L.3. 20-0984 PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER THE PROPOSED ASSESSMENTS FOR THE STREET LANDSCAPING AND LIGHTING ASSESSMENT DISTRICT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020-2021
ADOPT BY TITLE ONLY RESOLUTION NO. CC-2006-037, A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF REDONDO BEACH, CALIFORNIA, CONFIRMING THE DIAGRAM AND ASSESSMENT, AND LEVYING OF THE ASSESSMENT FOR THE STREET LANDSCAPING AND LIGHTING DISTRICT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR FROM JULY 1, 2020 TO JUNE 30, 2021
PROCEDURES:
a. Open Public Hearing, take testimony; and
b. Close Public Hearing; and
c. Adopt by Title Only Resolution No. CC-2006-037.
Until Redondo Beach residents know how our taxes are being spent, we shouldn’t even consider raising taxes.
Los Angeles posted their budget for all to see, why not Redondo Beach? How do we even know if our taxes are being spent wisely? Why would any Council people refuse to let the residents know exactly how our taxes are being spent? To ask our residents to pay more money, while so many are struggling financially and emotionally is just wrong. It’s time to look at the books and make sure every penny is spent wisely.
I don't remember this being voted on yet again to be on the agenda as a stand alone item. I DO remember it being discussed to agendize again along with discussing finishing the independent, third party study for the fire department to merge with County fire to potentially save Redondo Beach $3 to $7 million per year. Is that also on the agenda? If not, why not?
For the public listening now, or reading this after, the meeting, keep in mind that regarding taxes, the City Council can only vote to put a proposed tax increase on the ballot for voters to decide. With so many losing so much, this is NOT the time to even think of trying to squeeze more from the residents in taxes. However, if this makes it to the ballot, I'm quite certain the ballot argument against voting for a tax increase would include that not every rock has been looked under for revenue in our City, most notably, again, the 3rd party, independent study to determine whether or not the City would save $3 to $7 million per year should our fire department merge with LACoFD, joining other beach cities and achieving not only economies of scale, but greater equipment, resources and programs than our current department has or will be able to afford in the long-term future. I'm also certain that a ballot argument to vote AGAINST raising taxes for the Lighting and Landscaping District, Council Member Gran's seemingly pet project, alerts the residents that our City lacks financial transparency regarding our budget, meaning we don't do line item budgeting and don't know what we don't know! Such an argument AGAINST voting for a tax increase would likely also highlight that our City Manager has FAILED to implement most of the fiduciary best practices highlighted in the independent Moss Adams audit report that detailed gross financial negligence ... among other things.
We are not at a point where we should be asking residents to pay higher taxes when our own house is not clean, nor even close to optimum, professional, best practices, revenue, expenses and budgeting order.
We are in the midst of a pandemic, economic meltdown, combined with protests over racial injustice and police violence and three Redondo Beach Council members want to raise taxes.
Council Members John Gran, Laura Emdee and Christian Horvath- before proposing any tax increase you need to do your fiduciary duty first instead of squeezing the blood out of residents for a quick fix.
The most significant cost saving area to examine would be to complete the LACO Fire study which had the potential to save the city between $3M and $7M annually. This study was supported by the Redondo Beach Firefighters Union who at the time even offered to pay for it. Council Members John Gran, Laura Emdee and Christian were against this for reasons that just don’t make sense. The sad irony now is beyond the potential annual cost savings if LA County Fire were now servicing Redondo Beach, it would also have prevented the city from proposing emergency staffing cuts. In the revised budget this was noted as a reduction to the number of personnel that will be on Fire Engines responding to fires.
For that reason alone the city council is not completing their fiduciary duty to Redondo Residents should reject this proposed tax increase.
Raising Funds in the city of Redondo beach would be absolutely ludicrous, particularly at this point in time and history. My father was recently forced into retirement, without much retirement left. the 2008 market recession caused us to declare bankruptcy on our property. Still having to pay upwards of $4k a year in property taxes. now although while my father is retired, and my mother on disability, they are on a substantially fixed income. With or without the aid of my brother and Myself providing into that income, an increased tax is not a way for council to consider raising additional revenue. now I fully understand that there are unfortunate downsides to certain state mandates, like pushing to purchase additional wetlands mandated by the state in order to protect from trumps offshore drilling initiatives, to which these mandates by the state never fully come with funding or payout. However, the City needs to consider its intergovernmental spending and how departments are budgeting or in this not budgeting appropriately. with public works spending a vast majority of the city spending alongside safety, and not even fire, our city's budget has dipped into the 3rd quarter of reserve funds, I mean correct me if I am wrong here. I understand the necessity of wanting to also keep fire and safety appropriately funded, and know that that is a hot button issue as well, but the faults were made and fall on the hands of the city council for the lack of transparency in budgetary spending. I sincerely urge you all in council to consider alternative options to raising revenue and acquiring said funds.... however, not from and increased tax at this particular time in history during pandemic and race class warfare. consider other options, by looking inward to how the budget is spent, try an alternative method. think less frivolously, becuase this money is not yours. there are alternatives and you should all be thinking critically to resolve this.
I support increasing the assessment fee to cover the cost of the lighting and landscaping district. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that the fee isn't tied to the cost in the first place but fixing that would much more accurately reflect what the cost of our street landscaping and lighting. With the budget cuts we're facing, this is revenue we badly need for public safety and other core city services.
Until Redondo Beach residents know how our taxes are being spent, we shouldn’t even consider raising taxes.
Los Angeles posted their budget for all to see, why not Redondo Beach? How do we even know if our taxes are being spent wisely? Why would any Council people refuse to let the residents know exactly how our taxes are being spent? To ask our residents to pay more money, while so many are struggling financially and emotionally is just wrong. It’s time to look at the books and make sure every penny is spent wisely.
I don't remember this being voted on yet again to be on the agenda as a stand alone item. I DO remember it being discussed to agendize again along with discussing finishing the independent, third party study for the fire department to merge with County fire to potentially save Redondo Beach $3 to $7 million per year. Is that also on the agenda? If not, why not?
For the public listening now, or reading this after, the meeting, keep in mind that regarding taxes, the City Council can only vote to put a proposed tax increase on the ballot for voters to decide. With so many losing so much, this is NOT the time to even think of trying to squeeze more from the residents in taxes. However, if this makes it to the ballot, I'm quite certain the ballot argument against voting for a tax increase would include that not every rock has been looked under for revenue in our City, most notably, again, the 3rd party, independent study to determine whether or not the City would save $3 to $7 million per year should our fire department merge with LACoFD, joining other beach cities and achieving not only economies of scale, but greater equipment, resources and programs than our current department has or will be able to afford in the long-term future. I'm also certain that a ballot argument to vote AGAINST raising taxes for the Lighting and Landscaping District, Council Member Gran's seemingly pet project, alerts the residents that our City lacks financial transparency regarding our budget, meaning we don't do line item budgeting and don't know what we don't know! Such an argument AGAINST voting for a tax increase would likely also highlight that our City Manager has FAILED to implement most of the fiduciary best practices highlighted in the independent Moss Adams audit report that detailed gross financial negligence ... among other things.
We are not at a point where we should be asking residents to pay higher taxes when our own house is not clean, nor even close to optimum, professional, best practices, revenue, expenses and budgeting order.
We are in the midst of a pandemic, economic meltdown, combined with protests over racial injustice and police violence and three Redondo Beach Council members want to raise taxes.
Council Members John Gran, Laura Emdee and Christian Horvath- before proposing any tax increase you need to do your fiduciary duty first instead of squeezing the blood out of residents for a quick fix.
The most significant cost saving area to examine would be to complete the LACO Fire study which had the potential to save the city between $3M and $7M annually. This study was supported by the Redondo Beach Firefighters Union who at the time even offered to pay for it. Council Members John Gran, Laura Emdee and Christian were against this for reasons that just don’t make sense. The sad irony now is beyond the potential annual cost savings if LA County Fire were now servicing Redondo Beach, it would also have prevented the city from proposing emergency staffing cuts. In the revised budget this was noted as a reduction to the number of personnel that will be on Fire Engines responding to fires.
For that reason alone the city council is not completing their fiduciary duty to Redondo Residents should reject this proposed tax increase.
Raising Funds in the city of Redondo beach would be absolutely ludicrous, particularly at this point in time and history. My father was recently forced into retirement, without much retirement left. the 2008 market recession caused us to declare bankruptcy on our property. Still having to pay upwards of $4k a year in property taxes. now although while my father is retired, and my mother on disability, they are on a substantially fixed income. With or without the aid of my brother and Myself providing into that income, an increased tax is not a way for council to consider raising additional revenue. now I fully understand that there are unfortunate downsides to certain state mandates, like pushing to purchase additional wetlands mandated by the state in order to protect from trumps offshore drilling initiatives, to which these mandates by the state never fully come with funding or payout. However, the City needs to consider its intergovernmental spending and how departments are budgeting or in this not budgeting appropriately. with public works spending a vast majority of the city spending alongside safety, and not even fire, our city's budget has dipped into the 3rd quarter of reserve funds, I mean correct me if I am wrong here. I understand the necessity of wanting to also keep fire and safety appropriately funded, and know that that is a hot button issue as well, but the faults were made and fall on the hands of the city council for the lack of transparency in budgetary spending. I sincerely urge you all in council to consider alternative options to raising revenue and acquiring said funds.... however, not from and increased tax at this particular time in history during pandemic and race class warfare. consider other options, by looking inward to how the budget is spent, try an alternative method. think less frivolously, becuase this money is not yours. there are alternatives and you should all be thinking critically to resolve this.
This is RIDICULOUS! Not the place or the time,, especially with everything going on right now
I support increasing the assessment fee to cover the cost of the lighting and landscaping district. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that the fee isn't tied to the cost in the first place but fixing that would much more accurately reflect what the cost of our street landscaping and lighting. With the budget cuts we're facing, this is revenue we badly need for public safety and other core city services.