I urge all citizens of Atascadero to watch the 9/23/14 council meeting regarding the Walmart roundabouts. It really shows you the best example of the current administrations incompetence. He has the focus group consultant there to explain why the massive overrun on the price of the roundabouts. The consultant says a lot of fancy words and then gives his defense that the estimators werent familiar with the type of functions and some other things. Its hilarious. Tom then says its unfortunate that it took 8 years to get here, which is nowhere, and says the people dont have to worry, theres going to be the same public process. lol. Tom says, same cost benefit analysis, same economic decision making. I dont think the people of Atascadero can afford to see him have another shot at this. His big hail marry pass is SLOCOGG which could possibly maybe help fund part of the project by 2021!!?? Im ready to deal with this problem now. We can get Walmart here with one roundabout and thats what Im going to do. No more focus groups, no more wasted time on talking. I will gather local business professionals and go over city finances and get at least Walmart here before we lose the whole project. The current administration says they are business friendly but just voted to raise the fees on businesses, how business friendly is that? Mayor OMalley in his 12 years on the council has never considered incentives. Anytime the issue would come up his standard statement would be Cost analysis and 100% recovery I ask, Is this business friendly? Look around town at all the empty buildings. I am going to lower these fees and streamline the process so that we eliminate the red tape and roadblocks that have given Atascadero the stigma of anti-business. City financing-Reserve spending: Like the rest of us cant spend more than we make, for years the city has been using reserve funds to operate. It appears that reserve spending is going to happen in the future also. Walmart, even though a welcome to Atascadero and added source of city income, is not the complete answer. There are pressing financial issues facing the city, The $7-8 million dollar overrun for the Del Rio Roundabouts, the pending $2+million dollar lawsuit with FEMA that has already cost the city 100K, and we have had no significant increase in sales tax revenue. Tough decisions are going to have to be made to stop the spending out of reserve accounts where we have to pay back interest compounding the financial situation. I will make the tough decisions to stop the bleeding. Tourism: Tourism is definitely a significant source of income. Although at the same time we need to create a brand for our city, as other communities have done to create an atmosphere that will attract tourist. We need more businesses to get started so tourist have a reason to come to Atascadero, raising fees is counterproductive to creating this atmosphere. I would first create a program that helps the business atmosphere and then work on the county wide tourism industry in promoting Atascadero as a place to visit, shop, dine, and enjoy our Lake Park and Zoo. Sales Tax Increase: The roads in Atascadero are definitely in need of past due maintenance. The sales tax measure is slotted to go into the general fund and can go to any vital city need. I would have liked to see it go on the ballot as a super majority vote where it would have been mandated to have been spent on roads. If passed I will closely monitor this sales tax increase and assure that an increase in road maintenance is equal to the increase to the general fund. I hope that the rest of this election process we can focus is on the issues and that my blunders of 17 years ago dont over shadow the blunders of the current administration. The people of Atascadero cant afford to let this small group of individuals run our city into the ground. Ill tell you that if Bob Kelley would have ran for Mayor I wouldnt have, he should be your Mayor people. Hes the one who took the business license process from 12 pages to 1. Hes the only one on the council who voted to not raise the business fees, hes the one who got the $20 million dollar hotel done with the differed payment process for businesses like Im talking about. Tom OMalley couldnt get Trader Joes to come here and had $2 million dollars to give them. They said they didnt trust the city. This administration blocked the videoing of the candidate forum to the public, I wonder why? They sit there and say transparency but they dont want you to see whats really going on. I hope that you all let me fix Atascaderos reputation as well as my own. I have sacrificed the last two years of my life in study to give this town back to the people. I humbly ask for your vote November 4th.
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:42:22 +0000
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