11/16/10 update: Surprisingly, in his Council Comments at last night’s City Council meeting, Council Member Troy Edgar, who was endorsed by Sylvia’s LATA, said he “supported” the exact same “tax incrase” that Sylvia slammed Mejia for in three different flyers prior to this year’s election, as reported in a comment posted last night!! (Los Alamitos 10/29/2010)Another day’s mail, another deceptive flyer against the people’s Trust, Truth, and Transparency team of Warren Kusumoto, Gerri Graham-Mejia, & Brad Sheridan.
If you’re having trouble deciding which team is funded by the special interests who are destroying our precious little town, and which is supported by the citizens, just compare the number of expensive, professional, full color card stock fliers mailed by the DDT team of Dean, Dean, & Troy & their supporters and the number from Warren, Gerri, & Brad & their supporters!
So here’s today’s blatant lies, & the truth, direct from the agenda for that 2/4/08 City Council Meeting referred to in the hit piece:
LIE: “Gerri Graham-Mejia has supported increasing property tax bills in Los Alamitos by 10%. When a proposal came forward to raise Property Tax bills in Los Alamitos by 10%, Gerri Graham-Mejia ‘supported the increase.’ . . . 2/4/08”
TRUTH: There was no such proposal on the agenda that night, or any other night during Gerri’s term!
- As you probably know, Prop 13 makes it extremely difficult to raise property taxes, requiring support by 2/3 of the voters. The City Council couldn’t raise our property taxes if they wanted to!
- That’s why the high priced lawyer who prepared the flyer talked about raising your “property tax bill.” I’m no lawyer, but I was an English teacher, and I can barely figure out what that even means. As best as I can figure out, the way to raise your “property tax bill” 10% would be to put it on a ladder 10 feet above the ground, then lift it up another foot.
- In any case, there were no agenda items on your “property tax bill” on the 2/4/08 agenda. Here’s what was on the agenda, under 9, “Discussion items:
C. Requested Information Regarding the Approved Rate Increase to the Sanitation Rates and Director Stipend (Administration)
This item allows the Mayor, in his role as Orange County Sanitation District Director, to advise the City Council of the recently approved rate increase in sanitation fees, and stipend for the Directors.Recommendation: City Council receive and file this report
Yup, that’s it. Gerri voted to receive and file a report on the Orange County Sanitation District increasing Sanitation Rates to cover in order to cover 3 things (quoting from the O.C.S.D.’s FAQ page on the rate increase):
- Funding for the Groundwater Replenishment System, the world’s largest water reclamation plant which helps convert 70 million gallons into drinking water every day. This $490 million project joint funded with the Orange County Water District and serves as a hedge against water shortages and population growth.
- Compliance with the Federal court consent decree requiring the District to move to full secondary treatment levels, as required by the Clean Water Act, by December 2012. The goal of this initiative is to minimize the bacteria and solids dispersed out into the ocean.
- Various rehabilitation projects to replace the District’s aging infrastructure, including the headworks replacement at Plant No. 2, a $260 million project.
Additionally, these increases in the next few years will allow the District to avoid additional borrowing and debt service payments which would result in even higher rates in the future.
I suspect that, during the discussion of the report on the fee increase, Gerri said she “supported the increase” to insure our future supply of water, to allow the OCSD to stop dumping sewage into the ocean that wasn’t fully treated, and to ultimately save the taxpayers money.
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10 p.m. Update: I now have a copy of the minutes, and my suspicion above was correct. During the discussion of the 10% rate increase by the OCSD, according to the minutes:
Mayor Pro Tem Mejia stated water treatment was essential, and supported the rate increase to ensure water quality. Mr. Tiner stated the increase was necessary to cover the cost of full secondary water treatment and GWRS.
Nothing aabout any our “property tax bill.” What Mejia supported, ultimately, was insuring water quality!
Good for her! And shame on those who oppose her!
If that’s not a deceptive flyer, I really can’t imagine what is.
If you support this sort of slander against ordinary citizens trying to do their best for our community, vote for more poison on Tuesday by voting Team DDT, Dean, Dean, & Troy.
If you oppose this sort of smear and deception, vote for the three ordinary citizens who have campaigned on Truth, Trust, and Transparency.
“We Get Better with Warren, Gerri, & Brad,” but Dean, Dean, & Troy & their supporters are poisoning our small town!
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As always, your comments are welcome, pro, con, or neutral, as long as they are expressed diplomatically using “family friendly” language appropriate to our small town.
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Again another slander piece of smut mail that’s fictitious. How many Consolidated trash can’s do I need to fill with this waste of money, smut mail. Mr. Briggeman will need to create new landfill for these bloated lies. I’m sure Mr. Briggeman would accommodate, since he would stoop to any degree of lowness to buy any citizen if they are willing.
Majority Council members how sad your interest in money for yourself has prevailed to over seeing the city’s well fare. This is why you were voted in the first place as our representives, in our best interest, or as we thought.
May I say your new Council theme song is “For the Love of Money by the O Jays.” Maybe LATV will start to play it? Very fitting don’t you think?
Is anyone really surprised Sylvia is protesting so loudly. Wasn’t Sylvia on the Los Alamitos City Council when Briggeman received the 1st and 2nd no-bid trash contracts. It’s no secret Briggeman gave gifts and money to the councilmembers in the cities he has contracted with. I’m not surprise this Smuck Sylvia is friends with the trash contractor/consultant Briggeman. Birds of a feather flock together. Is this the classic case of Follow-The-Money?
It’s always follow the money. and in this case it reads like a good detective story.
I’m sure when all the press is done it will be a made for TV movie
Gee, I wonder who will play the key people?
Any thoughts?
Everyone should read the complaint when it goes up.
JM lets us know when it up please.
Damn, too many things happening too damn fast. losaltruth.com is running behind because I had to work on losalfacts.com.
I apologize to those that have become used to 24 hour turnaround from an updated losaltruth.com. Updates should be done on this story within the next 12 hours.
Chuckie Sylvia has put out another hit piece and this time he included Warren Kusumoto.
This is the funniest of them all. It says that Warren was forced to resign from the traffic commission after being exposed for serious ethical lapses. hahahahahahaaaaaaaaa, good one Chuckie.
Now THE TRUTH….he resigned because he applied for the planning commission. He was interviewed and the four stooges gave the position to Wendy Grose. hahahahaaaaaaaa good one stooges!!
Warren is an engineer and Grose is a nurse!
The Brad and Gerri innuendo on the flyer are deceitful twisted half truths, without explanation.
The Warren lie was just plain old slander. Since Chuckie Sylvia has filed lawsuit in the past and both he and Carol have asked why is no one suing, I think Warren may want to think about suing for slander. This piece is a blatant bold faced lie.