City should control spending

Mayor Elizabeth Pearson claims that because of Laguna’s beaches, we

have fiscal expenses that many other cities don’t have. Let’s be

accurate as to the general structure of this budget. First of all,

many of our beaches are under county jurisdiction, which means the

city doesn’t pay anything for their lifeguards and other services.

All of South Laguna can be included in this category.

Laguna is not the only city to have unique expenses. Anaheim has

Disneyland. For some reason other cities manage to make these unique

items profitable. What is Laguna’s problem?

Fire Safety. Pearson claims that due to our terrain we have

special challenges. If this is so, why did Pearson recently vote

against the recommendation of city staff and the fire department to

require the grade of driveways, for example, not be greater than 10%.

When it came to voting for policy that would have promoted the safety

of our firefighters and residents, she voted against greater safety

and for developers.

The truth is that in the event of a fire, both local and county

firefighters respond. They are all equally well-trained to deal with

the multitudes of circumstances they might encounter. Pearson’s

statements are a slight to county firefighters and offensive. They

deserve an apology. We have special challenges all right, but it’s

not the terrain.

Pearson claims that because we have older buildings, we don’t have

adequate parking. Let’s again look at Pearson’s recent voting record.

She voted to approve the Pottery Shack redevelopment project under

the historical parking guidelines -- modern-day intensification of

use with historical parking. What she approved would not meet the

parking needs for Pottery Shack employees, let alone provide any

parking for the patrons.

A few months later, Pearson also approved a modification of the

previous approval, which included eliminating more than half of the

on-site historical structures in order to build a parking lot -- not

for patron parking but to be rented out as a separate capital

venture. Her voting record speaks for itself.

Pearson claims Laguna “is committed” to ocean water quality. Let’s

be crystal clear on this subject. Laguna in recent years has spent an

enormous amount on water quality -- not out of concern about water

quality but rather because Laguna was mandated to do so by the

Environmental Protection Agency.

Laguna water had gotten so bad, the EPA took over our city’s water

quality management in order to bring this city back into the realm of

the compliance standards. In addition to this, one of the reasons the

EPA had to do this was because Laguna had not been spending the money

over the years for upgrades and such, while other cities have been

allocating funds in their budget for such things. Yet, this is an

itemized fee on property taxes. Where has this money been going, Ms.

Pearson?

o7Chris Martin owns a Laguna Beach business.

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