League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Los Angeles County, CA April 8, 2008 Election
	Owen Newcomer Answers Questions Candidate for Member, City Council; City of Whittier

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles County, an Inter-League Organization, and constituent Local Leagues as available in communities holding elections on April 8, 2008 and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. The City of Whittier did a Needs Assessment and Visioning for a new Public Library over 10 years ago, yet there are no definite plans to build a badly needed new facility to serve our eager residents. How should the City raise or appropriate funding to make this vital new Library a reality?

The library is a top priority for me, right after the police station and Nelles. And, I think we can afford to build a new library.

A new library would benefit our children, our seniors and promote business around the new library. I think it is highly desirable goal.

We could use housing credits that we have earned in place of spending $6 million on housing subsidies.

We could help the project by building a parking lot that would serve the library and the Uptown existing businesses.

We could explore New Market Tax Credits that both reduce the cost to the developer and thus the city of the construction and spread the payments for the construction over 30 years, similar to your home mortgage.

We could dedicate new sources of city revenue to make the payments under the New Market Tax Credit.

A vital part of building a new library is the fund raising by the Library Foundation. Its efforts will make the difference. I applaud the Foundation for there long-term support.

There are other options for funding the library, and I believe a library would benefit all of Whittier.

2. The City of Whittier has been a very willing buyer of the Nelles property, but the State of California has become a very reluctant seller. Should the City of Whittier work with the State in exploring how both can best benefit in planning for use of the Nelles property, including a possible California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) medical or re-entry facility? Explain.

No continued state use of Nelles is acceptable. Whittier needs the old Nelles prison property to be developed for housing and retail businesses.

We are actively working to help the state meet its need for new prison sites--somewhere else--while getting the state to sell Nelles to a private developer. We have engaged a real estate firm to seek out other, better, sites for the state to build new facilities. We are working with our state representatives to persuade the court appointed overseer that other sites the state already owns are better suited for a new prison than Whittier.

At our last City Council meeting, we hired a legal team to represent Whittier's interests.

I am confident that we will prevail, and Nelles will be sold for development that truly benefits Whittier.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidate answers are presented as submitted except that direct or indirect reference to opponents is not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: April 3, 2008 04:53
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