By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Del Rioan Bea Vallejo says city council members should set a debt ceiling for city borrowing.
Vallejo made her comments during the Feb. 14 citizen comments portion of the council’s agenda.
“Thank you for listening to us and moving the citizens’ comments to the beginning of your agenda,” Vallejo told the council.
“Council, we need to ask you to please stop borrowing money on behalf of the taxpayers through certificates of obligation . . . I feel that maybe we need to look for grants before we actually do apply for certificates of obligation; $11 million of those $27 million (the council plans to borrow) were assigned to parks, sidewalks and an animal shelter. All of these are discretionary spending, issues that may be done as work orders,” Vallejo charged.
If the council spends too much, Vallejo said, citizens should consider a referendum.
“If these practices continue with these certificates of obligation, I feel that maybe the citizens and the taxpayers need to look at a referendum because $27 million really is a lot of money, and how many more million(s) are we going to spend through this council?” she asked.
Vallejo also urged the council to keep citizens informed about how much debt the city incurs.
“So we’re asking you to please keep us informed of what your debt balance is going to be, so that we know you are only going to be going up to that limit and not any more during 2023,” she said.
“Tonight, you’re going to be asked to spend another $9 million-plus (to) Core and Main for your automated meters (and) for a third-party billing, printing and mailing. Most of you probably don’t even know how this is going to function, because you have not seen this first-hand. So, based on the figures that you are presented, maybe you don’t understand that ultimately, you will lose some employees, maybe 10, maybe seven, but even at that, you are going to be spending more than $9 million on something that is only a rental fee. This also is not cost-effective,” Vallejo said.
“The only thing that we ask is that you please consider making better use of taxpayers’ money and consider the debt. Come up with a debt ceiling for 2023,” she finished.
—
Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
NEWS — Citizen calls for city debt ceiling
By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Del Rioan Bea Vallejo says city council members should set a debt ceiling for city borrowing.
Vallejo made her comments during the Feb. 14 citizen comments portion of the council’s agenda.
“Thank you for listening to us and moving the citizens’ comments to the beginning of your agenda,” Vallejo told the council.
“Council, we need to ask you to please stop borrowing money on behalf of the taxpayers through certificates of obligation . . . I feel that maybe we need to look for grants before we actually do apply for certificates of obligation; $11 million of those $27 million (the council plans to borrow) were assigned to parks, sidewalks and an animal shelter. All of these are discretionary spending, issues that may be done as work orders,” Vallejo charged.
If the council spends too much, Vallejo said, citizens should consider a referendum.
“If these practices continue with these certificates of obligation, I feel that maybe the citizens and the taxpayers need to look at a referendum because $27 million really is a lot of money, and how many more million(s) are we going to spend through this council?” she asked.
Vallejo also urged the council to keep citizens informed about how much debt the city incurs.
“So we’re asking you to please keep us informed of what your debt balance is going to be, so that we know you are only going to be going up to that limit and not any more during 2023,” she said.
“Tonight, you’re going to be asked to spend another $9 million-plus (to) Core and Main for your automated meters (and) for a third-party billing, printing and mailing. Most of you probably don’t even know how this is going to function, because you have not seen this first-hand. So, based on the figures that you are presented, maybe you don’t understand that ultimately, you will lose some employees, maybe 10, maybe seven, but even at that, you are going to be spending more than $9 million on something that is only a rental fee. This also is not cost-effective,” Vallejo said.
“The only thing that we ask is that you please consider making better use of taxpayers’ money and consider the debt. Come up with a debt ceiling for 2023,” she finished.
—
Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
Brian
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