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Health & Fitness

Revenue Oversight Committee?

I read with great interest on the front page of Saturday’s Register-Pajaronian that all of the Revenue Oversight Committee members for the public safety tax measure being proposed by the City of Watsonville were appointed by Councilman Lowell Hurst. I thought this was fairly odd and did some research into just what an Oversight Committee was, their function, legal authority, term of office, membership, etc., Since virtually all California cities use Committees to get tax measures on the ballot, I visited a number of other city websites and discovered a common thread:  

Oversight Committees are generally formed after a ballot measure has passed, not before. This is because there is nothing yet to “oversee.” The City of Stockton for example has each City Council member, including the Mayor nominate one person of their choice to the Committee. Nominations are then approved by a majority vote of the full Council. The Term of Service, or length of time served on the Committee, is usually concurrent with the term of the appointing Council Member. The number of Committee members are also limited to the same number as City Council representatives. In the City of Watsonville we have seven City Council members; therefore there would be seven Oversight Committee members, not 12. Further, to be qualified to serve on the Committee, a person must be at least 18 years of age and not hold an office incompatible with service on the Committee. The Committee may not include any employee or official of the City or any vendor, contractor or consultant of the City and most cities also require that Committee members reside within the City's geographic boundary.

I fully support our police and fire departments and would normally have no second thoughts about voting for a sales tax increase to have them fully funded. But once again, the City of Watsonville’s lack of transparency has reared its ugly little head. After our current City Council agreed to make an inter-fund loan from the Water Enterprise Fund to the General Fund to pay back $4.6 million in redevelopment funds to the State of California, Watsonville taxpayers are now supposed to believe that the funds created by a 9 percent sales tax increase – the highest in Santa Cruz County - will be used entirely to provide additional police and fire personnel, update public safety equipment, as well as facilities and services to enhance youth violence prevention programs. The fact is that a Revenue Oversight Committee, or any other appointed Committee for that matter, has absolutely no way of preventing any City Council from allowing any City Manager to do as he wishes with taxpayers’ hard earned money. No Citizens Oversight Committee decision could supersede the decision of an elected official or city council. Just how gullible do Watsonville City leaders think we are?

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