According to Inglewood Mayor James Butts taxpayers should adopt the policy of American writer and poet Edgar Allen Poe, who is famously attributed to the saying, “believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see”.
If in fact this is the case why taxpayers and voters alike should be able to trust what their elected officials say or do when the truth can simply be distorted to accommodate the narrative as needed.
I say this wholeheartedly because I took the liberty of examining the City’s midyear budget report in preparation for the midyear budget summary presentation on June 4, and what is being presented to the general public, despite the mayor’s objections, should be rightfully questioned.
The fact of the matter is yesterday’s presentation was unsatisfactory.
What was of interest was that the mayor attempted to discredit your blog in response to your article that only highlighted what the City presented in its own prepared budget summary report.
Is the mayor now saying we can’t trust the Budget Summary report? Let’s begin with the elephant in the room.
According to the City’s own budget summary, the budget manager indicated the City is expected to face a $35 million dollar revenue shortfall this fiscal year, largely credited to a carryover of $21.4 million in expenditures from prior year encumbrances.
I mean with a $35 million dollar projected shortfall, you would think would warrant a reasonable and rational explanation from either Budget Manager Keaunna Buchanon or Interim City Manager Mark Weinberg, but to my dismay the anticipated shortfall, nor the City’s measures to adequately address the shortfall wasn’t adequately addressed.
It was only revealed that a significant portion of any shortfall would be covered by anticipated bond proceeds that normally should be used to cover pension obligations after questions and concerns were raised by your blog.
Diverting pension obligation funds to cover budget shortfalls doesn’t sound like sound financial management.
Additionally describing bond proceeds as revenue, when taxpayers are ultimately responsible for paying back these funds with interest, is criminally deceptive at best and should be called out as such. In fact, experts who spoke with Jason Henry at the Daily Breeze told him the city’s actions were ‘wholly inappropriate’ and was borderline ‘potentially illegal’.
How Inglewood sidestepped voters when it took on millions in debt to cover up a deficit, then gave raises for executives
How Inglewood sidestepped voters when it took on millions in debt to cover up a deficit, then gave raises for executives
City defends the move, but experts say diverting money from pension obligation bonds is ‘wholly inappropriate,’ ‘potentially illegal’
The fact of the matter is, to put it plain and simple, the less the public questions Inglewood’s finances the better, because the City, for quite a while, has adopted and executed a series of questionable financial transactions that gives the City a better than “rosy” financial disposition that doesn’t simply add up.
These measures include the use of controversial issuance and refinancing of pension obligation bonds, where the proceeds from these said transactions would ideally be used to pay down the City’s pension obligation but in reality most of these proceeds have been diverted to the general fund and even suspiciously described as “revenue”.
In fact this practice and its legality has longed been called into question, as Jason Henry of the Daily Breeze questioned the actions of the Mayor and Council as the elected body without voters approval issued a $36 million dollar pension bond in 2019, and instead of using these proceeds to pay down it pension obligations under the bond they issued in 2017, dumped most of these proceeds in the general funds and then doled out raises and performance bonuses to the City’s management and executive staff.
Coincidentally, there is a pattern that the City has used issuing new bonds as a campaign tool of sorts as the actions typically happen around election season.
City Hall even boasted about Inglewood’s newfound fiscal strength in a press release and Mayor James Butts pointed to the surplus resulting from the bond money as evidence of his successful leadership during his reelection campaign in 2018.
How Inglewood sidestepped voters when it took on millions in debt to cover up a deficit, then gave raises for executives
This action along with other abuses and misappropriation of taxpayers funds such as an audit by U.S. Housing and Urban development in 2016, in which they concluded the City mismanaged at least $800,000 funds that were intended for the City’s lowest income residents, forcing the City to payback at least $600,000.
The following year, former city manager Artie Fields was forced to use almost 60% of the city’s $19 million in cash reserves to fill a $17 million budget gap in 2017 caused at least in part by increasing city salaries.
Why should Inglewood HOMEOWNERS be concerned about the new debt the mayor and council are creating for them? They’ll find the answer when their property tax bills become so unmanageable, particularly for those on fixed incomes, who may be forced to make the tough decision to sell their property for fear they can’t afford the increasing debt.
Property owners will foot the bill for $109 million of debt — including $54 million in interest — over the next three decades.
How Inglewood sidestepped voters when it took on millions in debt to cover up a deficit, then gave raises for executives
Is the city of Inglewood robbing Peter to pay Paul?
The only logical conclusion is the City is not better off than it was before the mayor took office in 2012 because he has added more DEBT to the backs of taxpayers than previous administrations to a community that is is roughly 51% Latino and 41% black, with a median household income of $44,377, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Like Treasurer Wanda Brown said, we’ll all be dead and gone before the City is out of debt.
2UrbanGirls it’s hard to suggest otherwise, but it appears that these calculated and possibly illegal actions aren’t the mechanization’s of the mayor alone, but a much broader scheme to fleece taxpayers until the often promised but yet unrealized fortunes of the NFL and NBA start raining down like manna from heaven and we should be able to pose questions for the sake of transparency rather than be met with indifference and insults as the mayor provided on June 4.
Marvin McCoy is a recurring opinion writer for 2UrbanGirls.com.
1 Comment
Thank you to Marvin McCoy for breaking this down for those who wonder where the money goes.
Thank you to 2 urban girls for continuing to be an investigative reporter rather than a programmed parrot.
By now all should understand without debate or question that Truth Telling is not among Mayor Butts character qualities.
Sadly those who we have elected to act in our best interest have acted only with their own interest at heart.
The bully tactics of attacking any who ask questions are those of a very insecure being and his gang of go alongs. Those who permit the unkindness are like the schoolyard children who gather round and shout encouragement when the bully attacks. Adults should intervene when Bully behaviour is taking alongside. Those who do not intervene do not deserve one ounce of respect!!
Not living within the budget is the hallmark signature of this administration. Irresponsible spending with party hats should be the graphic of their decisions.
Sadly 2 of our council are among the reason our schools are under state/county control and being bulldozed!!
Accountability failures is their curse on our children’s futures !!!
This collective group is acting like the parent who shirks financial, and educational responsibility all year long leaving the other parent to struggle to pay for daily living necessoties only to have the party time parent appear for birthdays with over the top gifts and fanfare which he/she then wants as credit against the unpaid mandated child support payments.
Party time whether Juneteenth or Hispanic Heritage should not be costing taxpayers a raid on the pension funds !!
Irresponsibility seems to the characteristic which each of our elected tries to out justify the other in acting out.
In November let’s vote as if those on the ballot are reaching into your bank account.. because that is where the money they vote to spend does really come from.
Ask yourself why your employees have champagne and caviar while you need to boil more beans or pasta every year to survive.