WHAT ARE THE REAL ISSUES?

By John G. Hoevers

LET'S KEEP PLACENTIA FIRST AND MOVE FORWARD INTO THE FUTURE.

In response to the question of endorsement by the special interest groups, the slated candidates backed by these special interest groups responded that "...it was not an uncommon practice" and "No promises have been made..." It is hard to believe that when critical issues involving these special interests come up before the council, such as contract negotiations, that they can be totally independent and place the citizens first over their benefactors. How will they oppose anything that this special interest group wants after they spent thousand of dollars to promote these candidates? While the candidates claim that they have not promised anything, will they hand out favors in the form of positive council votes? The real issue of this campaign is not the issues of the past, but who is going to run this city; a duly elected council or a special interest group?

Why is this special interest group spending thousands of dollars to defeat me? After all, they will have a majority on the council no matter who is elected. They tried to prevent my candidacy before I even filed papers. The real answer is that they need a majority of four in order to ensure that their interests are safe. One councilmember would be obligated to excuse himself on contract votes and a tie vote does not pass. As the only candidate that is free and independent from the burden of special interest money, I believe that a councilmember must make independent decisions that are in the best interest of the city. A councilmember must place the people of our city first and since the people are the city, they must keep Placentia first. I am the only candidate that can really say that there are no promises made to special interest groups. I have not accepted any special interest money and my campaign is mostly funded by my personal assets.

Placentia now has a number of issues to deal with. The old issues of the past are now behind us and we must move forward. While the OnTrac project is now gone, the city is faced with the challenge to fix the problems that OnTrac was designed to remedy. The problem of increased rail traffic, traffic congestion, train noise and emergency response still must be addressed. Ten years ago when burying the tracks was decided, this was the best solution to remedy the problems. It was the most expensive solution, but also the least evasive solution. Now we must fall back to the alternate solution which will be grade separations involving underpasses and over-passes. These will be necessary in order to eliminate the congestion caused by increased rail traffic. It will be important for the city to minimize the effect these separations will cause on the citizens. We must insure that we do not make the mistakes we made in OnTrac and we must diligently pursue the necessary funding for this separation project.

The Metrolink station in the Redevelopment area is vital to the city's future and I support it. This station will be an attraction to business in the downtown area. This in turn, will help the southern Placentia redevelopment. This station will be handled by the OTCA who has the experience to locate and build these stations.

Viable redevelopment is important to the city's financial health. The redevelopment will help increase property tax and sales tax revenues which will be necessary in order for the city to maintain the level of services it provides. As with all redevelopment plans, it should be funded with private money, developers must be willing to risk their own revenue sources to ensure a successful development. The city's role should be more of a support role which provides for the public infrastructure to the development and rezoning the area to accommodate the uses.

As we redevelop the southern portion of Placentia, we must not forget the commercial areas that are in place throughout the city. Far too long has there been short sighted thinking on the part of the council. Too many viable businesses have moved out of the city only to move across the street into a neighboring city. The result becomes Placentia citizens shopping in neighboring cities and Placentia loses vital sales tax revenue. We must encourage and help existing commercial property owners to upgrade their properties to attract business back into this city. The city must do its part to assist by making the city attractive to business. We must take advantage of the limited number of commercial areas through out the city and must insure that vacant plots of land that are zoned for commercial property remain zoned for commercial use. We must not change these zones for any additional residential development.

Parking is becoming an ever increasing problem throughout the city, mainly in neighborhoods surrounding schools. With the changes in driving laws, more students are driving to school causing parking problems in the neighborhoods. The result is restricted parking which becomes burdensome for the residents. The city must work with the school district and residents to find viable solutions to the increased traffic, traffic control and parking problems around the schools.

As the city moves forward, the use of eminent domain will become an issue. I believe that every effort should be made to properly compensate property owners first. Owners should not suffer financially due to the city's need for their property. Under no circumstances do I believe that eminent domain should be used to transfer property from a private owner to another private owner regardless of the property use. But I also believe that eminent domain has a proper use for public good and it should only be used for vital public projects.

The financial health of the city is a very important issue. I do not subscribe to the gloom and doom picture the other candidates' paint of this city. We are not bankrupt, far from it. The city is on solid financial footing and our budget is balanced. We can do better though. I believe that the city's financial reserves are too low and we should undertake steps to bring the reserves back to a level equal to one year's budget. Only vital city services which directly impact the city should be restored. I believe that any community based service should utilize non-profit community service groups to take over and provide those services. This would be akin to booster clubs that support school groups.

So the questions to ask this election are: Where are we going from here? And, who is going to lead us there?

The voters this November 7th will answer these questions and after reviewing their choices, I believe the citizens will see the real issues and make the right choice to move forward and keep Placentia first.