We are becoming the MTV Laguna It...

We are becoming the MTV Laguna

It becomes increasingly frustrating to read the letters and

articles in our local papers these days, as they continue to reflect

the changing climate in our beloved town.

This is made crystal clear by the ongoing griping about “view

loss” as displayed on the cover article in last week’s Coastline

Pilot.

I’m not surprised Chris Toy is in shadow in the photo -- I’d be

ashamed to show my face too if I lived in such splendor and was

complaining about view loss. Look at that photo! Have you any idea

how many millions of people in this country, state, etc. would give

their eye teeth to have even part of what so many have in Laguna? Not

to mention those who have o7nothingf7.

Mention is made of vintage photos of Laguna with virtually no

trees -- well guess what? There weren’t any o7housesf7 either! I’ve

got a great idea for view restoration/preservation -- tear down all

the houses on those hills so o7myf7 view isn’t blocked!

The selfishness and greed taking over this town from within and

without sickens me -- we are slowly but surely becoming MTV’s version

of Laguna Beach.

On a related note, when our City Council continues to waste

millions of dollars on endless studies, projects, etc. while

continuing to ignore the basics, much less the underprivileged and

elderly, I do not believe every person in Laguna should pay an extra

tax to fix Bluebird Canyon -- regardless of when you built or

purchased your home. If you live there, you belong to the haves --

you choose to live up there, and Laguna chooses to allow it. The city

and the people who choose to live in that area need to come up with a

way to repair and winterize the canyon without taxing the rest of us

or selling off property that makes a difference to our citizens.

There is no excuse for our city to not have funds put away as well

as plans for the inevitable “rainy day.” It amounts to incompetence,

too much living on champagne with a beer budget.

Let’s be thankful for what we have, and work to preserve the

compassion, atmosphere and consciousness that made Laguna what it

once was!

And how about placing some displaced gulf victims in some of these

beautiful, large homes?

KURT MAHONEY

Laguna Beach

Experts needed in financial crisis

With the terrible news from FEMA on the slide, I think we need to

regroup, get outside expert financial assistance and decide the right

steps to take in solving this problem.

However, I do not think we have the financial expertise in the

council majority or the staff to solve this by themselves. Why do I

say this? Their record in recent large financial decisions is

terrible. For brevity I will concentrate on the big issues. When it

came to build the park next to Montage, Ken Frank published a flier

before the vote on Montage that said the park would cost the city

only $1.5 million. The sad news, as we all know, is that the bad

contract, coupled with mismanagement that was so horrendous, created

the cost overrun at a price of $8.9 million. (Wouldn’t that $8.9

million look good to us now?) And, if you can believe it, no one lost

their job after such a gross error. Many local groups of citizens

continuously went in front of the council at the time, begging them

to control the costs, but they said we were short-sighted and didn’t

appreciate what Montage would bring us.

Then, realizing that they were stuck with a large interest rate of

10% on $8.9 million adding to the cost, they thought it was ingenious

to save the interest payments by stripping reserve funds of millions

of dollars from various city accounts to pay off the debt and then

patting themselves on the back, but have still not repaid these funds

all the money. To my knowledge, reserves are necessary in order to

have money set aside and be available for rainy days.

Well, it has rained and our stripped budget is quite empty and

unable to help us in any substantial way. So, who was short sighted?

Now they think we should sell the Girl Scout property to help cover

the costs, but, as Ann Christoph says, “This is like selling the back

yard to buy groceries for today.”

What makes this all worse is that Ken Frank was in his job at the

time of the 1978 landslide and is fully aware of the impact another

slide would have on our budget. The council majority has been around

forever and, with Ken Frank, should have realized that such a slide

would occur sometime in the future. But, unfortunately they didn’t,

and stripped us of needed reserves. In 1995, FEMA announced it would

no longer cover slides. They should have immediately begun a program

to reserve significant funds against the possibility of another

slide. But they didn’t. Now they are scrambling to see how this

financial burden could be prevented in the future, be it by increased

taxes or whatever. But it’s too late to close the barn door now

because the horses are out.

I urge the council majority to accept their shortcomings and seek

outside expertise to make sure all alternatives are considered. To do

less would be a breach in the responsibilities they accepted when

elected.

They should begin a series of commentaries in the paper alerting

us to all their thoughts, alternatives and directions in which they

are leaning, before making any rash decisions.

If not, they no longer deserve to represent us on the council.

JOHN SELECKY

Laguna Beach