Weaver exposed by economic tide

Anyone looking for justification to promote term limits would only need to read Councilman Dave Weaver remarks covered in the Glendale News-Press (“Council speakers not rooted in reality”, Sept. 8). He depicts the weekly public questions and assertions at the council meetings as freewheeling attacks on council members. Imagine that!

Weaver, now on his fourth term, can no longer stand the heat that members of the public, like myself, bring to the council to hold them accountable for decisions they’ve made that have cost the city, its taxpayers, ratepayers and stakeholders dearly in treasure and quality of life.

The objections that Weaver calls mean-spirited deal with the commitments the city council made on the pay and pension promises to firefighters, police and management employees that now consume a huge portion of the city’s general fund. The early retirements and huge pensions many ex-employees get have forced the city to transfers millions of dollars every year from the GWP utility funds to prop up the overspending; worse still, the claims by the council detractors is that the city accomplished those transfers by ignoring the state constitution, state laws, and the city’s own charter.

The list of excesses brought before the elected officials is huge: Police employee lawsuits against the city that have cost millions of dollars. Inadequate funding of essential infrastructure like water mains, power plants, roads, parkland. There has been increased debt since Weaver took office, the roads are unsafe for pedestrians, there is reckless driving on city streets, insufficient funding for youth programs and increased costs for the use of city services, unlawful overcharges of utility rates to the schools and much more.

The economic slowdown has exposed those cities with poor fiscal management. Someone said that when the tide goes down, we’ll know who was wearing a bathing suit. Well, the tide went down, and the results are severe budget deficits. Weaver and the other council members have been exposed, and it is not a pretty sight. No wonder he’d prefer his critics to just go away. Is democracy tough? You betcha!

Herbert Molano
Tujunga