Monday, Aug. 27, 2007 | Kelly Bennett‘s story about “Chula Vista Goverment Goes from Boom to Bust” had it exactly right. How could such overspending in the past been approved? That is easy to answer: Our immediate past mayor, Steve Padilla, won his mayor’s seat by having the Police Association go all out to bad-mouth his opponent, which was totally out of line. But Padilla won a narrow victory, so the police were rewarded with the by far the highest salaries in San Diego County, including guaranteed raises every year far exceeding inflation.
Even worse, during the four years that Padilla spent the reserves the city had, the other four council persons supported him, no questions asked. We checked the record. During 2003, only two individual “no” votes were recorded the entire year. During 2005, only one individual “no” vote was recorded the entire year. That is irresponsibility gone wild!
So during those four boom years, the mayor and his supporting council spent Chula Vista into the poor house. Huge deficits every year. Now the citizens pay the price. How sad.