Reach Deep, California

Welcome to California, the sanctuary state for everyone!

Everyone? Thanks to “progressive” policies, any woman from another state, where abortion is illegal, is welcome to come to California where luckless taxpayers will foot the bill for some or all of the medical procedure. Ka-ching!

Any homeless individual – excuse me, unhoused person – is welcome to pitch a tent in the park or, better yet, on the beach and wait in line, like the motely crew in Venice, for a million dollar room with a view. Ka-ching!

No papers? No problem. That was the consensus of Democratic lawmakers, including Assemblyman Chris Holden, Assemblywoman Laura Friedman and Senator Anthony Portantino, when they voted for Assembly Bill 1766, dubbed “California IDs For All.”

On Sept. 23, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law. With the stroke of a pen, he turned two million illegal immigrants – pardon me, unauthorized migrants – into California residents. Their official status enables them to access health care, obtain public benefits, open a bank account or qualify for in-state tuition.

Ka-ching!

Les Hammer
Pasadena

Questions Evaluation of City Manager

Last year, when the 5% salary increase was approved for the city manager at the council session, there was no mention of any performance objectives met. Shouldn’t the evaluation be held in the open, transparently, and with objective measures of performance clearly presented?

If the role of city government is to maintain or improve the quality of life of the residents of a city, shouldn’t there be objective measures of performance? Shouldn’t there be an evaluation of the quality of life of the residents of Glendale and a strategic plan to measure the progress towards meeting deficiencies?

The last full quality of life report was conducted in 2001. No formal strategic plan has been completed since about 2008. No comprehensive formal reports on the state of the infrastructure have been presented to the public that I can remember. (My requests for one earlier this year and the reply by the deputy city manager indicated that no such report currently exists.) The California Auditor’s report on the financial condition of cities placed Glendale at the bottom 20% of California cities.

So my question is about accountability. Shouldn’t the performance of a city manager be based on objective truths, measurable outcomes, Key Performance Indicators, the financial state of the city and the quality of life of its residents? Shouldn’t the city council wait for those reports before evaluating the city manager and consider a performance bonus or pay increase? Shouldn’t we have transparency and have those reports presented to the public as a guideline for evaluating both the city manager and the state of the city?

The city experienced a 6.8% increase in property crime in the last 12 months. Is the safety and policing result a valid measure of performance? Should not the city manager and any new police chief be annually responsible for presenting the results and goals for the safety of the city as it pertains to crime?

It is my hope that the members of the city council establish a more exacting way of evaluating the city’s top executives and, hopefully, that accountability extends down into the organizational chart that all department heads and managers be expected to meet KPIs and help keep the city financially prudent with an improved quality of life for the city’s residents.

Herb Molano
Glendale