The name of the Restaurant is Bella's Pizza, but when you step through the doors and enter the establishment you immediately realize that Bella's is not your typical pizza place. The smells of the gourmet pizzas grab you, as does the homestyle Italian decor.
The owner is originally from Chicago, with a connection to New York as a chef. His pizza restaurant in Murrieta is a beloved location for romantic dinners, family nights out, and the opportunity to experience gourmet pizza you will find no place else.
Normally, Bella's is closed on Monday nights, but tonight the doors were open for the supporters of the Douglas V. Gibbs for Murrieta City Council campaign. I brought a gift for the V.I.P.s to thank them for their support. The gift was a three window frame with images of the Constitution, a pocket Constitution, and Old Glory.
A couple new faces were present, and one of them came to me after the event to tell me that he had heard I was someone he needed to hear speak, and now that he had heard me before this small crowd of supporters, he wished to help me get my voice out to more listeners. I thanked him, and told him that I appreciate any help he can offer.
So, what did we talk about at this event?
The primary platform of my candidacy is three initiatives that are concerned with term limits, and limiting the salaries of the City Council, and city administrative officials. Initiative C would impose a term limit of no more than two consecutive terms. The beauty of this particular term limit is that if the elected official is truly one that should have the opportunity to remain in office, after the one term off, they can run again, and serve two more consecutive terms, if the voters should elect them again. As for limiting salaries, we have to remember that though the Founding Fathers agreed that we should be compensated for our service through government office, the compensation should not be so high that it becomes a motivator. In addition to the base salary, and perks like insurance and a retirement plan, the part time city council members have an expenditure fund that last year totaled $255,000. That's $51,000 per year per council member. And what is such an expenditure fund for? Could it have been the money the council used for a trip to a convention in Las Vegas, where they took their families too, and then charged it to the tax payers?
As for the administrative officials, our City Manager is considered to be the CEO of the city. This would make him the most powerful man in Murrieta. But our City Manager was not elected. He was appointed. He claims to be in office for love of the city, but lives in Vista - meaning he doesn't even live in our county, much less our city. Recent budget reports are showing he is now making $241,000 per year. Is that excessive? Are Murrieta's officials capable of sending our city in the same direction as the City of Bell?
The initiatives will put into place a guard against such possibilities.
In Murrieta, we need to reduce spending, reduce our dependency on State and Federal funds, and eliminate the practice of zero based budgeting. Fees need to be decreased, and the process for moving through the gauntlet of planning, development, and Building and Safety needs to be streamlined. Plan check needs to be brought in-house, and the practice of letting environmentalists blue line properties needs to be stopped. The confiscation of property, as is being done right now in Los Alamos Hills, has to stop. The plans for multi-use units also needs to be stopped. Multi-use units is Murrieta's attempt to satisfy the State's requirement for Murrieta to provide low-income housing. Low income housing attracts the kinds of citizens that will slow down our city, and create a greater burden by also bringing to our city an increase in crime, which will increase our spending. We have been ranked as one of the safest cities in California for a reason, and I am not about to allow us to give that up because we have decided to bend over backward for the State of California, and their ridiculous demands.
It is time to break away from our dependency on redevelopment funds, and our unsustainable spending on programs like Cadillac health care, and pensions.
We can either be like every other city in Southern California, or we can stand apart and truly be the Gem of the Valley. The principles of limited government is what we need to put into place - not the same old politics, the same old "Murrieta won't, and another city would, so we lost that business too," and the same old allegiance to bureaucracy, State and County demands, and environmental strong arm tactics.
If you would like to contribute to my campaign by knocking on doors, or helping distribute flyers, or putting up signs, Email me at vote4doug at yahoo dot com. If you would like to contribute to the campaign monetarily, go to www.douglasvgibbs.com, and there you may contribute by Pay Pal, or credit card.
Thank You.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
No comments:
Post a Comment