Lack of Common Sense

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On 30-Aug-2010 I went to another City Council meeting. It seems that the more I learn about how this City is being run and the current people on the City Council, I feel that all of the current City Council members should be thrown out. I would strongly suggest that you watch the videos of the meetings.

EVerify

There was a discussion about Everify and it seemed clear to me that the City Council did not really want to do anything, but that this has become a political issue (due to their lack of action and statements which do not match the facts).

It seemed clear to me that the City Council did not want to do anything about EVerify, but were forced to. One aspect of this which shows a lack of common sense is that it was stated that City contracts require the contractor to hire only workers who are eligible to work in the United States, but when it comes to requiring EVerify to be used to ensure that this is done, suddenly there is a cost involved due to the "need" to audit the results. This cost is used as an excuse as to why they should do nothing, but what are the current audit requirements and costs? I doubt that there are any audit requirements currently and there is really no need to audit the results unless it is suspected that the employer is not hiring legal workers. This shows this excuse is bogus.

City Staff stated that they found 17 out of 400 Cities which use EVerify, but that was from an Internet search. EVerify will not disclose who is using it and it was admitted that it is unknown how many are actually using it, but the 17 was brought up again and again as an excuse as to why not to use it. The claim is that not enough cities are currently using it. This shows that those on City Council are followers, not leaders.

It was also stated by City Council Member Becerra that the Federal Government has failed us with respect to illegal workers. That is a nice statement, but it completely ignores that fact that the City of Simi Valley is failing us with respect to illegal workers by refusing to require use of a tool which helps to reduce the chances that an illegal worker would get a job, namely EVerify.

Also, some of those on the City Council were unprofessional in their responses to the people speaking. It even got to the point where Mayor Miller had to tell Council Member Becerra to stop, several times.

Blinders
Currently, due to political issues, the Farmer's Insurance move is getting attention, but due to this the City Council is talking about waiving Business Tax and allowing sign restrictions to be waived for those within .5 miles from the Farmer's building. The question is why for just that area? What about all other businesses who are having a hard time due to the economic times we are in? All the businesses in Simi Valley should be treated fairly, not just those who have the political spotlight.

Landfill Expansion

The comments regarding the Simi Valley Landfill were interesting. Lou Pandolfi spoke and seemed to be fear mongering with respect to the LNG facility. I did not hear him mention anything about the fueling station for Simi Valley transit and all the dangers, especially considering that it closer to other businesses than the landfill is. He also claimed that it was going to be a "megadump", which based on what I have seen, it not true.

There was also talk of the increased traffic, but what about the increased traffic due to the Simi Valley Transit CNG facility that the Moorpark buses will be using. I guess that traffic is not to be considered.

One of the most shocking statements was made by Mayor Miller when he said that it is time to start talking to WM about the landfill expansion. The Council wants to claim that they are business friendly, but if that was really true then the City would have been taling to WM at the very start of the process of the landfill expansion.

I was also shocked when I read some of the EIR information on the landfill expansion. It seems that the EIR process is designed to go against any expansion as it is claimed that creating more jobs is a negative thing due to increased housing and recreation requirements. It seems that there the concept that people in the area, who already live here, might get a job there which means that they would either have a job or no longer have to commute. If the workers are hired from outside the area and those workers commute here, then there is no need for houses or recreation either. I would think that more jobs would be a good thing, but not from those in government.

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Written: 08-Dec-2010

Updated: 08-Dec-2010

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