What I learned from meeting with the city council candidates: I was very thankful that they took the time to meet with us. Since only 10 people showed up out of 25,000 in our community they could have just been like many of the others and said it isn’t worth my time. So for that they automatically get points with me. I also learned the following: If you want to get things changed then you need to show up to City Council meetings in droves. Not one or two people, but at least 30-50. The city makes annual revenues of about 65million dollars Property taxes and sales taxes are our main sources of income In 12/13 fiscal year(the only year we have real #’s right now) our general fund income was 67million and of that 62.5 million (93%) was spent on employee wages and benefits These wages are mainly police, fire and retirement Under the city benefit plan an employee can have $15 copay Kaiser for $155 per month with the city paying $1,419.47 per month Prior to the passing of a sales tax increase of 1%(which expires in March 2015) there was an $8 million deficit, if the sales tax is not renewed we will again be facing a budget shortfall (Chuck Timm) There are a total of 5 people on the City Council, of these 5 people it only takes a majority (3 people) to make a decision. In essence, 3 people make the decisions for 110,000 people. Of those 5 people, not a single one currently on the city council lives in Cordelia/Green Valley. 2 live in Rancho Solano, at least one in Paradise Valley and the other two on the North side of town. So, we do not have anybody that actually lives in our area representing us. Brian Thiemer wants to move the city government to a district representation system that would require each district of the city have a member on board Chuck Timm resides in Green Valley Joe Martinez lives on the other side of town near Safeway off of Hillborn One interesting thing I learned was that there is a lack of businesses in the area because we don’t have the demographic to attract those businesses. Thus, the current city council’s solution is to build more houses to in essence attract more businesses. However, they allow builders to build the houses without providing the infrastructure first. Thiemer proposed that we first require infrastructure to be completed before we approve housing start permits Martinez wants to bring businesses to the area but I didn’t get a clear understanding of how he plans to do that Timm shared the frustration and conundrum of more houses attracts businesses We are also part of a Bay Area Planning Commission that is made up of representatives from each county. The commission meets and puts together a general plan that includes a goal for new housing. The city and county get revenues for meeting this “goal.” A percentage of the houses must be multi-family dwellings. Thiemer proposed we break off from the agency and manage our own funds as a county He was the only one to talk about this so I do not know what the other candidates views were Community Safety and police presence: There is no money to hire more officers is a general view shared by all 3 candidates. When you look at how much we are paying city employees especially in benefits, this is not an untrue statement. There is money in the city’s closed circuit camera budget account so we could theoretically afford to have cameras installed at key points around Cordelia/GV(I figured this out on my own by looking at the budget) Timm’s first concern when asked was safety of our residents and our area. He talked about dedicated patrols, enforcing the no begging ordinance and doing what he could to improve police presence and response. He also talked of cameras. He discussed changing the beat boundaries to help accommodate for more police officers in our area. Right now our area is 1 beat with one dedicated officer. He would like to see at least two and possibly have Cordelia be one beat and GV be another. Martinez took the stance of using crime prevention specialists and people taking back their neighborhoods. Putting out the American flag, getting out and knowing your neighbors. Making your presence known. Thiemer also expressed concern over safety and agrees that we need more dedicated patrols in our area, he also wants to work with area residents to help improve the current crime situation There are lots of other issues and topics that were discussed but this is a starting point that provides some information and details. Overall, I learned that our current city council is made up of people with no interest or knowledge of what is going on in Cordelia/GV. I learned that they have some heavy hitters in their pocket books that are making some nice contributions to their campaign. Chuck Timm: Was a prior city council member. He is a retired police officer but lost police officer support because during his time on city council he had to lay off 8 rookie police officers because the rest of the department would not take a pay cut and the city was facing a budget deficit due to the economic downturn. He lives in Green Valley. He is for reducing crime, supports victims of domestic violence and believes it is important to support youth in Fairfield. Joe Martinez: Works as a probation officer for Solano County mainly out of Vallejo. He lives off of Hillborn by Safeway. He wants to change the city by providing support to try and keep criminals from falling victim to the sky high recidivism rate in California. He feels that we need to bring business to Fairfield and work on building a strong community in order to maintain safety. He stated that he would make his decisions based on the numbers. Brian Thiemer: Words in Fairfield at a manufacturing company. Lives in the older part of town by the mall. A concerned citizen who has attended numerous city council meetings to express concerns. He is running because he is frustrated with the way city council is being run and wants to change it for the better. He wants more citizens voices to be heard, fair representation and also vows not to take any political contributions because he doesn’t want to be beholden to big businesses and unions. If you notice he has signs near many of the big expensive ones but they are the smaller signs. He does not have the $ from Seeno, Firefighters Assn. Ect. to pay for big signs. He is truly an underdog in the sense that he does not have $ from big campaign contributors. He has helped one of our Cordelia area residents fight the city over the inadequate use of our landscaping and maintenance tax that we pay. (that is another very interesting story) He would also like to help us get our park. He wants to make sure we are getting what we are paying for. In the case of Cordelia, the city is paying Dominguez landscaping nearly 700,000 for a two year contract. We have broken sprinklers, dead trees and other landscaping issues. The city denied there was any problem when a citizen went to them. Thiemer brought out his own independent contractor to look and then provided the report to the city which showed their claim that everything was fine and dandy was false. Also, for over 300,000 per year there is no reason that they can’t maintain a new park through the money that WE pay in property taxes. Taking care of a park in my book is considered maintaining landscaping. Ultimately, I feel that the only way to hold people accountable is to not re-elect them. It’s time for a change to the current council. None of the incumbents could be bothered to come spend time and meet with us so for me that is a huge strike. After hearing some of the way things happen at city council meetings from our own Cordelia citizens at the meeting I don’t feel we are being represented fairly. It is time for a change. If we truly care about our community and want someone that gives a rat’s ass about Cordelia/GV then it is obvious we need new people. Of the new people running these were the ones that took their time to show that they do care. Feel free to post questions about anything below and I am sure that myself and the others that attended will be happy to fill in what we can.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 05:44:27 +0000
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