Where are Moe, Larry and Curly? Really

As a resident of Huntington Beach, I know why we all live here, it

must be the weather right? It certainly can’t be for the fiscal

acumen or integrity of the city government. We just finished with one

council person who became a convicted felon, and while on the council

was found to be in bed with various Seacliff developers. And now we

have another council person in the middle of an issue involving the

improper conversions of condominiums from apartments.

Oh but it gets better, our fair city -- always screaming that it

does not have enough money and needs to pay its workers the

comparable wages received by workers in other cities -- gives an

out-of-state developer $1 million to build concessions at a park that

was supposed to cost $1.5 million, but wound up costing $19 million.

Then the developer skips town with the money, fails to build the

concessions and the city has to spend more money to chase this person

down. But wait, the city -- in violation of Proposition 13 --

illegally collected a tax for almost 10 years to pay for an employee

pension fund. We, as taxpaying residents, can only recover four years

of the overcharged amount.

If only Moe, Larry and Curly ran the city then I could at least

laugh, but like I said we all really like the weather here in

Huntington Beach.

* JONATHAN GROSSMAN is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute

to “Sounding Off” e-mail us at hbindy@latimes.com or fax us at (714)

965-7174.