Fillmore’s City Manager is determined by the council majority to be a hard worker.

[The Gazette’s city reporter is absent]

MEETING SUMMARY
Last night’s city council should be remembered more for its public comment than for approval the city budget items.

Fillmore resident Joan Archer addressed the council, saying that her questions from the previous week’s special meeting were not answered. She reiterated her questions regarding the need for specific information to determine whether the releasing of city employees and hiring of temporary and contract replacements was economically feasible. The council majority had quickly come to the defense of City Manager Yvonne Quiring, stating that she was a very hard-working person. Archer reminded council that she certainly believed Ms. Quiring worked very hard at her job, but that was not the question she had asked.

Former resident and mayor Patti Walker read a prepared statement which condemned the Fillmore Gazette, Councilman Steve Conaway, former mayor Evaristo Barajas, former city manager Roy Payne, former city engineer Bert Rapp, and all former council members who had anything to do with city projects and budgets for the past 10 years or so. Mismanagement was the theme of her remarks. Mismanagement, according to Walker, is what has brought Fillmore to the brink of bankruptcy.

Central to Ms. Walker’s comments was the question “Where did all the city money go?” According to Walker it went largely into a water treatment plant that was too expensive, and other public projects which the city could not afford. Coupled with a housing market collapse, the loss of Redevelopment money, and dwindling tax receipts (particularly the Owens & Minor tax lawsuit expense) she claimed previous councils had overspent. She also accused the Gazette of inaccurate reporting.

Councilman Conaway, who was away on vacation, could not respond. The other four council members side with Walker.

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