447. EL CERRITO'S 1991 FINANCES, REPAIRS, BASIC SERVICES. REAGAN WAS THE MAN WITH THE KEYS TO CITY BUDGETS, 1991 PEOPLE STILL CLAIMED

Photo of Ronald Reagan from Stock Free Photos.

447.

Published news story for El Berkeley Voice by Lurene K. Helzer, January 2, 1991, “City can’t meet budget with current income; Basic services and repairs may take new taxes, bonds”. Runs with series the paper was doing in 1991 titled “East Bay ’91; What’s to come? A special issue.”

This article ran in other East Bay newspapers printed by Hills Publications in 1991, The El Cerrito Journal, for one, on a different date. Part of article below:


Jean Siri, El Cerrito City Council.

Journal – Is the anti-tax feeling that gripped California through the Proposition 13 years and Gov. George Deukmejian years still going strong?

Siri – Well, I like to think that it isn’t because people can see that the streets are wearing out, the trees are not being trimmed, the parks are falling apart and the buildings are falling apart. People must realize you can’t get something for nothing.

Journal – Did people actually get so unrealistic throughout the last decade that they thought there was a free lunch?

Siri – Well, Reagan convinced everybody there was – that it’s stylish to be greedy. He made it stylish to get what you could get for yourself and hang on for dear life and not pay any taxes. People wanted to believe what he was saying and I suppose they did.

Journal – Did a lot of this attitude creep down to El Cerrito?

Siri – Oh, sure.

Journal – Is it still there?

Siri – I don’t know. I’m certainly hoping not. I hope by calling people in and telling them what our problems are…I was appalled before, but now that I’ve listened to the problems that I didn’t even know we had in the facilities committee, I don’t know what we’re going to do. I thought the safety building was in good shape and it turns out that it’s just a mess. You can’t defer maintenance for very long and get by with it.

My theory is we can’t possibly do all the things that need to be done even if we can get people to pass a bond issue. We’re going to have to do it gradually because we’re so far behind.

Journal – Are we in a situation now where, no matter what we do, something else should have been done first – a vicious circle?

Siri – Well, I think our city hall facility at the moment looks awful, but it works. We can live with that for another five years if we have to – 10 maybe if we had to. But I don’t think we can live with the fire and safety (building) situation any longer. I don’t even think we can live with the storm sewers any longer, because the lawsuits against the city are getting so big. We’ve always been cutting and deferring, cutting and deferring. You can’t do that in your house.

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