Dear Editor,
Your report on LaPalma’s proposal to amend their Charter to consider a change to term limits comes at exactly the same time as the Los Alamitos Budget Standing Committee is considering a recommendation to the Los Alamitos City Council to spend $60,000 to hire a “consultant” to promote a change in term limits.
What is of significant interest is that Shelley Hasselbrink is “termed out” just in time for the Council to consider spending taxpayer money to alter the City Charter’s term limits. I wonder if she will “abstain” from the vote?
This is not the first time Los Alamitos is hiring a “consultant” to “survey” residents. It was around 2018 that a “consultant” was hired to “survey” residents about voting to “tax themselves” to save the City of Los Alamitos from bankruptcy. Shelley Hasselbrink was on the Council during the financial crisis. She was all for the tax increase.
Having served on a City Council, here is what voters should know about “consultants” and “surveys”.
The “consultants” are NOT “surveying” the community. They are drafting a public relations campaign to pass a change in law supported by the council members…raise taxes…eliminate term limits to allow existing council members to stay in office using tax payer money as an illegal campaign contribution. Pure and Simple.
How is this done? Just like in 2018, the Council will write BOTH the “PRO” and the “CON” arguments for the Ballot. Conflict of Interest? YEAH.
There is no actual “CON argument” because both sides are written by the same people. The Agenda and Minutes for the sales tax increase charter amendment reveal these facts.
Second, the “consultant” creates a “victim” for its “survey”. For the sales tax increase it was the argument that the money would go to fund the Police Department; it is actually going into the “general fund” to pay the CIty Manager’s “bonuses”.
The argument about needing a change in “term limits” is two-fold – (1) “no one cares to serve their community, so let the existing elected officials stay in office”; and (2) there is a dire need to speed up the ability to staff to enter into contracts, so we need to do away with the cumbersome Request for Proposals procedure…one that requires multiple proposals to find the least costly contract”.
The truth of the matter is that incumbent councilmembers do not want people to run for their seats. They could “retire gracefully,” accept all the accolades and certificates to hang on the walls, and allow members of the Community to step up to the plate and run to fill a vacant seat.
Instead of seeking to eliminate “term limits”, the City Clerk should do her job. Spend the next 6 months promoting the fact that 3 seats are up for election in November and members of the community can decide their future.
I would like to see a DIFFERENT set of Charter Amendments for Los Alamitos:
1. Pay the councilmembers a stipend of $1000 a month, and give them health insurance coverage, or cash in lieu if they have existing coverage. Pay people for their time.
2, Hold two council meetings a month instead of 1. Make Agendas shorter.
3. Require the City Clerk to post the Agenda for public review 5 business days before the meetings instead of the 72 hours when City Hall is closed to the public and they cannot get their questions answered.
4, Go to a “Monday to Friday” work week instead of closing City Hall on Friday before a council meeting on Monday. Increase public access to staff.
5. Allow “public comment” longer than 3-5 minutes on any subject. Impose a public comment “time limit” only when the public hearings extend beyond 2 hours. Allow public comment both before and at the end of the Agenda so the public can comment on the votes taken at the meeting.
6. Prohibit the CIty Manager and Finance Director from serving as Treasurer.
Increase financial transparency and checks and balances = minimize errors in financial reports and budgets.
7. Require “annual audits” by a CPA firm of the Finance Department, and public access to all financial documents and investment account materials to allow the public to verify the accuracy of financial statements and budget projections.
8. Amend the Charter to require the Treasurer and City Clerk be elected at large instead of being appointed by the City Council. The Treasurer and City Clerk should not be under the control of the Finance Director or City Manager who are the only two individual who handle the taxpayer’s money.
9. Pay the elected Treasurer and elected City Clerk a salary to encourage trained financial citizens to run for office; and to elect a City Clerk who is not subject to job termination should he/she release public records that do not flatter the employer.
The goal of a Charter amendment should NOT be to serve elected officials. It should be to Serve the Public; Allow easy access to public records; Prevent the use of taxpayer money for a “vanity project” of a termed-out council member. Create “checks and balances” to prevent financial impropriety.
For your file, I am attaching a copy of the Finance Committees Agenda where the staff proposed the Charter Amendment to its members: Doby and Hasselbrink.
Carol Churchill
Los Alamitos
