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Orange County, CA November 7, 2006 Election
Smart Voter

Dear Friends

By Greg Sowards

Candidate for Council Member; City of Placentia

This information is provided by the candidate
I am asking for your vote for Placentia City Council in the upcoming November election. I have been a resident of this community for over 20 years and have always felt close ties to my neighbors and a secure feeling that our civic leaders had our best interests at heart. Not until almost four years ago, when the City Council threatened a Request For Proposal to disband our Police Department, did it occur to me that something was seriously wrong in City Hall.
From that point on, myself and others began searching thousands of pages of public records and learned that our city has been placed in grave financial danger, regardless of what some of our elected officials say, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. How did this happen?
We found that in 1999, Placentia was a solvent city and had completely recovered from the County bankruptcy. It had a little over $5 million in debt and millions in reserves, great city services and little, if any, Public Works backlog.
Now, a few short years later, Placentia is deeply in debt and has zero reserves. Records show the only available cash lies in the Redevelopment Agency, untouchable by the general fund.
How did this happen? Essentially, it was caused by improper fiscal management, no citizen oversight, and a manipulated and misled City Council. Unfortunately, only Mayor Pro Tem Connie Underhill and Councilman Russ Rice have acknowledged the true problems and began voting on and discussing the issues with a renewed insight. With no real "checks and balances" in City Hall, "SPENDING" has been the name of the game. Consultants were greatly enriched while city projects, plans, departments and services were diminished, deleted or disabled. Placentia is still on the brink of financial insolvency!
How do we fix these problems? How do we restore Placentia to a Pleasant Place we all love and enjoy? How do we restore our financial health? The answer is electing a new majority on City Council that will spend time, not your money, fixing our problems!

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ca/or Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 17, 2006 20:32
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