Candidate for
Council Member; City of La Palma

The most important issue for La Palma citizens is our quality of life. Keeping our quality of life rests on the financial stability of La Palma that will also ensure the superior level of services provided by the city staff that we as La Palma residents have become accustomed to. Our financial stability is fragile because of three main reasons: the State continues to withhold funding from local government; the majority of sales tax, our largest single source of revenue, is generated by only a few businesses; and 50% of the property tax and redevelopment tax increment revenue is paid by only 10 large businesses.

Financial stability starts with requiring staff to prepare a balanced budget in which projected revenue dictates budgeted disbursements. The budget cannot be balanced through the use of reserves.

Equally as important as reponsible budgeting is business retention of all businesses within our city, but especially the businesses generating the majority of the sales tax revenue. Important steps have already been started towards this goal with the creation of the new Community Development Department. It will be council's responsbility to make sure that the Community Development Director visits existing La Palma businesses on a regular basis and attracts new revenue generating businesses to La Palma.

Our property values are subtantially higher than our neighboring cities because of the high quality of services provided by La Palma's public works, recreation and administrative staff as well as the superior level of public safety provided by La Palma's police department and the Orange County Fire Authority.

It will be council's responsbility to maintain the high quality of city services through fiscal responsbility.

We need to instruct the Community Development Department to provide strict, but fair enforcement of the city codes. It is critical that code enforcement personnel not only educate the citizens concerning our city's codes, but to also provide assistance to citizens so that a violation can be corrected quickly and without financial hardship. Equally as important is that the code enforcement is handled on a consistent basis throughout the city.

Council needs to continue the beautification projects along the major streets in the city. If the city takes pride in their streets and public areas, the citizens will continue to demonstrate the same level of pride in their homes. Besides the beautification projects, it is necessary to repair, maintain, and modernize the city's infrastructure. Residental street resurfacing should continue as rapidly as is financially feasible. It is mandatory that funds be set aside for maintenance and future replacement of the aging storm drain, sewer, and water systems within the city.

And Council must only approve new and/or redevelopment projects that will provide a positive benefit to the city. Projects should reasonably fit on the designated parcel or parcels. A zoning change or variance to city codes should not be allowed so that an oversized project can be built.

Another citical issue involves the area north of Houston and the inability of the school age children to attend schools in La Palma. This has been a problem since the city's incorporation and to date has not been resolved. La Palma is known to have excellent schools and this is an important reason why people want to live in our city.

It is the duty of Council to continue productive communication with the Board of Trustees and staff of the five school districts that serve La Palma. My goal is to achieve a formal agreement with the elementary school districts that will allow the elementary school aged children living north of Houston to have a choice of attending a school within the City of La Palma. Once an agreement between the elementary school districts is completed, then it will be necessary to complete a similar agreement with the high school districts.