By John Aldaz
Measure CC advocates love to claim that Culver City schools are dilapidated.
Apparently, nothing works.
Ceilings are falling down.
Everything is contaminated with asbestos.
It rains in the classrooms.
Seriously, Bonnie Wacker? If this were true, why wouldn't the School Board be conducting a vigorous investigation into the $40 million that homeowners already are paying to repair the same eight schools (Measure T)?
There are two possible answers: Either the $40 million bond was completely mismanaged and the money wasted, or Measure CC isn't really necessary, at least not in the ludicrous amount of $106 million.
Many posts on this site already have described (and substantiated) some of Measure CC's countless flaws, questionable practices, lack of fairness, absence of transparency, unsustainable costs and dubious outcome. A good, factual page is www.NoCCBond.com.
Aside from its laudable original intent, Measure CC does not contain a single aspect that isn't grossly unfair, seriously wrong, way overpriced or likely to fail. From interest-only loan payments to the absence of competitive bidding, from the inequality of the tax burden distribution to laughable 30-year projections, from cash rewards lavished on political consultants to non-disclosure of the huge costs to each homeowner, it is all shameful, all wrong.
No property owner who works for a living can afford to be taxed an extra $10,000, $20,000 or more. Nor would that amount ever knowingly be promised to School Board members who won't be elected for decades, to waste as they please.
Measure CC asks us to do exactly that. But why? The contract is so stretched out that our own children might be the ones paying for most of it. Thirty years is far longer than the average marriage in the U.S. Thirty years is one-third the age of Culver City itself.
Why are they so afraid to break this up into three or four smaller bonds?
What else are they hiding?
I wondered how a collaboration of intelligent people, most of whom started off with good intentions, could propose and support a measure that is now so wrong in so many ways. The answer came a few days ago, on this forum. The treasurer of United Parents of Culver City, the producer of the Measure CC Campaign Committee propaganda video and one of the hidden names behind this massive new tax and the UPCC Political Action Committee are all the same person — none other than Scott Malsin.
It is all finally making sense now. Measure CC is the largest-ever swindle on Culver City taxpayers that does not involve the use of a pistol. According to Laura Stuart, Mr. Malsin's 2012 campaign manager, he believed it was possible for our city to declare municipal bankruptcy within three to four years. If that is indeed going to happen, these people are simply trying to grab and lock-in as much of your money as they can get, before other wasteful spending becomes due.
One example is Culver City's unfunded pension liability, now worth well in excess of $300 million by conservative estimates. We rightfully voted down Mr. Malsin's shameless bid for re-election by a landslide.
We must absolutely do the same to Measure CC.
Mr. Aldaz may be contacted at circle-5@sbcglobal.net
