Editor,
I am writing with what I think is a viable way to stop some of the madness at city hall. Our “public servants” working on our dime at city hall harass and abuse the good citizens of our city every time we want to improve our homes or property. Our applications generate fees and often increased tax bases for this very city. Rather than thanking us and helping us, they erect ever more complex barriers and enact more putrid regulations to impede our efforts. Furthermore, they are arrogant and literally above reproach because their union contract protects them from termination. Again, all on our dime.
When a homeowner embarks on the legendarily loathsome process of building, it is with hat in hand and tail between legs we are taught to behave. After all, if you anger the high priests of city hall, “they’ll make it harder than it needs to be.”
Now, what would happen if all the people who wanted to improve their homes just stopped for three years? That’s right. A three-year, self-imposed moratorium on building in Laguna. Sorry hopeful housewives, but that new kitchen will have to wait. But it will be worth it. The citizen will again be empowered and government will work for us again, rather than us bending to them.
How would that happen, you ask? Because builders, architects, and tradesmen who are starving for work will descend on city hall and let their voices be heard. Those arrogant and capricious lemmings on DRB will lose their purpose. They will have no platform to harangue the public, and we can regain control of a process meant to serve us and perhaps see a saner city hall.
Mike Rybah, Laguna Beach
