It Is Time To Stop The Madness In Our City!
Our city's constant mismanagement of expenditures on consultants and more consultants....and more consultants.................and more consultants.
Well, the taxpayers of this city are tired beyond fatigue, of having our city councilmembers vote to spend more public funds on more consultants who never do their job with the original contractual agreements. Take for example the recent debacle as described in the San Diego Union Tribune by Jennifer Vigil:
www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/pension/20070502-9999-7m2expert.htmlCouncil OKs spending increase for pension expert -
May 2, 2007 - SAN DIEGO – Divided San Diego City Council members approved a $400,000 boost in spending yesterday for an expert hired by Mayor Jerry Sanders, though they chided Sanders and City Attorney Michael Aguirre for dramatically exceeding the original value of the deal.
The contract, with a pension specialist, was to be worth a little more than $200,000, but San Diego's chief financial officer, Jay Goldstone, told the council the city owes $618,000. Goldstone also sought more money to continue working with the expert.
What is the problem?Our elected officials seem to forget that they are pubic servants. When we serve the public, we don't raid the bank account of the hard working taxpayers who put their money into the hands of the city council to spend on the betterment of our city. The endless paying out of millions upon millions of dollars to "consultants" who act more like prostitutes then they do public servants is a political and ethical abomination.
The solution begins with one simple premise. City Councilmembers must have strong ethical components to a strong moral foundation. Refusing to address one's own lack of morality, is at the heart of why our current city council continues to make decisions that rip off the hard working citizens of San Diego.
Good financial decisions are the result of strong moral convictions. Refusing to address the immorality in our city, as this city council has refused to do, is at the very core of why the constant financial missteps are a daily occurrence. You cannot leave out truth in one's own life and expect truth to prevail in one's public decisionmaking.
Take for example in City Council District 3: Toni Atkins, has been the city council representative for over six years. What was her previous job before she came to work at the city council office of Christine Kehoe and eventually became a city councilwoman herself? She managed abortion clinics. That was her job! And look at the constant corruption scandals that have surrounded Councilwoman Atkins since she has been on the city council. Her name has repeatedly been associated with pension scandal decisions. Councilwoman Atkins also took campaign contributions from those who were associated with the Cheetah's Bribery Scandal that cost three councilmembers their careers and one, sadly, died before going to trial.
It gets worse with this woman. Take for example, the gay pride scandal in 2005. When it was discovered that multiple sex offenders were working for the San Diego Gay Pride organization, including one pedophile who was hired to work as a clown in the children's garden, Councilwoman Atkins was encouraging families to still participate in the event:
without any of the sex offenders having been removed from their jobs at that point!While Councilwoman Atkins has been helping to build up the downtown redevelopment industry, the streets and businesses in her own district have been neglected over and over again. Crime is rampant in her district, yet Atkins continues to parade herself at city hall as an effective downtown leader. When members of her own district expressed outrage over the development of a massive building project on University Ave., Atkins sided with redevelopers and approved the project. Simply put, Councilwoman Atkins is out of touch with the vast majority of voters and hard working taxpayers in her district. And the current crop of Democratic replacement candidates for the District 3 race are all good friends of Atkins. More of the same foolish and troubling waste of the voters' time and energy!
We voters must step out and break from the current political destruction that is eroding District 3. Our District must become more than just a factory to turn out one-issue candidates. Voters need more than a city councilmember whose main platform is promoting homosexuality and lesbianism. We cannot continue to allow our council district to make that issue the main reason we elect people. Our district is breaking down because certain political powerbrokers are only concerned with the promotion of homosexuality. Everything else is a side dish for them.
I am going to fight for our people! We will no longer stand by and allow a few elite, money-hungry, power-grabbing, political hacks to control our district and our destinies.
Watch Out! James Hartline, our district's watchman on the wall, is rising up to contend for his people in District 3. I am the people's man! And I will never stop fighting for all of our district voters to have a place at city hall. James will make sure that kids are always protected. District 3 is home to hundreds of registered pedophiles and dangerous sex offenders. Moms and Dads must be alerted as to where these terrible individuals are located so that their kids are always safe. I have been at the forefront in our city and district during the last four years to stop pedophiles from harming our kids.
Our district's moms must always have the help they need during their pregnancies. The idea that our city council continues to spend millions of dollars on "consultants" while medical clinics cannot provide necessary medical care to uninsured pregnant mothers is a personification of moral bankruptcy.
There should not be one person fighting with HIV who is left homeless on the streets of Hillcrest. Hillcrest is home to many of the medical clinics that treat HIV/AIDS patients. That is why many HIV patients are attracted to the area. Yet, during Councilwoman Atkins' watch, Hillcrest has seen a steady increase of homeless HIV-infected men and women living on the streets. Many are alcoholics and drug addicts. Many buy their illegal drugs and alcohol in Hillcrest and North Park. As the district's councilman, I will work to make sure that there is new and affordable housing for every man, woman and child who is fighting HIV and AIDS. I will not tolerate leaving those who are sick to face a fearful future of dying on the streets of Hillcrest.
Liquor Stores in our district that continue to sell liquor to homeless drunks, who then go on to assault our citizens, must be held accountable! Our district's citizens deserve clean and safe streets. Those that are contributing to public drunkeness, rapes and robberies, will not be tolerated. Liquor stores must pay for the public drunkeness they are creating. All liquor stores should abide by a covenent with the city to stop selling individual bottles of beer to homeless drunks. A city wide order for liquor stores to sell only six packs of beer will stop most of the homeless drunks from purchasing alcohol. This will create an immediate effect on the public drunkeness problem in our district and city. In turn, this will lessen the burden on our police officers who must spend a tremendous amount of their time contending with drunks rather than protecting our society from more serious criminals.
Our district must become a place where new, small businesses are both welcomed and prospered. We need the jobs for our people. There should never be undue tax burdens and skyrocketing rent placed upon the hopes and dreams of new business owners. Our district council representative must partner with a concept of encouraging business investment in the communities, rather than businesses moving out into the mega-shopping malls. Many storefronts in Hillcrest have been shuttered for years. Skyrocketing rents must not be the reason businesses move out of the area. Greed must be addressed. We cannot continue to be a culture that negates compassion for our younger generation who have the hope of starting a small business, only to see that hope shattered because of the greed of property owners.
Renters should not live with the constant fear that they will be forced into homelessness because of skyrocketing rents. Gas prices should not force moms to leave their kids at home because they cannot afford transportation. It is time that landlords and oil companies take a fresh approach to how they treat our people. We must reintroduce the concept of mercy and compassion when it comes to how overburdened families are treated in our city.
I know what it is like to be in poverty. I know what it is like to suffer. I have great empathy with those who are suffering in our culture. The problem with most elected officials is they don't understand the people who live in their respective districts. In reality, they have little, if anything, in common with the voters. I intend to change all of that! I fight for kids and moms and dads who want a better life for their families. I understand your difficulties for I have faced those same difficulties myself. And I have overcome those difficulties. Our citizens are looking for overcomers with fresh ideas and news ideals.
We don't need more millionaires at city hall. We don't need more greedy councilmembers at city hall. We don't need more corruption and bureaucratic madness at city hall. We don't need more anti-christian bigotry at city hall. What we need is a man who stands with the people because he is an overcomer. I am that man. I am James Hartline and I will not forget the people that have elected me to fight for them at city hall. Together we will overcome everything that is fighting against us to have a say in our own future!
