Monday, April 2, 2007 | The city needs new revenue streams. The city is losing SDPD officers at a record pace. We still have many of the same council people in office who got us into this mess. They hold a majority on the council still. Jim Madaffer thinks we are underfunded. I say as long as we still have the DROP program, as long as we still pay retirees over 100 percent of their highest pay, there should be no more new taxes or fees. Most city workers don’t get that, but as long as the long term high paid folks are there, we are paying too much. Mayor Sanders was voted in to make the cuts to save us from bankruptcy. He seems to be doing it, but at a slower rate then most of the voters would want. We still need to consolidate city government (downsize), that is what a responsible corporation would have done. The CEO left but we still have the same board of directors. They should have all resigned or have been voted out of office. If that had happened we would not still be doing this slow dance around the real problem.
Too much is being paid for too large of retirements. That one expense is sucking the budget dry. Without it we could pay the SDPD officers all they deserve. Cut the excess retirements and raise the pay. It is one or the other.