Paying Attention to Local Government

The government itself, which is on the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it…It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. - Henry David Thoreau, On Civil Disobedience

You may or may not realize that our city is one of the last “little beach towns” in coastal California. The greenbelt, as you can see in the photo for the blog entry, was a triumph of residents to preserve green space. In the last few years, there has been tremendous tumult over issues like two-story vs. three-story (Measure Z finally settled that) and more recently over the DWP property.

It is incumbent upon our citizens to make known their feelings. The City Staff have spent hours and hours with the City Council and the public on our budget hearings for this fiscal year. There were some big items which came under discussion:

• Funding of $100,000 for trees on Main Street
• Consideration of the Tennis Center operations
• Consideration of the jail operations
• Lowering costs of employees via negotiations
• City manager position—future and funding
• Freezing all vehicle purchases
• Considering undergrounding the power lines on Seal Beach Blvd south of PCH

I think it is worth acknowledging the hard effort of all of those involved: staff, council and those of the public who are the “die hards.” Those individuals who regularly come to council, stay informed of the issues and speak their minds, they deserve a note of appreciation.

Go ahead and check out the Council agenda. You can always find it online.  Here is Monday’s agenda.

You may even want to show up and speak your mind as Thoreau suggests.