01-04-09, Article in the Vanguard Weekly News Regarding “Creative borrowing catches up with California cities”

On December 31, 2008, an article by William Heisel, “Creative borrowing catches up with California cities”, was published in the Los Angeles Times.

Vanguard sent this response to William Heisel: “An excellent article on debt subtitled ‘living beyond your means’. A major issue that hopefully you will address in future articles is the largesse that the cities give to their employees. In Beverly Hills the assistant fire chief was paid $347,000 in 2007. The highest paid employee in Glendale was a fire battalion chief at $250,000. Of the 2000 Glendale city employees 523 were in the $100K Club. In past elections employee unions gave $80,000 to elected officials as campaign contributions so they could enjoy continued pay raises. It is a matter of voter education something we strive to do. Our City Manager Jim Starbird insists it is good to use debt financing, $332,000,000 worth since he became the City Manager. Glendale spent $200,000,000 more than its revenues over the past 6 years. Our unrestricted reserves fell to less than $100,000,000. Keep the spotlight on this issue.”

Heisel‘s response: “Thanks for the great, fact-packed note. We have not done a good salary check in a while. Sounds like we're overdue. I hope you have a great New Year.”