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Will Golden Hill Residents Have to Pay for Their Now-Defunct Maintenance Assessment District?
Why isn't the City Council scheduled to discuss the Golden Hill MAD during next week's council meetings? It's not as though they've had no notice of this issue. The legal case to overthrow this corrupt scheme has been going on for more than three years, and the Superior Court ruled that the MAD no longer exists, as a matter of law, on February 9th - more than five weeks ago. This is further evidence, along with its crooked court appeals, that the City has no intention of discontinuing its collection of MAD funds from Golden Hill residents. It is simply more of the City's deliberate delaying tactics, to ensure that they get one final cash injection from our April property tax payments. Note that the City has given the CDC 30 days from their March 20th contract termination date to return all (unspent) funds. I smell a City-sanctioned spending spree coming on! Todd Gloria, the MAD's Schemer in Chief, already announced confidently and publically that we're not likely to see all of our money returned because some of it has been spent, and he clearly has no interest in ensuring that more of our good money isn't thrown at the CDC after the bad. The Golden Hill MAD was dual taxation, crony capitalism, gross government waste, fraud, and a naked end run around Proposition 13 - all rolled into one. The City Councilors who illegally imposed this scam on Golden Hill residents should be unceremoniously unseated, prosecuted, sanctioned to personally refund all funds - spent or not - and barred from ever holding public office again. At what point, following their election to represent us, did they feel that it was OK to rule us, and spread our wealth, instead? San Diegans and Californians beware - there are many more MADs throughout the San Diego County, and throughout California. If they were truly for the good of our communities, they wouldn't be attached to our property tax bills, preventing us from protesting them without risking the loss of our homes. If anyone tries to form a MAD within your community - fight it like the cancer that it is, and kill it dead!— March 17, 2012 9:06 p.m.
Judgment Finalized In Legal Battle Over Golden Hill Maintenance Assessment District
It's no wonder that people today don't trust our government - at any level. This MAD was simply the city fraudulently imposing additional taxes on property owners – blatantly flouting Proposition 13 - to provide services that are already covered by our property taxes. Property owners were having to pay not once, but twice, for civic services, only to have their money usurped for other things. The MAD tax money confiscated from Golden Hill property owners was nicely serving the Greater Golden Hill Community Development Corporation - for marketing itself, and for God knows what else, given that the organization appeared to be totally unaccountable to anyone. Cronyism? Incompetency? Corruption? All three? You bet! May those who perpetrated this outrage be shown for the crooks that they are, and pay dearly in their standing within this community, so that they can never again be elected to rule us, rather than represent us!— February 10, 2012 10:54 a.m.
The After-MAD in Golden Hill
Councilmember Todd Gloria said, himself, of the city: "We are deficient in some of the base line city services, let alone higher level of services..." So, Councilman, fix the organizational problems and the ever-growing bloat within the city. That is your job! Don't ask Golden Hill property owners to pony up more good money for you to throw after bad. With our property taxes, we are already paying for basic maintenance work to be done throughout Golden Hill. Instead of simply doing the work that the city was paid to, it kept part of the MAD funds - just because it could - and created yet another unnecessary layer of bloat by bringing the CDC on board - an obvious "jobs for the boys" sop to someone's pals. The CDC's mismanagement of the MAD funds is well known and documented - spending large amounts of the funding on their own marketing, including nearly $5,000 for producing a kicky logo, and even more on flyers and billboards promoting themselves. None of that benefitted Golden Hill in the least, and it was NOT the use intended for those funds! The CDC arbitrarily hiked the amount to be collected, in direct contradiction of the budget approved in the Engineer’s Report. They brazenly ousted the Golden Hill property owners who were ELECTED by the community to serve on the MAD Oversight Committee, and replaced them with their own APPOINTED committee, which, of course, didn’t hold them accountable for anything - a classic "bait and switch" maneuver! And, to ensure their own perpetual job security, they splurged on unwanted, unnecessary, and frivolous beautification gestures which created yet further on-going maintenance that they could charge for in perpetuity. The CDC is the proverbial self-licking ice cream cone! Finally, the Golden Hill MAD's unethical attachment to our property tax bills further shows it for what it is: a naked end-run around Proposition 13 and the law. Get your own house in order, and get to work - efficiently and effectively. Don't even think of starting up a new MAD - Golden Hill is well aware of this boondoggle. We didn't stand for it the first time, and we certainly won't again!— October 24, 2011 1:53 p.m.
Spread the Wealth
"The amount approved by the voters for annual expenditures is $488,590. City staff will review the draft budget (of $732,746) before delivering it to the city council in June." Why is the City considering this budget at all, when the official, approved expenditure is being flagrantly exceeded? Surely the City has a basic duty to its taxpayers to serve as a watchdog, and to enforce city contracts honestly and ethically. Moreover, the City certainly SHOULD NOT PARTICIPATE in taxpayers being wilfully defrauded and stolen from. Why else would the City need to review a budget before presenting it to the city council, except to verify that it is legal, fair, and appropriate? Shame on the City of San Diego - it's making Chicago look like a city of choirboys! Corruption has taken over every level of our government, and the public officials who are running the city of San Diego are the types that we must vote out of our lives for good, along with this vile MAD!!!— May 4, 2010 10:50 a.m.