“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.” Ronald Reagan
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An Open Letter to the Cedar Hills Mayor & Council,
As you know, we are an ad hoc group of concerned Cedar Hills Citizens for Responsible Government (CHCRG). One of our main objectives is to discover and share with CH residents important information about their government — not otherwise provided by the City.
The single most significant financial issue the City faces is the multi-million-dollar golf course. As you know (but the public doesn’t) the golf course has lost over $550,000 average every year, with last year’s losses of $719,000 — being the worst year ever.
The costs of related expenditures surrounding the golf clubhouse also continue to grow. But the City has yet to communicate a straight-forward, easy-to-understand presentation of these critically important and basic financial facts to its residents. Why? How can the city claim to be “open, honest and transparent” without sharing this information? Numerous requests of you have been made. Selective transparency is no transparency at all.
IT’S TIME for the City to correct the record with full-disclosure of the year-by-year golf course losses immediately. We respectfully point out that this can and should be done on the front page of the October Newsletter. There is no more important financial city issue that affects the CH taxpayer than this golf course. FULL-Financial disclosure would allow CH taxpayers to be fully informed prior to their voting in November.
The deadline for all submissions for the October Newsletter is 4:00 p.m. tomorrow. This should allow plenty of time to open and review the final report of the Golf Course Finance Advisory Committee, after their “year-long search” for the financial facts. (Note: None of the financial facts changed from the City’s own Financial records, or CHCRG reporting of those numbers, within in the year-long research. See the incomplete report at http://www.cedarhills.org/node/1796 )
The City Newsletter is THE source of city related information — received by every household. Please, simply post the complete and comprehensive heretofore unreported golf course losses (taxpayer subsidies) on the front page of the October City Newsletter. It’s pretty short and simple. The importance of this issue, justifies the removing items of lesser importance, if necessary.
Since the 2011 election, many of us from Cedar Hills Citizens for Responsible Government had hoped that when the financial realities were discovered that the new leadership would realize their ascent to power occurred under false pretenses and misinformation. Hence, we hoped leadership would take advantage of the opportunities to correct the many misunderstandings, which have understandably contibuted to years of divisiveness. (see “Money Trap in Cedar Hills” – The Daily Herald – November 6, 2011 – http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/cedar-hills/article_74123cc0-c0e7-5820-81a4-038d88083c5e.html )
Truth is the antidote for contention. The Golf Finance Committee’s newly discovered truth should have been included in the most recent “State of The City” report. But, unfortunately the continued withholding and the spinning of information was demonstrated in the full-color, glossy, expensive “State of The City” report. This made it clear that our hope for transparency was in vain, and that nothing much has really changed since the six major resignations (the Mayor, City Manager, City Recorder, Building Inspector, CFO, and Golf Course Manager), including the former Mayor’s reported jail time and restitution for bank fraud, and the continued waste in legal fees in an attempt to withhold public records from the public.
Nevertheless we invite you to take advantage of the wonderful leadership opportunity before you, to clear the record and promote peace before the election, starting with the front page of the October Newsletter.
Most Sincerely,
Cedar Hills Citizens for Responsible Government and our many friends
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