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| Who will save the Library this time? |
Well, OK. Maybe not. The very same individuals who said that Measure UUT was essential to saving the Library are now claiming that unless the property it stands upon is sold to a developer for millions, the building itself razed to make way for a condo project, and all of those books and historical horseshoe nails are stashed away over in the YAC, bibliophiles the city over are just going to have to somehow make do without.
Funny how things work out here sometimes. Nothing is ever quite as advertised.
Tomorrow evening the City Council will once again be tying that long suffering damsel in distress to the railroad tracks. It truly is deja vu all over again. Here is how so fell a deed is described in a finely crafted City Staff report that you can access in its entirety by clicking here.
"Saving the Library" has become a biennial election custom in Sierra Madre. The proverbial bloody shirt that gets waved around in the air every time City Hall needs more money or, in this particular case, doesn't want you to take any money away.
Of course, the city could mix it up a little. Just to keep things interesting. Instead of that now tiresome song and dance routine about killing off the Library, how about this year the city threatens to stop paying CalPERS instead? Right? That would at least be interesting.
Unfortunately, City Hall doesn't do interesting much.
I personally would not be in favor of doing away with Sierra Madre's utility user taxes, at least not in their entirety. Sierra Madre is carrying tens of millions of dollars in bond and CalPERS debt, and if utility taxes were taken away entirely the city would likely fall into receivership. With the entire mess likely being placed into the merciless hands of Los Angeles County.
Good luck preserving anything from greedy developers then.
But leveling with the citizens about this would require the City Council to admit that Sierra Madre really does have some serious debt issues. Something that would be tantamount to confessing it actually was City Hall all along that gave everything away to its employee unions, along with those bond holding banks in New York.
So instead of risking that kind of embarrassment the city would prefer telling you the same old tired fairy tale about the Library. Which apparently they are going to do again this year.
They really do think you're kind of clueless, you know.
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