Letter to Editor: South San Francisco’s Piggy Bank in Jeopardy!

HI gang!

While you have successfully discouraged some, possibly targeted residents, from participating in live City Council meetings with your 8 hour and 59 minute notifications to those of us already on a list, we offer our profound thanks as you, subsequently and begrudgingly, started giving us “courtesy” notifications for upcoming meetings.  Silly me, I thought resident participation in government was a right, not a courtesy, and notification was your job.  Didn’t matter anyway as, while some of us might miss your smiling, giggling faces, we have discovered that we don’t need to spread our message to the Chamber attendees or the handful of people watching on cable, we only need our message to reach you, the city officials sworn to represent the will of their constituents.  Besides, the conversations are, and always have been, one sided as apparently our city government answers to no one.  That likely will change.  In the end, messaging you can be accomplished by simple e-mails and we can be spared the danger lurking at the MSB as you would have us believe it is unsafe.  Thank you for streamlining the process.

Here I was enjoying  a little break, from what I lovingly refer to as our monarchy, when someone brought my attention to Wednesday night’s Administrative Agenda Items 10 and 10A which is a resolution and vote to authorize the Mayor to write a letter in opposition to Ballot Initiative 1935, The Taxpayer and Government Accountability Act.  Near as my uninformed, unambitious, less than opportunistic political self can tell, passage of this Ballot Initiative would force oversight on local governments in an effort to prevent deception, mislabeling, or misappropriation of funds by mandating passage of any funding measure by that, gone but not forgotten, good old two thirds of the electorate.  Now, I’m going to throw you a curve, I totally get you.  Nobody likes oversight if it interferes with achieving your or your benefactors’ agendas.  It’s kinda’ like Mommy and Daddy cutting off your allowance should you be bad.  In my case, my stash of Butterfingers was affected but how many candy bars did I need to eat?  In your case, you might be cut off at one 200 million dollar, landlocked, Titanic look alike Civic Center with inadequate parking that nobody asked for.  But, how many Civic Centers do we need?  Check that, as poorly planned as the new one is, I’m guessing two.  Glad we have the MSB to fall back on, unless you continue to maintain that it is the MSB that will fall on us.

Anyway, you fight back against any Mommy or Daddy that might dare to cut off your allowance but remember, Mommy and Daddy might just be a metaphor for those constituents/residents/taxpayers that you swore to represent.  Are you representing them or your own personal agendas?  I’m guessing you haven’t a clue what the residents support as you asked no one.  So write that letter, I like writing letters too.  To you, to newspapers, to on-line media outlets and government agencies of all shapes, sizes and civil and criminal authority.  It’s just so much fun and educational as well.  I suggest you all grab those Butterfingers while the grabbing is good.

As always, your devoted, faithful, constituent and servant, Cory A. David.

WORTHY OF NOTE:  Glad to hear we finally got some new blood on the Chamber of Commerce who are willing to work with long neglected, new, large biotech firms like Genentech to make sure they finally get support from our city that has historically been so inadequate.  It’s about time they get a break.