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I gave my little speechlette to Orange City Council tonight.
I even made the CityClerk happy with the hard copy of it and an email tonight of it, so she won't have to type it all into the minutes. dwl
Here is the text of it...
<span style="font-weight: bold">I am %%%%%%% %%%%%%% and I live at #-#-# %%%%%%%%% Avenue. Thank you, members of City Council, for permitting me to address you this evening. I'd like to address two issues tonight.
First... Property revaluation. It's the only way to make the tax burden more equitable based upon current property value conditions. The last time property values were assessed – 8 years ago – the market was significantly overvaluing residential properties. This resulted in an unfair distribution of taxes between commercial and residential properties in the City. Currently, residential properties have come down significantly since then. The relative value of single family homes versus other forms of residential properties has shifted. If we are going to keep struggling homeowners in Orange, it is only fair that we do a revaluation to reflect current market conditions. The cost of such a revaluation, if spread over several years, is about a dollar a month per household, and will probably result in a substantial tax saving for a significant number of Orange homeowners – especially those in older homes. As the owner of an older home in Orange, with a substantial tax burden, but who prefers not to go through the complexity and cost of filing a tax appeal, which, if successful, would merely move the tax burden to my neighbors, I ask City Council to do the only right and fair thing – and vote in favor of a property revaluation in Orange, which would treat all property owners equally.
Secondly... Last winter, the streets were dangerous – and many were all but impassible – after snowfall. The problem got worse and worse each time there was an additional snowfall and new snow covered hard-packed old snow and frozen slush and ice underneath. A lot of the narrower two-lane streets were reduced to one lane of traffic. Cars were parked entire car-widths away from the curb, in the middle of the streets, because the streets hadn't been plowed properly – the entire street width from side to side, and people couldn't park their cars any closer to the curb than they did. Many streets were impassible. Even wider streets – like mine (Highland Avenue up near Berkeley Ave) were so narrowed by lack of plowing the entire width of the street that two cars could barely pass each other without scraping paint.
The problem was that – for whatever reasons – the city plows did not plow our streets properly, the entire street width; instead they plowed two plow blades' widths along the middle of the streets and that was it. The unplowed snow froze hard, and nothing could scrape up the ice. More snow came down, and the problem got worse. Each time it snowed, the unplowed regions on the sides grew wider and wider, and the plowed areas in the center of the streets got narrower.
I understand that at least part of the problem was lack of manpower; Dept of Public Works had lost men to layoffs. Mayor Hawkins suggested outsourcing the snow plowing, as a cost-effective measure against the problem. And I understand that – for whatever reasons – City Council did not choose to outsource – even though the City had enough money in it's budget, and, as a result of that choice, we citizens of Orange were forced to live with an extremely dangerous situation. I would not like to see this repeated this winter!
It is my understanding that it is still the most cost-effective measure to outsource the snowplowing for the entire City this winter, and I beg City Council to do the right thing this year, and appropriately put it up for bids to outsource the snowplowing, so that our streets and our citizens will be safe, and the plowing done in a timely fashion.
Thank you very much for your time.</span>
Thanks to my jcom friends for their helpful suggestions!
.
I even made the CityClerk happy with the hard copy of it and an email tonight of it, so she won't have to type it all into the minutes. dwl
Here is the text of it...
<span style="font-weight: bold">I am %%%%%%% %%%%%%% and I live at #-#-# %%%%%%%%% Avenue. Thank you, members of City Council, for permitting me to address you this evening. I'd like to address two issues tonight.
First... Property revaluation. It's the only way to make the tax burden more equitable based upon current property value conditions. The last time property values were assessed – 8 years ago – the market was significantly overvaluing residential properties. This resulted in an unfair distribution of taxes between commercial and residential properties in the City. Currently, residential properties have come down significantly since then. The relative value of single family homes versus other forms of residential properties has shifted. If we are going to keep struggling homeowners in Orange, it is only fair that we do a revaluation to reflect current market conditions. The cost of such a revaluation, if spread over several years, is about a dollar a month per household, and will probably result in a substantial tax saving for a significant number of Orange homeowners – especially those in older homes. As the owner of an older home in Orange, with a substantial tax burden, but who prefers not to go through the complexity and cost of filing a tax appeal, which, if successful, would merely move the tax burden to my neighbors, I ask City Council to do the only right and fair thing – and vote in favor of a property revaluation in Orange, which would treat all property owners equally.
Secondly... Last winter, the streets were dangerous – and many were all but impassible – after snowfall. The problem got worse and worse each time there was an additional snowfall and new snow covered hard-packed old snow and frozen slush and ice underneath. A lot of the narrower two-lane streets were reduced to one lane of traffic. Cars were parked entire car-widths away from the curb, in the middle of the streets, because the streets hadn't been plowed properly – the entire street width from side to side, and people couldn't park their cars any closer to the curb than they did. Many streets were impassible. Even wider streets – like mine (Highland Avenue up near Berkeley Ave) were so narrowed by lack of plowing the entire width of the street that two cars could barely pass each other without scraping paint.
The problem was that – for whatever reasons – the city plows did not plow our streets properly, the entire street width; instead they plowed two plow blades' widths along the middle of the streets and that was it. The unplowed snow froze hard, and nothing could scrape up the ice. More snow came down, and the problem got worse. Each time it snowed, the unplowed regions on the sides grew wider and wider, and the plowed areas in the center of the streets got narrower.
I understand that at least part of the problem was lack of manpower; Dept of Public Works had lost men to layoffs. Mayor Hawkins suggested outsourcing the snow plowing, as a cost-effective measure against the problem. And I understand that – for whatever reasons – City Council did not choose to outsource – even though the City had enough money in it's budget, and, as a result of that choice, we citizens of Orange were forced to live with an extremely dangerous situation. I would not like to see this repeated this winter!
It is my understanding that it is still the most cost-effective measure to outsource the snowplowing for the entire City this winter, and I beg City Council to do the right thing this year, and appropriately put it up for bids to outsource the snowplowing, so that our streets and our citizens will be safe, and the plowing done in a timely fashion.
Thank you very much for your time.</span>
Thanks to my jcom friends for their helpful suggestions!
.
Magix, I have posted my real name AND my address on Jcom before. So what? Nobody's come to bother me yet. And Jcommrs are all welcome here. you didn't need to edit. Besids, <span style="font-weight: bold">I was on live television last night, stating my full name and address</span> And I'm listed in the phone book I don't worry about such matters; I never did.. 
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