These union bosses are great at organizing the sheep that appear at council meetings with their “community first” signs but do they have the city’s taxpayers interest at heart? It’s a fact that the unions with the most membership growth in the United States are public unions, which have the best of both worlds; tenure and high wages with lucrative pensions. The membership that is affected should take into consideration their ability to fill the similar job with a private contractor. Their job will not have the security which the City of Santa Paula offers but then again who is this country has that luxury other than another public union employee!
Andrew F. Castaneda
Santa Paula
Fagan Canyon
To the Editor:
Have you ever seen an old B horror flick where you think it’s near the end of the movie and the young couple has finally killed the monster only to have the monster pop up one more time and scare everybody before it finally and really is killed?
When I read the words “Fagan Canyon” last week in the paper, I felt that same horror the young couple must feel near the end of the movie - “Oh, no, it’s not dead!” And I asked myself the same question the characters in the film must ask themselves over and over again: “How many times do we have to kill this thing before it’s really dead?”
If you’ve been around Santa Paula more than five years, you will remember the nightmare: Centex, the multi-billion-dollar developer, had their zombies swarm all over town trying to convert innocent town folk into thinking night was day, black was white, and that their huge, ill-planned, monster development would save us. Remember the traffic studies that said our little city streets could handle nearly the same number of cars which travel on the 126 each day? Remember the juggling of the water shortage numbers that promised us that if we just measure our drinking water with a teaspoon, there will be enough for everyone? Remember the inaccurate and borderline fraudulent financial projections showing how well off the city would be 10, 20 years down the road, projections which would make an Enron accountant blush?
Now, “Fagan Canyon” is back and has morphed into “Dickenson Canyon Ranch”, trying to make itself sound folksy and bucolic, but to me, it will always be “Nightmare on Cemetery Road.”
We have a heftier arsenal to fight the monster this time, though. First, we have Measure L6 which allows we the voters to decide whether we want to alter the city’s General Plan to permit large developments. Last time, the proposal merely had to pass before the City Council and acquire its blessing. Second, it’s already been defeated once. The voters of Santa Paula said NO to too many homes in Fagan Canyon in 2006 despite Centex and the landowners spending literally millions of dollars to try and get their way.
And finally and probably the most important, these are simply different economic times than five years ago. Back then, real estate values were growing by double-digits each year, and people including landowners, civic leaders and developers were greedy to cash in on what appeared to be easy money. But the greed of yesterday has led us to the need of today, both as a nation and as a state. Easy, 100% financing is gone, unemployment is up, and businesses are struggling to survive. People are rethinking their priorities, and city councils are leery of pie-in-the-sky promises. Oversized, gluttonous developments which eat up city resources, clog city streets, drain our fragile water supply and offer citizens nothing in return are passé, a relic of the past real estate boom and bust cycle.
I’ve heard the number 1,900 homes bandied about this time around, 4 times the number of homes permitted according to Santa Paula’s General Plan for Fagan Canyon, which means it remains a Godzilla-sized development for this inaccessible location. I know it’s a free country and people can waste their time and money as they choose, and this is as true for the landowners and the new developer as it is for anyone else. But I can think of dozens of different ways of wasting their thousands (perhaps millions?) of dollars other than trying to resurrect this monster from the dead.
This horror flick will have a happy ending because I know the people of Santa Paula will never allow this monster-development to trample our city. I just wish we didn’t have to waste our own time and money killing it off - one more time.
Mary Doll
Santa Paula
Regarding: Obregon Park
To the Editor:
Today I took my dog for a walk and ended up at Obregon Park, expecting the usual tranquility and beauty found there. Instead, I found debris scattered all over the park which included empty water bottles, candy containers, plastic tubes, straws, used Styrofoam cups, old dirty bandages and even some food. There is no excuse for this because there are ample trash containers in several areas throughout the park. There is a shopping cart in the bushes and dog feces that hasn’t been picked up by the dog’s owners. There is also graffiti all over the bench that faces the trees. The beautiful grass has been chewed up by cleats from soccer games that should be played in the many areas designated especially for them.
This is a disgrace! For a chosen few to leave behind such blight any time, but especially in these sad economic times, is shameful! Our city and cities across America are experiencing shortages everywhere; people are facing layoffs and can’t even afford to feed their families because they have lost their jobs. Several of our City employees face this exact scenario, leaving many city services in jeopardy.
Giving people volunteer their valuable time for clean up and beautification efforts such as America In Bloom Santa Paula led by Dianne Davis. Some of us even take trash bags on our walks to clean up the stuff left behind by thoughtless individuals who apparently don’t mind living in a sewer. These people should think about the legacy they are leaving for their children. In case nobody told them, children learn by example.
Whoever is responsible for doing this kind of thing to our city parks and our city in general, knock it off! Man up and clean up your own mess!
Your mother doesn’t work here.
Dee Johnston
Santa Paula
