Hiring Freeze Gone?

This less than full time position pays between $16.67 - $20.26 per hour according to the City’s website. Less than full time can mean 39.75 hours a week or less.

Stanton Local Taxes

Remember 7 months ago when our council members tried to increase our cell phone tax and utility taxes by 50%? Remember when they closed 2 of our parks and warned us about dire consequences if we didn’t vote in favor of their huge tax increase, blah, blah, blah...

Well our parks aren’t closed,  violent crime went down, the city’s hiring freeze appears to be over and the average household saved about $120 during the past 7 months in unnecessary taxes thanks to your “NO” vote on the tax increase.

We Need Jobs!

We can visually see that employers are closing their doors or leaving our city. We have the highest unemployment rate in the county with no plan to turn this around. So why would our city continue to lead us in the wrong direction with more housing? More housing is the not the answer to the largest issues that we all have which are high unemployment, unnecessary local taxes, the reduction in safety services, business retention and graffiti abatement. Fill out the housing survey form on our city's homepage and let them know what you think about housing being our #1 priority: www.ci.stanton.ca.us

Years ago there was a meeting held to discuss the condo project on Beach and Orangewood. The meeting was anticipated to be larger than expected so it was held at one of the community rooms at City Hall. But when questions came up about the commercial part of the project the forum took a "we are out of time" strategy as vague answers were given and only a hand ful of questions in total were allowed to be asked. Keep in mind that this was supposed to be the big meeting to discuss the largest housing track the city has seen in a long time but only a handfull of questions were allowed? While it was obvious to many at the time that the project was not well thought out or appeared to be badly planned or that they were hiding something we can see from the September 27th, 2012 Garden Grove Journal article that this was the case.

Here is the part of the article that stands out the most:

"While Brandywine developers built the residential area, the retail area remains unbuilt. A hitch in the plan is that Brandywine is solely a residential developer. Drawing business into the area is also a challenge. The area needs business to encourage business to come, officials said. “This deal we did with Brandywine is killing us [on this unused property],” said Donahue.

Mayor pro tem David Shawver said that Brandywine is willing to work with the city to figure out how to solve the problem. "

So, everyone that created the problem to begin with are now in charge of fixing it. Nice.

12 Days Of December
Date: 12-29-2012
City Hall was only open 12 days this month. The idea of moving from a 4 day, 40-hour work week for city staff to a 3 day, 30-hour work week is looking better all the time. City Hall is closed too many Mondays throughout the year due to holidays anyway. We are in a "crisis", aren’t we?

Useful Information:

Graffiti Hotline: (714) 890-4252

Abandoned item or large item pickup (free): Contact CR&R at (714) 826-9049.

Utility Users Tax Exemption Form for low income. View a sample form here

Visit the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Website and stay informed.

City Hall Closed?
Date: 11-25-2012
City Hall was only open 6 out of the past 17 days. In the article that appeared in the Orange County News in August it offers many ideas to help with Stanton’s budget issues like this one: “- 4 day, 40-hour work week for city staff can be adjusted to a 3 day, 30-hour work week Tuesday through Thursday. City Hall is closed too many Mondays due to holidays anyway. Nobody wants this to happen but it is better than more layoffs and we are in a “crisis” aren’t we?”. Seems like there is a lot of truth to this idea. If City Hall was only open 6 out of the past 17 days what is wrong with this schedule all year long and exploring the idea of a part-time staff? We are in a “crisis”, aren’t we?

Administrator Services Director Needed
There is a vacancy at City Hall. The position doesn’t pay very much but with benefits the OC Register reported that the position pays a total of $168,100 but that was back in 2010. 

Mayor Warren’s Priority
There has been some talk about the city reserves being one of the main challenges.  Notice there has been no mention of replacing the funds that was taken away from the Sheriff and Fire Departments. Click here

Stanton is going into a new year without a plan once again. But that is nothing new and the reason why our city is in the shape that it's in. We still need a plan to remove extra taxes, support our Sheriff and Fire Departments, increase business retention and encourage employment opportunities.

It is unfortunate for us that our council members' inability to follow the rules will continue to get us into further trouble in the courts. This above-the-law-approach to running our city can only hurt us residents as they continue to use our tax money to defend their actions in court instead of using our money for our much needed high priority services like the Sheriff and Fire Departments which they cut earlier this year. See the photo above. It is against the California Elections Code to campaign within 100 feet of a polling place.
Also, it is against our municipal code to have more than one campaign sign per parcel. And it is against our municipal code to have a sign in the public right of way. Al Ethans can't say he was not aware of this because it appears that the signage ordinance was updated in 2000 and 2009 while he was in office. Also, while he was running in 1996 when the ordinance was implemented. It is not unusual for our council members to break the rules like these so most of the time this wouldn't be an issue but our city stopped a new business from opening by not accepting their application until after a church filed their application first and now our city is getting sued over it. It is against our municipal code to open an adult cabaret within 300 feet of a church. So, if our elected officials don't follow their own municipal code, or California Elections Code and they work against a business that they don't like and appear to act in concert against that business then what do you think a judge is going do about the arrogance and inconsistency of our city's actions? And who do you think is going to have to continue to pay for it? Making more municipal codes (link to code here) when we already have cabaret laws on our books and Al Ethans speaking badly about a business they know nothing about will only get our city into more trouble. Our city currently has similar businesses like Fuzzy Bears, Venus nightclub and very fancy looking Earmark Entertainment (adult bookstore) which are fine establishments and this website gives each of them 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Check out the new Government Compensation in California (GCC) Website! Click here and see what our municipalities are reporting to our State Controller. Remember: Just because you read it on the State Controller's website doesn't make it true. Like it says on the website "The information presented is posted as submitted by the reporting entity. "

Our city council pledged no new taxes. Now they cut our services but we pay the same taxes? So who failed?

"I have always fought against the utility user's tax. And it appears no one on the council has even taken a look at other resources, because it's easy to keep spending our tax dollars."
David Shawver 1994, Stanton Mayor 2007

People across America are saying the same things: Do you want to pay more for less services?

A family of 5 is paying about $300 in utility taxes every year for CELL PHONES, electricity, water, home phones and natural gas. $300! And now they decreased our police and fire?

Stanton continues to head in the wrong direction as its tax policies will drive more businesses to relocate to other cities or just go out of business. Let's don't give them more reasons to leave our city. It will increase unemployment and we already have the highest unemployment in the county!

Stanton has millions of dollars left over every year after paying for fire and sheriff services. Millions every year! There is no need to increase the tax burden on residents and businesses. And there is no need to reduce our safety services.

We’ve been paying the Utility Users Tax for almost 20 years and we still have a problem with crime and unemployment. Will paying more tax solve these issues?

When running for elected office our council members said our utility tax should be removed, eliminated or were against it. Our City Council pledged no new taxes but they put tax increases on our ballot last June so who failed?

Millions of dollars were spent on a new city yard, new fire station, police station, bought properties around the city, created a new park while working on another one. Besidess police and fire do you see any major budget cuts? No. They already have plenty of our money.

"William C. Estrada lead the effort to reduce the utility tax. Mayor Estrada can be counted on to oppose any new taxes."

William Estrada 2000, Past Stanton Mayor

It doesn't take a lot of research to see that paying more tax will not solve our financial problems. The bottom line is that our city has been spending more money than they take in for far too long. Do you think your CELL PHONE should be taxed to pay for this?

What do our city council members think about this tax increase? Click on these images and check out websites and decide for yourself. Hint: they all say NO NEW TAXES during election season:

Ah, how quickly they forget their major campaign promises...

5-21-2012 See the two workers around the trees cleaning the median? Wouldn't it be great if they were taking care of our parks instead? During a time when we had no money, new medians and landscaping were installed and maintained throughout our city. Who is going to take care of all this now what we are out of money? It is spending like this that increases our taxes.

Independent sources say NO New Taxes:

We recommend a No vote on Stanton's Measure J.

Almost 39% of Stanton homeowners with a mortgage were “under water” in the first quarter of the year.

Libertarian Party of Orange County says NO.  The City of Stanton doesn't know how to manage its finances and seeks close the gap by punishing its citizens and businesses with higher utility taxes.

National Taxpayers Union says no to Measure J

"In Stanton, the state’s eyebrows furrow over about $72 million of “must-pay” obligations..." See the letter from the state >here< .

Well... They raised his state sales tax, they raised his county sales tax, the sewer fee increased a few weeks ago again without a vote of the people, they closed his parks, there are already taxes on his cell phone, electricity, gas, water, home phone... they even took the shirt off his back but they want more. The government says they need more revenue to help the "average bear". The average bear was fine before the government tried to help. Oh, did you know that the average bear doesn't vote? Well, don't be the average bear. Make sure you vote and VOTE NO on Stanton's tax increases in 2012.

Interesting articles:

Former Bell police chief takes the Fifth 20 times
Randy Adams, who is asking the state retirement system to double his pension to reflect his huge salary in Bell, was on the witness stand at a hearing on the request.

We cannot tax ourselves into prosperity
Most of the so-called experts would have you believe there are only three possible solutions. First, and the most popular, is to raise taxes. Second, reduce services by laying off essential employees such as policemen, firefighters, and also closing parks and libraries. Of course number three is to file bankruptcy.

Assured Guaranty Climbs to One-Month High After Reporting Profit
Assured said in court papers today that Stockton, California, isn’t eligible for bankruptcy protection and that the city’s case should be dismissed because it failed to negotiate in good faith with creditors and hasn’t proved that it is insolvent.

Assured says Stockton bankruptcy plan unfair, favors Calpers
Bond insurer Assured Guaranty, facing massive losses in Stockton, California's bankruptcy, on Wednesday said the largest U.S. public pension fund, Calpers, was getting preferential treatment among creditors.

Life after bankruptcy: Problems persist as Vallejo, Calif., touts efforts to bounce back
Vallejo officially came out of bankruptcy in November 2011. The result has been a smaller city government with a noticeable shortage of services and police protection.

“We don’t meet all the needs of the city today,” City Manager Daniel Keen said. “We have stretched the limits of small police force.”

The police department is down from 138 to 93 officers partly because the police union refused to take a cut in pay or benefits. The other three public employee bargaining units have agreed to concessions, mainly in their pension plans and health care benefits. Police officers, meantime, still enjoy free health care coverage for life and the ability to retire at age 50 with 90 percent of their last year’s pay.

Worcester's financial position is strong
The New York Times reported the city of Stockton had mismanaged and overspent funds leading it to conclude — despite cutting 25 percent of its police officers, 30 percent of its firefighters and more than 40 percent of all other city employees — that it could not come up with the $417 million it owes for retiree health benefits.

Unlike Glendale, Burbank’s new utility tax could apply to the internet and satellite TV (updated)
Because this paves the way for the taxation of all non-voice technologies, we have no doubt that the core motive behind this so-called “modernization” is to extend the current utility user tax to a whole host of non-phone, non-personal communications technologies and networks, including the internet and cable and wireless television. They’re planning for that day when all phone and internet data access will be “one” and UUT taxation will be legal under federal law. That’s exactly why this UUT applies to internet communications as well as voice-phone technology. Even if they say it doesn’t right now.

Is the Internet Considered an Office Expense or a Utility?
Unlike office expenses, office utilities are required for the business’ operations and include items such as electric, gas and telephone services. If the business utilizes the Internet regularly to service its customers and is unable to complete the servicing without the Internet, the Internet is defined as an office utility. Internet services that are simply supporting services for the business, and not mandatory for efficient operations, are considered to be office expenses.