We must not let misguided officials squander $87 million of RDA funds
Dear Editor,
Take it from the children and "spend it while we can."
We have been told in the strongest way possible that if we use every cent possible we will still need to make major cuts in the number of students who attend college. Last year, I understand, we cut out about 100,000 students from the California State University System. Ten thousand students were cut from San Jose State University and that is just one of the 23 CSU campuses. I understand also that similar numbers of students were removed from the University of California. We have eliminated vocational education from our high schools and junior colleges. We are talking about doubling class size in our elementary schools, high schools and junior colleges. We are talking about firing thousands of teachers.
We are cutting aid to the mentally ill. The list of high and vital priorities is vast. We must do what we can to help pay for vital services.
Now when we, here in Morgan Hill, are being asked to help reduce the damage to our state's educational infrastructure we scream, 'No! Why do I have to help?'
Our elected representatives, speaking for you and I, publicly announced: We must secure the resources before the state redirects them to other uses. We must spend the money while we can.
The plan is to bend every law to hide millions of dollars so that they cannot be used for vital public services. An elected representative said that it's not Morgan Hill's fault that the state has developed a gaping budget hole. But that elected representative is one of us who voted for the things that created the financial crisis. Denial of responsibility is a coward's tactic.
The stipulated uses for the $9 million are definitely not more important then education.
The West Dunne Avenue project has been on the scene for at least 20 years. The 1,375 streetlights will probably not even pay for the outrageous number of lights being burned in "downtown" 365 nights per year. Those light subsidize five bars. Adding solar to the CRC will help the Young Men's Christian Association make greater profits. The consultant and lawyer contracts in the amount of $245,000 are definitely squandering money.
But it is not just the $9 million. Our elected representatives have, as I understand, moved $87 million out from under public control to a newly formed auxiliary corporation. What the corporation does with the money will not be visible to the public. As an example, profits the Young Men's Christian Association is making and supposed to be sharing with the city is definitely not visible.
In these times of emergency we could help, with $87 million dollars, to resolve a financial crisis. We are responsible when our elected representatives refuse to help. We must not let our misguided locally elected representatives squander $87 million dollars while our children are denied an education.
Staten M. Johnston, Morgan Hill
Why the unequal entitlements for Christian members?
Dear Editor,
I believe that you and I have decided to distribute government service without equality and without an assessment of need.
We used tax dollars to build a very expensive recreation building. We are spending about $3,842, 000 per year to run a commercial athletic facility for - the members. We contracted with a Christian corporation, for 20 years, with provisions to share the profit. We have spent many more millions on professional athletic equipment and computers. We contract with FitLinxx which claims they can help a commercial athletic business increase profits. We are delivering tax-supported services to make a profit. This is not tax-supported public service!
It appears that the constant focus of the YMCA is to profit centers. Probably every activity is kept or eliminated based upon an evaluation of profit. No business in our town can afford to compete with city's tax dollars. Redevelopment funds, I understand, were supposed to help create private business not put them out.
The city budget for the CRC does not appear to include a provision to replace the building nor does the budget account for lost business income. The budget, I assume, is the device used to allocate a profit with the Young Men's Christian Association. Is our part of a profit going to keep the Senior Center?
In this profit model, we now ask people if they have paid their YMCA dues and if they have signed the hold harmless contract to benefit the YMCA. They must publicly proclaim membership in a very specific Christian group.
As time passes the benefits for wealthy members are being extended to a broader range of special city government services. Profit centers weed out the least able to pay.
Recently, I noticed a sign on the YMCA/CRC window announcing that Christian members can get eight free passes to entertain friends at our public facility.
We have created profit centers in the forms of a Senior Cafe, a Coffee Shop, a computer room and a skateboard park. A sign on the computer room window says that Christian members can use these government computers for free. A baseball league can use one of our local parks at special prices if they are a "YMCA member."
Christian members can swim in the pools at the Aquatic Center and/or enroll their child in a preschool program at the Community and Cultural Center. The city of Morgan Hill Recreation Activity Guide lists pages of special pricing and benefits for Christian members.
The citizens who need the facilities the most are not accommodated because they do not contribute to a profit. You and I have decided to give some citizens of Morgan Hill special privileges if they are "Christian members." Wealthy Christian people, I understand, can support profit centers.
I guess we have decided that we will never be able to make a generous profit from those low-income, non-member seniors.
Staten M. Johnston, Morgan Hill
Let's choose vital programs and give up our paper toys
Dear Editor,
You and I have chosen to drastically cut education. We eliminated vocational education. We cut 12,500 of our young adults from an education at San Jose State University this year. The California State University System is looking to cut 40,000 students in 2010. The University of California is probably cutting another 30,000 per year. We have raised the fees at all levels of our public colleges this year by about 32 percent. We are deliberately deciding that our young people will not go to college.
We depend totally on our civil servants to protect our democracy and monitor the laws and rules we create. We depend completely on our public employees to provide, with care, intelligence and honesty, our vital social programs. But in our greed we have publicly criticized and cut the salaries and benefits of these our protectors.in Morgan Hill we are talking about more cuts this coming year.
You and I, through our local elected leaders, are squandering hundreds of millions of dollars on paper toys. Our local elected leader is publicly protesting the sacrificing of Redevelopment Funds while we squander hundreds of millions of these funds to:
N Build decorative promenades;
N Buy buildings that private investors will restore without public money;
N Build commercial athletic facilities to compete with the private businesses;
N Expand the commercial athletic facility "for our members" to compete with private businesses;
N Finance alcohol walks, to promote business for bars, along a few blocks of Monterey Road;
N Install expensive city street signs that provide very little necessary information;
N Build a movie theatre to compete with a movie theatre that is not even close to being fully utilized;
N Build a skateboard facility without first planning a public program; and
N Build and contract out public facilities to a religious organization so that they can make a profit and further their particular religious belief.
I understand that we are a nation that is at least $80 trillion in debt. This debt is growing at about 8 percent per year. Our State of California is in dire financial condition. The list of vital programs that we are cutting and the list of damages to those public servants, who would protect our form of government, can extend for pages.
I believe that we, in Morgan Hill, are choosing to waste our state's limited and borrowed resources. We must now be willing to give up our unnecessary redevelopment programs and release the money to fund education and a vital civil service. We must ask those, who propose to represent us, to stop publicly demanding to spend redevelopment money for these paper toys.
Every fiber of our nation depends upon having enough educated people to protect our democracy and to rebuild a competitive economy. Education and civil service are our nation's most fundamental national infrastructures.
Staten M. Johnston, Morgan Hill
A community party as an example
Dear Editor,
Morgan Hill had the annual Mushroom Mardi Gras party Memorial Day weekend. My wife and both volunteered on Saturday and Sunday to help. We had a great time.
It was reported in the Morgan Hill Times that City Council members said, "... We need to send the message that alcohol is no longer a rite of passage." And they said, "we're changing the environment, the culture and the attitudes in Morgan Hill about underage drinking."
To celebrate at the Mushroom Mardi Gras party the city provided five beer booths and a very large "wine garden." The only allowed use of the Community Center was to allocate the very large east meeting room to the selling of wine.
Many of the volunteers who delivered supplies to the beer and wine booths were very young teenagers. The people assigned to clean up the mounds of trash around the drinking establishments were very young boy scouts.
The alcohol income booths were situated near the music entertainment the areas most attractive to the youth.
Over time it has become easier and easier to have a community party and raise money. Just keep increasing the amount of alcohol sold.
"Alcohol... We're changing the environment, the culture and the attitudes in Morgan Hill..."
The other night my wife and I went to the Community Playhouse at the Community Center. The show was a wonderful comedy called Nunsense. At the performance it was strongly announced that no one was to bring food or drink in to the auditorium. But, on comedy nights when three kinds of alcohol (beer, wine, and vodka) are being served they strongly announce that the audience is welcome to bring their purchased food and drink in to the auditorium.
"Alcohol... We're changing the environment, the culture and the attitudes in Morgan Hill..."
Scholarships but for who?
It is acceptable and desirable to facilitate a major effort to sell alcohol at community parties if we claim a benefit for the common good. Let's just say that we are selling lots of beer and wine to provide SCHOLARSHIPS. Who can argue with that - are you opposed to SCHOLARSHIPS?
San Jose State University says that a student will need about $21,000 per year to attend the university as an undergraduate.
It is my understanding that the typical scholarship from the Mushroom Mardi Gras is about $1,000. This means that the scholarship does not determine or even martially assist a young person to go to college. A $1,000 scholarship rewards the richer people in Morgan Hill, who already have the resources to send their children to college. This is a benefit provided by many volunteers selling alcohol at a community party.
"Alcohol... We're changing the environment, the culture and the attitudes in Morgan Hill..." And we are providing SCHOLARSHIPS!
Staten M. Johnston, Morgan Hill
Is the YMCA/CRC a community benefit or a business partnership destroying small business growth?
Is the city of Morgan Hill promoting education and community well-being?
This imformation can be found at the Morgan Hill Times website.
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