As a candidate running for Cypress City Council, I have found one of the best ways of communicating with residents is through neighborhood walking. This isn’t realistic though, for a city of 50,000 people on a weekly basis. I have found over the past few weeks that senior residents, and those that don’t use Facebook, are at an extreme disadvantage – there is no communication from the city to these residents about upcoming projects, community events, the police blotter, etc. And it’s been shocking for me to see just how many residents rely on the local newspaper to get their city information.
Measure P does bring Cypress into the 21st Century on a handful of items (bid postings, openings, etc.) but unfortunately, I cannot in good faith endorse, nor vote for Measure P because of the harm it could do to the City of Cypress. This week (writing as of October 6th), many Cypress households received a flashy, full color mailer directly from the city about the benefits of Measure P along with some other community information. After doing some research at the local post office, I found out the city pays 16 cents to mail each piece. That is $0.16 x ~16,000 households (conservative number) = $2,560 spent on mail costs alone. I have also found out through interviews with city staff that the cost to design and print the flyer was approximately $5,000. I find it ironic that the City of Cypress is sending a mailer out to get residents to vote yes for a measure that eliminates paper communication.
Instead, this money could be put to better use, such as guaranteeing our city to have a weekly full page in the local newspaper dedicated to events, projects, meetings, etc. where we can actually communicate with the elderly residents in our city. Eventually, I do see a time in the future where newspapers could go away, and all information is online. However, we are not there yet in Cypress.
The other major concern I have with Measure P, is that if one member of council were to leave their term early (resignation, death, or other) then the sitting council members will get to choose his/her replacement. This means the voters will have no say in a potential council appointee. This person could not only complete the remainder of a council member’s term, but then run using the “incumbent” title on the next ballot. Studies have shown that someone running as an “incumbent” have a much higher likelihood of getting reelected. To me, the voters of Cypress should have a say of any new person sworn into local office. I believe the voters of Cypress should have the final say for whom sits on the council.
While Measure P does bring some good aspects, there are two major downfalls. This is why I am endorsing NO on Measure P,
Jimmy Fuller
Candidate, Cypress City Council
Cypress ballot measure-P
A brief section of the revised City Charter removes the publication of community updates from the “City official newspaper”.
I wondered what the name of the newspaper that the city had used for updates in the past. Was it the Event-News Enterprise, the OC Breeze, or something published by the Cypress Civic Center?
Since I haven’t noticed updates from any of these newspapers in my 20 years as a resident, I emailed the City Council for the name of the “official city newspaper” and the answer I got was the legal notices section of the Orange County Register. How many people in Cypress read the “legal notices” of the OC Register? I will vote NO on measure-P but I would hope the City Council would use a more transparent news source for community updates.
William Maxey
Cypress
