Milestones: What’s your cost? – Opinion

How much are you willing to subsidize your current City Council’s bad decisions?

When you consider just a couple of their mistakes, it has cost you, as a resident, a lot of money. How much you ask? Well, it is in the thousands.

Let’s take a look.

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First there was their decision to enforce the City’s weeknight curfew at the stadium which amounted to only about four hours a year. However, each of those four hours eliminated major touring attractions that perform until 11 p.m.

One major performance like the Rolling Stones produces about $450,000 in direct revenue and, another $50,000+ in indirect sales tax to your City.

But it gets worse. When the word got out that performers had to end their show at 10 p.m., interest in Levi’s Stadium dropped like it was the home of COVID-19.

Booking agents virtually disappeared.

When Ed Sheeran’s manager was told about the 10 p.m. weeknight curfew, he called San Francisco and booked Oracle Park. When the date was announced he sold out in four hours.

Next, was another costly decision. This was the conscious decision by the Council to ignore warning letters from Attorney Robert Rubin regarding forming voting districts. Rubin warned this Council THREE separate times to form single-member election districts or he would file a lawsuit against the City of Santa Clara.

This Council didn’t and Rubin did. This Council didn’t form voting districts and Rubin sued and did win the case. The court awarded Rubin and his client $3 million of your dollars. Of course, there were City legal fees, paid with your money, of another million dollars.

Wait, there is more. This Council used even more of your money to file an appeal of the court’s ruling.

And the chances of winning? Slim and none, and Slim just left on vacation.

Isn’t it amazing how freely these current Council folks can spend your money?

The list of fiscal irresponsibility gets longer, and, if your blood pressure isn’t rising to the boiling point yet, take a look at the outrageous salaries being handed out like Christmas candy.

There are 482 cities in California. This Santa Clara Council awarded City Manager Deanna Santana a compensation package of more than $700,000 of your money, making her the second highest paid manager in the State. Santana has in turn followed this Council’s lavish example by hiring 10 new employees at $300,000 each. Santa Clara has four of the top 10 highest paid Assistant City Managers in California. The City’s new Chief Operating Officer Nadine Nader pocketed $476,000 last year.

It doesn’t take a fifth grader to figure out why Santa Clara is facing a budget deficit this year of $33 million.

There is another expense which this Council is ignoring. This is the one former City Manager Jennifer Sparacino warned residents about as far back as 2000.

The unfunded pension liability in 2018 for Santa Clara was a staggering, $550 million. That’s $12,400 owed to retirees by every household in Santa Clara. And it inches upward every year.

In March 2019, the City projected a surplus between $1 and $2 million a year,

How did the City go upside down by a minus $33,000,000 in a year and a half?

It all begs the question “How much will it cost you to keep these current council members in office?”

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