City Council

A Costly, Cranky Day For La Mesa

LA MESA -- In many ways, Tuesday started out as a sort of classic small town day.

The friends, family and admirers of local restaurateur Don Sanfilippo gathered in a church to honor a life that had been lived, in large part, at the service of La Mesa.

"When Anna Sanfilippo got done talking there wasn't a dry eye in the house,'' said Jim Wieboldt, who was among hundreds attending the memorial. "There was a man who did so much for this city.''

But if there was a sense of unity and civic pride at Sanfilippo's memorial service, much of that good feeling quickly disappeared as the reality of life in California these days quickly intruded on the rest of Tuesday.

Many of those who attended the memorial later retired to the City Council chambers, where some, like local realtor Laura Lothian, still wearing funeral black, participated in an evening that was a mix of angst, anger and vitriol.

One guesses Don Sanfilippo wouldn't have approved.

First the anger -- and the news.

What had looked on the agenda like a routine and uneventful meeting was suddenly disrupted by a report by City Manager David Witt that the state's fiscal crisis -- to date more of a troublesome sidelight to city government -- had just landed like a ton of bricks. In an unprecedented move, the city had been informed it would need to make a nearly $2-million payment to the state within a matter of days.

The payment, in the state's view, was to make up for tax collections on local development projects that the state and local governments had been wrangling legally over for months now. Local governments had fought the state in court to stop the state from taking this money, but the locals had lost and the state was demanding its winnings now.

The state's demand brought out bitter words, even from usually even-tempered council members like Mark Arapostathis. He called it "extortion'' and compared it to the state "reaching down our throats and taking out a vital organ.''

Mayor Art Madrid was less metaphoric.

"There are 120 legislators in Sacramento,'' Madrid said. "Seventy-nine of them are former local officials yet they get up there and drink the kool-aid and they become robots, stealing money from the people they say they represent. . . Mickey Mouse could do better.''

City Manager Witt said, however, the threat of penalties and the state's authority in distributing sales tax revenue meant the city needed to make this payment, which he said represents 20 percent of La Mesa's reserve fund. The council held its collective nose and voted 4-0 to approve the payment.

Witt said the payment won't force layoffs or immediate service reductions, but he said the city is being pushed under its stated reserve policies and will have to look for ways to replace those funds.

"The governor wants that money and he is being unrelenting,'' Witt said.

After this uplifting lesson in state/local politics, the council turned to approving appointments to its many committees and commissions, a potentially more uplifting issue that highlights the volunteers hours donated to the city each year by so many. But even this issue took a contentious turn.

Lothian cited Sanfilippo's selfless contributions to the city and then launched into a tirade against Wieboldt, who has been serving as a volunteer member, and sometimes chairman, of the city's Parking Commission for years now.

Lothian said Wieboldt has overseen a commission that has done little and at every turn has resisted and been dismissive of her innovative ideas for sprucing up the city with parking meter funds. Lothian encouraged the council to unseat Wieboldt in favor of other volunteers.

Local merchant Bill Jaynes followed Lothian to the mic, offered a one minute paeon to Sanfilippo and then also encouraged the council to look for new blood, though he didn't mention Wieboldt by name.

The council listened politely and then voted unanimously to re-seat Wieboldt. The Parking Commission has been saving its money to help fund a La Mesa Village overhaul and clearly the council approved.

Following the meeting, Wieboldt would only say "God bless'em!'' though it wasn't clear whether he was talking about the council, Lothian and Jaynes or all of the above.

The City Council meeting ended in a blissfully short 90 minutes, but that left time for many to make it across town to attend an informational meeting at the Community Center on water rate hikes being proposed by the Helix Water District.

There, journalists and Water District employees, far outnumbered the members of the general public and the facts presented were familiar. The cost of purchasing water from distant sources was rising more than 16 percent next year so rates were continuing their unrelenting rise.

Local residents complained angrily about the size of district executive salaries and employee pensions, but the hard water facts -- the rising costs of moving water hundreds of miles to a desert community like La Mesa -- continued to drown out other issues. The average home would be seeing more than a $5 increase in their water bill every couple months and further increases are coming.

The Helix Water District meeting ended with one of the disgruntled citizens -- public pension expert Russell Buckley -- gathering up another of the angry citizens and pitching the idea of running for office to oppose some of the current office holders he judges to be too weak to stand up to public employee unions. (Read Russell Buckley's full comments to the district executives he...

Buckley and three others had earlier in the day announced the launch of a new website -- La Mesa Citizens Oversight Group -- aimed at creating a clearinghouse for information on local government and politics.

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The council also took a moment to honor Police Detective Dale Perry as police officer of the year for La Mesa. Perry (at right in photo above) was praised for conducting special robbery investigations that led to arrests and for his special efforts to help local business combat the spate of robberies that hit the city in the last year.

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Comment by David Smyle on July 13, 2012 at 12:07pm: All in good time Dex.

Comment by John C Schmitz on July 13, 2012 at 9:02am: I was shocked to see not one word about the Council's acknowledgement of the County Library system for being named the top library system in the country. This meant enough to the County that Jose Aponte, the head of the entire County Library system, attended the meeting to accept the Council's proclamation and address the council. The partnership between the City and the County to provide library services to La Mesa has proven to be an excellent one. And if we don't continue to promote reading who will read all of these blog comments?

Comment by Jimmy Sanders on July 13, 2012 at 7:58am: Isn't James Wieboldt a member of Mayor Madrid's kitchen cabinet brain trust? Didn't the Mayor and Dave Allan and Ernie Ewin and Dr. A endorse James Wieboldt for City Council to target Ruth Sterling after the last election? Now it seems like Ruth Sterling is back in as part of the Mayor's sure voting block. La Mesa politics sure is funny!

Comment by Scott H. Kidwell on July 12, 2012 at 7:25pm: "The Parking Commission has been saving its money to help fund a La Mesa Village overhaul and clearly the council approved." It's money?

According to the city web site "The Commission acts in an advisory capacity to the City Council regarding parking-related issues within the Parking District. The Commission is committed to ensuring cost-effective public parking that meets the needs of the City's businesses, residents and patrons by involving the community in parking management decisions."

That money belongs to the city (public) and it is our elected officials, not the parking commissioners, who are responsible and accountable for it use, non-use, or misuse!

Additionally, while the votes to reconfirm Mr. Wieboldt and to pay the state were indeed 4-0, it should be noted that one elected official, council member Ewin, was not present as he was away tending to family business due his mother having passed away earlier that day.

Comment by laura marie lothian on July 12, 2012 at 2:15pm: Hello Chris, though I am not a proponent of "stimulus” money, per se, it is a disservice to all who live and work in the Village to have our customers and clients put up with paying the meters, watch its funds grow to over $1M, while no discernible improvements are made that could help businesses and restaurants attract more customers and diners now.

“Saving its money to help fund a La Mesa Village overhaul” down the road doesn’t address the recession and the here and now. How many more businesses are we going to lose waiting for this overhaul?

My “tirade” against Jim Wieboldt was a candid description of how he runs the parking commission and does not begin to compare to his numerous threats of legal action against me every time I speak, the appearance of the City Attorney at his behest to “put me in my place,” and his theatrical leaving of the dais earlier this year to stand at the open podium and demand I make a public apology to him pending legal action. An apology that will never occur.

“Innovative ideas” help me thrive in my work. If unpleasant bureaucrats like Wieboldt weren’t running so many of these committees and boards, we’d see a lot more successful business people serving their communities. And the communities would be the better for it.

Comment by DEXTER LEVY on July 11, 2012 at 7:48pm: Mr Smyle,

Which Board/Council are you going to run for? So you can assist in making the Change in Policy.

Comment by Jim Wieboldt on July 11, 2012 at 4:42pm: Thanks Jenna! And thanks to Mayor Art Madrid, Council Members Ruth Sterling, Dr. A and Dave Allen.

Comment by Jenna Zeledon on July 11, 2012 at 3:18pm: Congratulations, Jim on the unanimous approval to re-seat you on the Parking Commission!

Comment by David Smyle on July 11, 2012 at 10:29am: Maybe it is time to face reality and finally get the City's costs under control. Let's see Orange County, Vallejo, Stockton, Mammoth Lakes, San Bernardino, La Mesa? Apparently there is no shame in filing BK and given the huge $32 million (San Berdu was $45M) unfunded pension liability and getting worse and now a big dip into reserves, technically the City is Bankrupt. If the City thinks it is going to increase taxes again to pay it's bills, it better think again. We were hoodwinked once, that was enough. There have been no major changes to the lifetime benefits of City employees and the current and future pension costs are going to kill the City. Rather than create a 401K plan for new employees, the City just modified the pension system guaranteeing current and future employees a 7.75% return on their pension which is just not sustainable or realistic. If anyone thinks the state controlled by liberal spending democrats is going to make any changes, you are delusional. All the more reason to vote out the old guard and replace them with fiscally minded candidates which we have a chance to do in our new 79th District and across the state. Also time for the City to get real about employee compensation, outsourcing to private companies when it can and finding ways to reduce the costs of operating this City. We can only pray Grossmont Center doesn't go away when the ground lease is up in a year or two.

As far as the water rates, one has to determine where the rate increases are coming from. Yes, HWD employees are paid handsomely and are given cadillac plan benefits that last for life and yes the HWD Board that meet twice a month gets the same benefits as the employees (except no pension thank god) but just as important is what is our HWD Board and City officials doing to call the parent water agencies on the carpet for their excessive employees costs? The City of La Mesa never takes a stand on the local water board rate increases so they are useless but the HWD Board who we elect and are suppose to represent us are doing nothing to try and control the payroll costs of the San Diego Water Authority or Metropolitan Water District who we buy the water from. It is just another per diem trip for them to attend a meeting. When was the last time the HWD Board reported on its own efforts to try and reform the higher agencies payroll costs?

This election season, time for some fresh blood. Vote out the old guard Chuck Muse, Richard Smith and John Linden and let gets some reform and change. These people have been on the board since 2000 and 2004 and all we have seen is our water rates go up and they have voted for every increase. All they care about is continuing on the board to get the free healthcare and other benefits since they are all retired. Fire the freeloaders!

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