By: John Dyson | Original Article at patch.com
I remember one fine morning last November feeling like Christmas had arrived early. The local Beaumont city election results were official. THREE new city councilmen were elected to office replacing three incumbents. WOW! I held out hope that at least one of the new candidates could win – but three! This was going to be the start of the great change for the better in Beaumont city politics.
Well, six months have passed already and change is certainly occurring. What significant happenings have taken place?
-Questionable contract with consulting insider The Steiner Group exposed
-Long-time financial auditing firm dismissed
-Long-time city legal counsel is ousted
-City hall and other involved parties are raided by the FBI and the Riverside DA
-Long-time chief accountant up and quits
-The audited city financial statements are rejected by Council
-An independent audit is performed and finds the city is balancing the books on the back of restricted Mello-Roos tax funds
-A new city attorney is hired
While several of the above events are not necessarily positive, at least they represent action, and I think that this is a good thing.
So, why do I say that Beaumont voters lose out again? Like I stated, we replaced three incumbent councilmen with new blood last November. Unfortunately two of the new council members evidently share a similar blood type as those who were defeated. Both Mark Orozco and Mike Lara share a history of public employment. What does this mean? Well for one: pro-union, two: pro-tax and three: pro-status quo.
At the May 5 Council meeting a recurring topic reared its ugly head again – more CFD taxes. Councilman White made a passionate case for abandoning this unfair double-property-tax scheme and to instead explore other methods of financing infrastructure for the city. Orozco countered that all new residents owe it to the Beaumont natives to pay our share in order to mitigate the inconveniences we bring to town with us. I am not sure whether Mark was always pro-double-property tax or if maybe he was recently persuaded by Kapanicas’ CFDs ARE GOOD PowerPoint slide show. Whatever the case, Mark is for perpetuating the CFD Ponzi scheme, at least while he is in office (can we say One n Done?). Mark appears jealous of Councilman White stealing the limelight at Council meetings. He has taken on the posture of ‘if Lloyd’s for it, I’m against it’. So much for working together for a better Beaumont.
Councilman Lara on the other hand was hand-picked by Beaumont city staff to replace the noisy, inconvenient member Castaldo. Mike was sponsored by the local political PAC controlled by home builders and public employee unions. He was a shoe-in for election. Mike owes his loyalty to these supporters and to no surprise this is how he votes. We could have brought Brian DeForge back to Council for another sure YES vote just as well.
Barring a re-call of Orozco and Lara, we will be forced to suffer another 3-4 years of more-of-the-same from Council. You win again Allen. Please do hurry and max out that CalPers golden parachute and have a fine retirement. The sooner, the better.