Measure Z numbers
Many recent commenters want info on Measure Z. Here are some numbers that Finance Director Barbara Pachon distributed to the Measure Z Oversight Committee during Wednesday night's meeting.
Measure Z is a 1/4-cent sales tax hike that San Bernardino voters approved in Nov. 2006.
Estimated Measure Z revenues in the Fiscal 2008-09 budget were $7,050,000.
The mid-year estimate, which takes into account the economic downturn, is $6,545,000. The variance is $505,000.
City officials plan to spend $8,126,500 on Measure Z programs during the fiscal year. Police get the lion's share - $7,884,300 - and Parks, Recreation and Community Services gets $242,200. (Measure Z has also been used to finance Operation Phoenix youth centers.)
The city is able to spend more than current fiscal year Measure Z revenues by drawing from a fund balance that was $1,787,343 on July 1, 2008. The balance is projected to dwindle to $205,843 by June 30,2009.
Assistant Police Chief Mitch Kimball said in a phone interview today that Measure Z has allowed SBPD to hire 34 sworn and 10 nonsworn positions. City officials had hoped to hire an additional six cops by June 30, but the recession has arrested those plans.
Kimball said that without Measure Z, the department would not have the 44 SBPD employees who were hired with Measure Z dollars.
Aside from Measure Z-funded police positions, interim City Manager Mark Weinberg's budget plan calls for the department to hold 10 positions (three detectives, two sergeants and five police officers) vacant through Fiscal 2009-10.
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Andrew Edwards. E-mail Andrew here.
I'm glad I attended the City Council meetings on Feb. 17th and Feb 19th. It gives you valuable insight that can't be captured reading it in the newspaper. I got to see first hand how things really work.
I was incensed as I watched the mayor sit there, in unctuous condescension, and trumpet the drop in crime, through his dubious Operation Phoenix Program. He takes vicarious credit for the heavy lifting that the Police Dept. did for several months. It was hard work that he would never have the stomach for on his own.
And as for you Mr. Weinberg, you were hired as an axe man and head hunter for this most slimy of mayors in a long line of opportunistic politicians, who have steered this city from mediocrity into the abyss. You and Morris work together like a tag-team of jackals to see who can break the back of the Police Officers's Association. One has to look hard to determine which of the two of you is more despised among the people who work here.
You sit there in feigned compassion, talking about how tough it was for you and Morris to be forced to implement these furloughs, when no one is fooled. You sir, are nothing more than a carpetbagger. You be sure and collect your 23,000 a month in city salary. Then go home and laugh under your breath about the financial havoc you wreak on the City of San Bernardino. When your done, you go somewhere else and do the same. Quite a racket you have there.
The only person on the City Council who has any "onions" is Wendy McCammack. The rest of you have no allegiance to anyone except Mayoy Moris and your own limited ambitions. You are all weak-kneed little sycophants and no one here respects you.
I have worked for this city for over 2o years and seen a lot of ups and downs. But never have I seen such incompetence that borders on the purposeful, for as long as I can remember.
Mr Mayor, we know that there are two things that every politician wants, a second term and a legacy. I don't know about your second term, but as for your legacy, all you accomplished was disrupting the lives of a lot of really good people, and damaging a respected police department. That's all you have done...nothing more, nothing less.