11-29-10, Al Hofmann Contends that Annual Transfers to the General Fund are Irresponsible

The front page article in the Saturday, November 27th News Press precisely addresses the issue which so many of us have been preaching to the city council for years; do not make the annual transfers from the DWP to the general fund. Not only are these transfers possibly illegal, they certainly violated the trust that the rate payers of Glendale have placed on the city council to assure that sufficient funds were kept in reserve by the DWP to deal with unforeseen problems in the distribution of water in Glendale. The subject pipeline is over 60 years old, and it clearly points out that the millions of dollars, which have been transferred from the DWP to the general fund over the past decade, are critically needed to sustain the infrastructure of an aging public water distribution system.

The city council is quick to minimize the issues brought up by speakers at the council meetings as being lacking in credibility and facts. The facts are that the city is in a dire financial state, but the city council constantly attributes this to unforeseen issues and continues to heap praise on the city manager as being one of the best city managers in the state, as Councilman Weaver stated at the November 23rd city council meeting. Is it not the role of a city manager to submit fiscally responsible proposals to the city council for its consideration and approval? Is it not the role of the members of the city council to scrutinize the city manager's proposals to make certain that they indeed are financially responsible? If these two entities were being good stewards of the public money, the $4,751,340 required to replace the Diederich Reservoir pipeline, would have been available in the DWP reserves. However, the city council has never considered reserves for contingencies when approving the DWP transfers to the general fund year after year. We know of other pipelines that are in need of repair or replacement throughout the city. When are these coming before the city council, and how will they get funded?

The DWP issues, and other untold infrastructure maintenance issues, will continue to require funding, which is currently not available. The city council must come to grips with the fact that they have approved too many staff positions with unjustified salaries, and unsustainable pensions as requested by the current city manager. It is time for this city council to face reality and take actions which will not punish the public.

Albert Hofmann

Resident of Glendale