Why Gamble on Woods Cove?

2
803

Editor,

At last Tuesday’s (9/16) council meeting, members agreed to risk $600,000 of taxpayer money to study undergrounding of utilities in the Woods Cove neighborhood of Laguna Beach. The council acknowledges it won’t know for about three years if the funds risked will be repaid.

Since three council members are up for election, it would be interesting for the candidates to explain why they support (or not) the policy that 60 percent of a neighborhood can bully 40 percent of their neighbors into a lien on their property that they may not know about, agree with or can’t afford. According to Steve May, the city’s public works director, the lien could range between $10,000 and $40,000 per property.

I would also like to hear why the candidates think it’s a good idea to risk such a large amount of citywide taxpayer money $600,000 on a single neighborhood that by a future weighted vote may choose not to pay the money back.

J.T. Price, Laguna Beach

Share this:

2 COMMENTS

  1. Its interesting that you call 60/40 bullying. In this county 60/40 is called a clear majority. In a presidential election 60/40 is called a landslide.

  2. Don,

    Thanks for making this point. In your response, you refer to a democratic process where registered voters respond to an issue by secret ballot. Everyone affected gets a chance to vote. In the Woods Cove case proponents got 199 residents to sign a petition (perhaps some coerced or bullied). With the 199 signatures in hand they gerrymandered a boundary map to include 335 properties, the 199 being 60% and the rest being 40%. Somehow being shanghaied does not meet the tenets of the democratic process.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here