Mod: I have been doing some digging around trying to figure out who exactly is responsible for Sierra Madre's mountains of debt. And by that we're talking about whoever signed the Foothill Village up for CalPERS and the 2003 Water Bonds. Both of which, when combined, are drowning City Hall in a vast sea of red ink. Hindsight is 20/20 and all, but you still have to wonder how some elected officials could have been quite that stupid.
Establishing the blame for Sierra Madre's millions of dollars in water bond debt, much of it accumulated through paying only the interest due for fifteen long and apparently stone cold blind years, was fairly easy. I filed a PRA with Sierra Madre's remarkably transparent City Manager and he sent me the actual bond documents themselves.
Here are the guilty parties:
Case closed. Prepare to begin launching the old cabbage and rotten tomatoes.
However, the origin of Sierra Madre's involvement with CalPERS has proven to be much more difficult to establish. Again I sent in a PRA to Sierra Madre's City Hall and again a bounty of useful information was sent my way. My problem now is how exactly to interpret it.
There have been some commenting here who have claimed the exact same City Council that drowned Sierra Madre's Water Enterprise in bond debt are equally responsible for the municipal employee retirement fandango that ate the City of Sierra Madre. And as much as I would enjoy saddling those same folks with the blame for all of this town's financial disasters, it probably wouldn't be accurate. There is little evidence establishing that right now.
Besides, responsibility for all of that water bond debt should be burden enough for those guys. Let's not downplay the immensity of that one.
All said, would you believe that the year the CalPERS debacle began here could very well be 1962? Here is a document Gabe Engeland sent me that may very well establish this as fact.
I am not familiar with that particular City Council, though I have little doubt there are some here who will remember those folks. Nor am I certain this is really the end of the story. I am sure there have been amendments and changes to CalPERS along the way that have exacerbated the situation here.
I will continue to inform you of anything I find out.
sierramadretattler.blogspot.com