November 2nd you will be able to vote for TWO candidates

Question #6: Should the city financially assist the completio of the business park? Why/why not? Do you agree or disagree with the financial and contractual decisions made concerning the new wastewater plant?

Patti Walker: The City provided assistance by lending money to drill and cap Well #9. The Council voted to approve the formation of a Community Facility District (CFD) for the sale of bonds to cover the infrastructure. In addition, the Council approved requested changes in the building conditions to align them to the requirements to the Floodway section of the Fillmore Municipal Code .
In my opinion it would be wasteful of staff resources to further study and discuss borrowing of a substantial sum of money from the CA I-Bank. The loan would have been paid back from the CFD, but the General Fund was the collateral. The evening this item was debated, the Council moved to foreclose on property that had defaulted on its CFD causing a loss of revenue to the City. Also, the applicant had given no thought to repayment of a requested loan from the Redevelopment Agency, nor had there been discussion with other property owners to garner support for the loans.
The cost for the wastewater plant is enormous. Too costly for our community. Regardless, we will have to live with that decision for too many years. It’s true that it’s easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission, but when making decisions that have such a huge financial impact on the entire city, the community should have been asked to support the project prior to making the financial obligation on the plant. If that had been accomplished, the City may have seen buy-in by the community.

Brian Sipes: I am a strong advocate of collaboration. I also believe in the free market system. But, government can only do so much. And, the free market system will determine if the business park is viable. I am hopeful and I fully support the concept of a business park. This community needs jobs, services and goods. While some assistance can be justified, the City has already gone above and beyond in assistance for the business park.
The City used taxpayer funds to purchase land for the sewer plant from the developers for $2.6 million. The City also chose to locate the sewer plant at this site to anchor the business park and assist the developers in paying for the levee, roads and other infrastructure. Other locations already owned by the City may have been more cost effective for the ratepayers but would not have helped the business park. In addition, the City Council loaned $750,000 to drill Well #9, which was required before development could proceed.
Being a fiscal conservative, I disagreed with the decision by our prior Council to finance our sewer plant with municipal bonds instead of state loans with half the interest cost. As far as the contractual decisions, if I were on the Council at that time, I would have proposed that the contract not be approved and signed before the taxpayers could vote on rates. I would have proposed a re-bid which is what Piru and Santa Paula did. Those are actions that could have helped Fillmore.