register |  login
› WESTMINSTER
Loading Ad
Visit Other Hubs:
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Tower
RECENT STORIES

City council using funds inappropriately
Contributed by: Jane Fancher on 2/1/2008

Well, I went to the Westminster Council Meeting on Monday, January 28th to object to the City Council's excess use of utility funds to renovate the Municipal Service Center (MSC) on 88th (6777 W. 88th Ave.). Only one other person, Americus Kalmar, came to speak up against it.

They voted unanimously to pass 8H and have the Utility Fund pay $8,668,463 and the General Fund (who occupies more space at the MSC than the Utility Fund) pay $2,536,000. The actual utilization of the MSC is 39% utilities and 61% General Fund entities. This splits out as $4,369,741 Utilities and $6,834,722 General Fund.

The city came up with a very inventive, creative and inappropriate way to make the Utilities pay the lion's share of the renovation of the MSC because the General Fund doesn't have the money. When this was discussed originally, the General Fund was going to borrow the money from the Utility Fund, not just take it! I objected then because the city doesn't have a good record of paying back money borrowed from the Utility Fund.

The council not only took $4 million more than they should have from the Utility Fund for the MSC, it isn't the first time they have used Utility Fund money when the General Fund didn't have any. WEDA owes the Utility Fund $3.6 million dollars from 1999. In 2005 they used $1 million dollars to help pay for the City Park Maintenance Facility, and there are several other instances of using Utility Fund dollars inappropriately and not paying them back.

I have heard lots of people complaining about how high our utility rates are (and they are going to keep going up until at least 2011). When the council voted to raise our water, sewer, concrete, wastewater fees, meter reading fees and charge us to maintain the street lights, that extra money from water and sewer was supposed to go to the Utility Capitol Fund to pay for the repair and replacement of our aging water, sewer and other utility facilities, so that we didn't have a disaster that we couldn't pay for. When I asked people why they didn't come to the council meeting they said, "Why? They never listen to us. Anyway, their mind is made up before we ever hear about it."

Councillor Chris Dittman said the city is in great shape financially. Then why do they need to keep taking money from the Utility Fund? They say they haven't had to lay off any employees, yet there are many jobs that have been vacated and have not been filled, so other employees have to take up the slack.

They continually brag that the city has a good bond rating because they are in great financial shape, but all that means is that they city has never missed a bond payment or paid late. How many people do you know that pay their bills on time but are on the edge of financial disaster? It's the same with the City of Westminster.

Your approval of the extension of the open space tax (they said was to buy open space more cheaply now) was bonded and instead of $20 million dollars they owe $41 million dollars. That doubles the cost of whatever they do with that money, and they still have to start paying the bond money back with interest, but they have no additional funds to do so because the open space sales tax is still only 1/4%.

If the city continues to take money from the Utility Fund, when a real disaster comes along we won't have the money to pay for it. Then guess what? You will get to pay even more because they will have to borrow the money.

They also continue to neglect to inform the citizens of future plans for the city until they are finalized and we have no "real" say in what happens. What's going to happen with the FasTracks stops and the transit oriented development at the FasTracks stops? They have the plans but we aren't privy to them. How much is it going to cost you when they remodel the Westminster Mall ? How much more debt can the city take on? None of their projects have yet met revenue expectations.

We are in a recession and it's going to get worse. The city needs to cut back, not spend as if there was no problem. Take the example of the Belmar Shopping Center in Lakewood. The City of Lakewood put millions of dollars into that project and has yet to recover all it's money. Lakewood received more tax revenue when only Foley's and King Soopers was open than they are receiving now. Is Westminster going to be in that same upside down situation when they redevelop the Westminster Mall? They should be looking for a developer that will redevelop the mall because it is a good business decision, not on how many millions of dollars Westminster is going to give them in "Economic Development" money.

I hope that the City of Westminster and its citizens wake up soon before it is too late.


SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story



Current Rating
Based on 1 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

John Eisel

Denver , COLORADO

John Eisel has posted 2865 stories and 12 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. John Eisel's average story rating is 4.39.
SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY
STORY RSS FEEDS
WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?
Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

Loading Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

This YourHub.com community is produced by The Denver Newspaper Agency
Web Development and Channel Analytics provided by Indigio

terms of use //  privacy policy
the staff //  advertise //  help & faq
buy photos