Dear San Diego City Council,
Boy, that Kroll report was pretty cutting, particularly when Levitt said that city government (I think that includes you) still does not seem to be ready to accept the depth of the problem. Also, that whole discussion about forfeiting long-term financial health for short-term political expedience had to have been pretty uncomfortable.
Unless I missed something, he seems to think you need to change your ways.
Along those lines, would it be possible for us to re-visit your action on the imposition of a “Living Wage?” You voted on this a year or so ago, but because that year’s budget couldn’t absorb it, you pushed the effective date forward to a “better” year. So now this new requirement is going to go into effect next year (’08).
I don’t think next year’s budget is going to be the least bit “better.” In fact, it will be even worse than this year’s. For every dollar that you voluntarily increase costs, you are going to have to cut something somewhere.
It sure would show Mr. Levitt a thing or two if you were to step up and publicly acknowledge that this was a case of short-term political expedience taking precedence over long-term financial health. I’ll bet he’d be surprised to see that you really can change your ways.
Go for it.
– April Boling