If you do not want to see the big developers
hijack the election on cityhood for El Dorado Hills, you should pass this along
to anyone who may be a registered voter in the community. Here are six compelling reasons to vote for Measure P.
Reasons to Support Measure P and Cityhood:
1.
Opponents of Measure P are trying to buy the election
using funds from major development interests. Check out the contributors for
the opponents of Measure P listed below as reported to the County on Form 460
by the “No on Measure P Committee”:
|
Amount
|
Donated
by
|
Source
of Funds
|
|
$20,000
|
Bob Spence (Spence Enterprises)
|
EDH Business Park Manager
|
|
$20,000
|
Sammie Cemo
|
EDH Business Park Developer
|
|
$10,000
|
Windplay Business Center.
|
Roseville Builder ???? Who are they?
|
|
$
2,500
|
Committee to Elect Joe Harn
|
Money in County Auditor Election Fund
-Originally from Serrano, Building Industry, Waste Management, Cemo Commerical
LLC (Business Park owner), AKT (developer of Promontory Point and Valley View
subdivisions) and other builders, real estate interests.
|
|
$132,975
|
Outstanding Obligations
|
Where will this money come from? Anybody’s
guess. All signs point to the ATK developers (Promontory Point and
Valley View developer) or a combination of development and building interests.
|
Why are these
developers so concerned about a city? Is it their cozy relationship with the
county?
:
2.
Opponents mailed a slick Madison
Avenue flier
to all voters last week called “P is not for Pennies”. On the
inside of the back cover was a schedule purporting to show deficits in a new city. The flier highlighted two of the ten years
shown on the schedule with deficits of $1.429 million. What they did not
highlight on the very same schedule were the other eight years that reflected a
surplus of $14.981, or
a net surplus of over $13.5 million over the next ten years
that a new city could use for parks, police
protection, roads or other priorities you will have a voice in determining its use.
3. As
a city, we could compete for federal and state grants that cities are qualified
to apply for but unincorporated communities cannot. As examples, South Lake Tahoe
has over $11 million in grants and Rancho Cordova already has approximately $6
million. El Dorado Hills gets nothing. We are not even qualified to file an
application.
4. The
County is redistributing $800,000 to $1.5 million annually
in taxes collected from El Dorado Hills to Fire
Districts throughout the County but none of this goes
to the EDH Fire Department. In many of those
districts, residents only pay an assessment of $.06 per thousand of assessed
valuation while El Dorado Hills’ residents pay $.17 per thousand, almost
three times as much. The EDH Fire Department has chosen to support the
opponents of Measure P because they say they believe that continuing to send
your taxes to other fire departments improves fire protection in the
county. It is hard to see how a subsidy to Georgetown,
Fairplay or Camino, etc., can substantially improve
your fire protection with the highly skilled and well equipped fire department
that we have in our community.
5.
They say, “Don’t fix it if it’s not broken.”
The County of El Dorado has “unfunded
liabilities” of almost $100 million in benefits due the California Public Employees Retirement
System for employee retirement and retiree health benefits. The County is not
only broke, but it may be broke. This information was contained in the
September 14, 2005 issue of the Mountain Democrat that quoted County Auditor
Joe Harn, a leading non-resident and critic of Measure P (and a contributor to
No on Measure P), reminding the County Board of Supervisors that the county has these unfunded liabilities and the situation is expected to worsen.
The term, “unfunded
liabilities” in government-speak means “we owe it but we don’t have a clue as to how we are going
to pay it.”
For those of you concerned about city
financing, remaining in the county means that you will continue to assume
liability for these unfunded liabilities.
This amounts to about $2,200 for each family of four and $1,100 for married
senior citizens. Got that kind of change laying around for the county to ask
you to pay? They will.
6. They
say, “Don’t fix it if it’s not broken.”
The
County has just been sued for non-compliance with Measure Y (the growth measure
passed by the voters of the county). According to the law suit filed on October
20, 2005, Board of Supervisors were alleged to have violated the 2004 El Dorado
County General Plan by approving an under-funded
Traffic Impact Mitigation Fee Program that charges new development less than
half the cost of building roads needed to avoid gridlock, a violation of land
use law, the California Environmental Quality Act, and various local codes.
Estimates on the under-funding of roads have been well
over $150 million. Where do you think the supervisors will try to get this
funding? Maybe they won’t…. and just let us sit in traffic. Enjoy your coffee.
VOTE YES ON MEASURE P TO CREATE A
CITY IN
EL
DORADO HILLS ON NOVEMBER 8TH.
---and
remember, the ballot on cityhood is on the reverse side of the ballot. Turn it
over.
This
is not from the Yes on Measure P Committee.