Candidate Statement

By William C. Mason

Covina is at a crossroads. The question is simple: Do we want to continue to allow special interests undue influence at city hall, to ignore our infrastructure, to pick the pockets of taxpayers in the face of budget surpluses, and to provide inadequate levels of public safety, or do we want real change that will benefit taxpayers rather than city council members whose interests are focused on the next election?

The choices before us are both critical and historic. For many years now the special interests have had their way in our town, resulting in (1) the transfer of millions from taxpayers to wealthy developers, (2) increasing surpluses even while city hall claims poverty, (3) an expansion of the utility tax and the development of plans for additional, substantial tax increases, (4) the destruction of our community's low-density, low-rise character, (5) pay raises and benefits for certain employees that far outpace anything the average household will ever see, (6) the intentional breaking of the law by the city manager and council, (7) increased use or increased planned use of eminent domain and other violations of property rights, and (8) an organized attempt to make information hard to acquire and an effort to distort the information when it is finally released.

Enough is enough!

As an elected member of the Covina City Council I will demand --

• transparent, open, and honest government -- a government willing to disclose all relevant data to its citizens immediately and without hesitation, and to do so online;

• honesty and sound management principles as they relate to fiscal matters;

• that city hall live within its means and without the utility tax -- a tax that is unnecessary and should be eliminated;

• the elimination of practices that have resulted in the transfer of taxpayer funds from needed infrastructure repairs and other services into the pockets of special interests;

• the observation of property rights, including the termination of the use of eminent domain for the purpose of transferring private property to other private interests;

• improved streets and other vital infrastructure improvements;

• improved public safety services -- not improved pensions so that selected employees can retire at age 50 with 90 percent of their salary;

• improved library and parks services;

• the restoring of service cuts to senior citizens, and an improvement in those services;

• that city hall and the city council work with the local school districts to insure that our youth have alternatives to gangs and graffiti;

• that Covina's low-rise, low-density character be maintained;

• a halt to the conversion of commercial property into high-rise, high-density residential developments;

• that the city manager be held accountable for his actions, and that he follow directions given by the city council.