What are the Murrieta Measures C, D and E, and why would anyone be against them?
Measure C is term limits. It allows councilmembers to have two terms in and then a time out. If they choose to run again, they can't run as incumbents. Incumbency can be a very powerful tool to be re-elected. Menifee has the same term limit measure on its ballot, and many cities have term limits already in place. The chaos in Sacramento is not about term limits; it's about political differences.
If chaos were about term limits, we wouldn't have chaos in D.C. It was mentioned that Murrieta doesn't need term limits because Murrieta lost all five councilmen since 2003. They didn't mention that two of them were convicted of corruption. That's a great reason for term limits ---- corruption. The longer one serves, the more temptation.
Why would anyone be against Measure D? Western Riverside Council of Governments (WRCOG) is. After all, a councilman only makes $600 per month, right? Wrong.
They get paid for other meetings they go to, even if they sit in the same chair at the same meeting, and they get benefits such as health care. Twenty thousand dollars a year is budgeted to each councilman in Murrieta. There is another $30,000 a year per councilman for memberships in WRCOG, League of Cities, as well as expensive business trips to Las Vegas and D.C., etc. WRCOG is made up of city councilmen ---- the very people who would lose money by this measure. It was mentioned that it would be against the law to change the $600/month salary that city council members makes. They still get the $600 salary but are limited in benefits. The measure allows council members to ask the voters for more money.
Measure E will solve the city of Bell problems.
According to the League of Cities' charts, Murrieta's city manager makes $241,618 a year and Temecula's city manager makes $336,288 a year. As in Measure D, Measure E ties city salaries to performance. Running the city into the ground and getting a bonus seems to be the norm these days, while the rest of us are out of work. City manager salaries keep going up without any consequences for wrong decisions.
This measure changes that. If our salaries go up, their salaries go up. This is Murrieta city-specific. A city that has a household income of a million dollars doesn't need this measure. Another concern brought up is that this could affect the fire chief and police chief's salaries due to a clause in the city manager's contract.
If the state ends up reducing the city manager salaries, the city will have to do the same thing we will have to do: renegotiate the contract.
Finally, the paper retracted that I was a self-proclaimed ultraconservative. Even if I were extreme on either end of the political spectrum and just happened to come up with something to solve a problem, should it be automatically discarded?
Vote "Yes" on Measures C, D, and E. If not now, when?
Bob Kowell is a Murrieta resident.
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