Council Candidate Looks for Attention

2010 City Council candidate, Barry Levinson, sent this to Fullerton's Future blog hoping to get some attention. Barry is not quite as conservative as he would like you to think. At two Republican-leaning forums last year, Barry said he believed abortion was OK if the baby was going to be disabled. Barry's lack of respect for human life caused him to loose key endorsements. But here he is looking for attention on something he has a good grasp on, money.

Since the November 2010 elections, I have read two articles
on the Friends for Fullerton’s Future site that require further discussion. The
first one stated that the rescinding of the utility tax increases of 1994 has
saved the taxpayers approximately 150 million dollars since 1994 to the present
time. Hats off to Council member Bruce Whitaker and all the people who helped
make that rescission a reality. The fact that we were able to elect him to the
council indicates that we are making some progress. But this is not a time to
sit back and savor our victory locally as well as nationally.

We cannot
afford any complacency since another even larger albatross is now facing
the fine citizens of Fullerton, namely the unfunded liabilities for public
pensions and retiree medical costs.

The second article deals with the
reporting by CALPERS that the Fullerton police and fire pension obligations are
now facing a 127 million dollar unfunded liability as of June 30, 2009. In other
words, we the taxpayers of Fullerton are currently on the hook for this
astronomical
amount.

If you add the unfunded liability of the
miscelleous (does Barry mean miscellaneous??) employees as well as the
City’s unfunded retiree health care benefits, it skyrockets up to and probably
well over the 200 million dollar mark! Twice the amount saved from the utility
tax rescission.

I suggest that the citizens of Fullerton have to be just
as irate now as when we were facing the massive utility tax increase in 1994.
The one common thread between these two instances is our city council. We must
make it clear that we the people are watching very closely the actions taken by
our council as they prepare to negotiate with all of the city’s unions! We must
speak out loud and clear and demand that the council vote for significant cuts
in these benefits coupled with significant employee contribution increases.

I suggest that all fellow readers of this blog attend the February
1st Council Meeting to speak to the council during its Open Agenda Segment to
insist that major employee cost savings must be implemented across the board
this year. We must demand no less and be ready to take further
action if a
majority of the council defies the people one more time.

Although Barry makes a good point and demonstrates his background with money, he is lacking core conservative values as noted above. As conservatives, we need leadership that understands and respects the value of human life. We need leaders who have profound faith in God and respect of His children no matter their perfection.

The Fullerton Sentinel respects Barry Levinson's activism and sincere concern for the City's finances. However, Fullerton's conservatives are much more than simple-minded fiscal conservative Libertarians; We are children of God who seek His guidance through the leadership of our fellow man.