2010 – 2011 Comlink Board
Unless you’ve been in a coma or under a rock somewhere you are well aware of the fiscal crisis facing our community. Municipalities are being asked to do more with less and tough decisions need to be made as to where budget cuts should take place. According to our acting City Manager, Paul Walters, the City of Santa Ana is even considering outsourcing a number of services, including fire dispatch, the public library and even the Santa Ana Zoo.
Of course the last area we should cut is public safety (even though we do need to make sure our cops and firemen aren’t getting sweetheart deals), but there are areas of the budget that should be cut in order to save during this fiscal crisis. One of those area’s city officials should cut immediately is the funding for neighborhood associations and Comlink.
In the city of Los Angeles where they are facing monumental budget shortfalls, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the city council made huge cuts to the funding of the city’s 89 “neighborhood councils”. In February of 2009, Villaraigosa merged that city’s version of Santa Ana’s Community Development Agency Housing and Neighborhood Development Division, entitled the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, into another city agency. The merger saved an estimated $2 million for Los Angeles.
In Santa Ana, according to figures provided to me by the City Manager’s office, we could save over $716,000 by eliminating the public funding of neighborhood associations. Taxpayers are spending almost $90,ooo alone on postage and printing to promote the neighborhood associations and their umbrella group Comlink. I don’t see how we can justify such expenditures for organizations that represent such a small percentage of our residents.
To make matters worse, Com Link and the Neighborhood Associations don’t even represent the people of Santa Ana. They pretend to but at most they represent less than 1% of our city’s residents.
Check out the partisan registration of the current Com Link Board Members:
The 69th Assembly district includes most of Santa Ana and parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Orange. It traditionally has been a Democratic seat, but that hasn’t discouraged Republican candidate Robert Hammond from taking another shot at it. Hammond lost in the 2010 general election to the incumbent Solorio, who took 65 percent of the vote.
Robert Hammond, a Santa Ana resident, was at the Yost Theater on Thursday evening, attending a meeting of the city’s Communication Linkage Forum, an umbrella group for neighborhood associations.
That’s right. Republican Assembly candidate Bob Hammond knew where to go to find other Republicans…
I thought Republicans were supposed to be all about privatizing and outsourcing – so why are THESE Republicans continuing to exploit the people of the City of Santa Ana – robbing us to pay for their meetings? And that is not all – the Neighborhood Associations don’t pay for their permits – when they have Wine Walks and Concerts they get their permits for free. Do you think that families who hold events like quinceañeras get such favors? And the Neighborhood Associations also get to use the City’s bandstand for free too.
I am all for outsourcing too – and it is time to outsource and privatize Com Link and the Santa Ana Neighborhood Associations. No other city in Orange County subsidizes their Neighborhood Associations – we are $30 million dollars in debt and yet for some damn reason we are spending almost a million dollars a year on these Republican yahoos – in a city dominated by Democrats and Decline to State voters. That needs to stop now!
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2010 – 2011 Comlink Board?
How many Republicans are on that picture?
That is the current picture on the com link website. The officers I noted in my post are listed on that same website.
You are for outsourcing, so why do you want yo continue to subsidize these Republicans?
Your argument that Reeps run the show so tear it down is so ...... "you" admin.
Why don't you try becoming part of the group and advocate for change rather than blowing it up?
Silly Junior. I don't want to blow it up, I just want to stop these people from ripping us off. No more welfare for Com Link!
The current city council has been in place for more than 5 years. They are as accountable as Ream and they vote to approve all budgets. They are as much to blame for the city's problems as anyone
You neglect to mention that the current Council majority has also cleaned house - getting rid if Ream and his lieutenants.
"Council majority has also cleaned house – getting rid if Ream and his lieutenants"..... Hmmmm
Installing COP Walters and his lieutenants?
We call such cleaning "stepping from a mud into a poodle" in the Bohemia.
Admin, somehow you must understand that Walters is there for one year to spike his pension..... and that is all.
Pulido is willing participant in that scandal.
Imagine cities contribution, to pension fund, for this fraud.
"You are for outsourcing, so why do you want yo continue to subsidize these Republicans?"..... Hmmmm
Because I believe that they are Leftist Liberal Democrats rather than Republicans.
Just because you have recently joint Democrats you do not have to shill for them.
Seems to me that com-link and the NA’s are by definition “Out Sourced” .
The are all run by local residents for the local residents benefits.
The accounting costs are book keeping entries required by the cities “Cost Accounting” for services.
Even if the Com-link and NA’s ceased to exist, those costs would still be there, just assigned to a difference account.
You can do a weighted average comparison between the value added by all the free work and services the city gets and benefits com-link and the NA’s Vs its cost TO the weighted average comparison of the two weekend parties a year with parades to celebrate foreign cultures.
We ran the numbers - the NAs and Com Link are costing us over $700,000 a year. We don't have the money to be subsidizing these groups and no other city in the county does this. If people want to run these groups on their own, great - but no more city money and no more city involvement, period.
There is a hidden aspect of being attached to city via the financing which is appearance of the power.
No private group will look as powerful as is com-link without cities umbilical cord.
Not true. Ream was happy to spend money on Com Link and the NAs because it allowed him to control them. If they were privately run they might actually matter.
Truth is the City is happy with ComLink and the NAs - City officials and electeds like the opportunity to spread their propaganda to the masses.
That is why Ream compromised these organizations. But the Council is finally beginning to understand that these organizations have become a breeding ground for the Usual Suspects. How many times have these people sued the City in recent years, or showed up at Council meetings to attack the Council? Believe me, it has become obvious that Com Link and the NAs are now just madrasas for the Usual Suspects. Time to cut them loose.
Like I said - change from within if you don't like it. They serve as valuable communication links between the City and the residents.
No they don't. They are a link to the Usual Suspects. These groups don't represent the people in general.
I've lived in the Heninger Park neighborhood for the last 18 months and have recently become interested in the NA meetings. I think ours is the neighborhood that time (or at least people with influence) forgot... We don't have any bells and whistles, but some good has come of meeting together on a monthly basis. Our meetings are essentially a forum for residents to get together, air their grievances and work with a city employee to access services.
For example, we recently met a city staffer and discussed some dangerous pot holes on a few of our streets. After the meeting, the staffer (whose name I can't recall) was instrumental in helping us get these holes filled very quickly.
I agree with Admin that we could probably do these things on our own, but it is nice to have a link to the city to help us navigate our way through the bureaucracy. As a relatively new homeowner, working with the city seems intimidating. Also, for those residents who aren't fluent in English, working with the city can be equally as intimidating.
I don't know that the NAs should be completely cut off, but I absolutely agree that there are excesses and shortcuts that could be eliminated to save some of that $700k. For example, the ability to use the bandstand and bypass permits that Admin mentioned above. I stopped by a neighboring NA's summer concert in July and, although it seemed like fun, in times like these if the residents want to have a party like that, they should fund it on their own without a subsidy from the city.
Also, the makeup of that ComLink board is fairly scary. I wonder if there's any chance someone who doesn't have an 'R' behind their name could have a seat at that table?
Paul - thank you for a very thoughtful response. I have served on the board of one NA and was the newsletter editor for my current NA, for about a year. I also served twice on the Com Link board. I agree that there is some value to these organizations, but they can do it on their own. They don't need city welfare. And going independent will give them more power - and more control.
The Com Link board most certainly does NOT represent the people of this city. It is a scary bunch indeed.