Family claims city was negligent in letting illegal alien run free. LINK
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RED LIGHT CAMERAS
The City Council has been trying to decide what to do about red light cameras in the city, and the issue was on the agenda again last night.
Here, in brief, is what's going on. Nestor Traffic Systems, who put up the present red light cameras in Costa Mesa, has gone broke and has been taken over by American Traffic Systems (ATS). Last night, ATS asked for a continuance of 30 days to present its case to the city as to why the city should continue the red light camera program with ATS.
The Council granted the continuance.
The CM PRESS was at the original meetings when Nestor presented its sales pitch to Costa Mesa. One of the selling points was that the red light cameras wouldn't cost the city anything and another was that Nestor would give good service. In fact, the red light cameras have cost the city about $ 300,000 and the service from Nestor was lousy.
So, at last night's meeting, the CM PRESS suggested that if the city goes forward with ATS, that we come up with a better contract than the one we had with Nestor.
We suggested that it might be helpful to think about the contract almost as though it's a commercial lease agreement.
Thus, the city would be the landlord and would agree to lease certain of our intersections to the tenant, ATS, so ATS can install its red light cameras on our property.
ATS would make its money by getting a percentage of the money paid by violators, and Costa Mesa would get the benefit of fewer deadly collisions plus any funds necessary to cover the city's out of pocket expenses for intersection and traffic island repairs, etc.
We also suggested that the agreement have a bail-out clause in case the cameras start to cost Costa Mesa any money.
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TO THE NORTH AND SOUTH OF US...
North--Santa Ana, aka Chocolate City--Man on a bicycle threatened with a baseball bat and robbed. LINK
South--Newport Beach, aka Vanilla City--No one on a bicycle was threatened with a baseball bat or robbed again today. No LINK, because there was nothing to report.
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COUNCIL VOTES TO GIVE YOUR MONEY TO NON-PROFITS
The Costa Mesa City Council voted 5-o last night to accept $560,327 from HUD for homeless prevention after Mercy House and Serving People In Need (SPIN), the two non-profits that will actually disperse the money, agreed to check the legal status of those who get the funds.
Jean Wegener, Executive Director of SPIN, also told the Council that some of the money that passes through her non-profit would go to help senior citizens.
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BOTTOM LINE ON WHAT FOLLOWS (MERCIFULLY PUT AT THE TOP FOR THOSE WHO DON'T WANT TO READ TO THE BOTTOM).
SPIN says on its website HERE that 88 cents of every dollar received goes to "programs and services." This may well be true, but that's not the same as saying that 88 cents in hard cash goes into the pockets of the needy and only 12 cents goes to running the non-profit or the programs, as we guess many people assume.
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So, what happens to that dollar that is given to the non-profit? Well, by using SPIN's own 88 cents figure, we know right away that 12 cents comes off each dollar for the general expenses of running the non-profit, and we know from 990's that this includes at least one salary of more than $125,000.
This leaves the 88 cents that goes to "programs and services." Where does that 88 cents really go?
Here's just one example from one program that SPIN ran in 2008 (GAPP--Guided Housing Assistance).
In looking at the numbers (below), it appears to us that 72 cents of that 88 cents goes to salaries, and other line items including counseling, insurance, office expenses, support services, etc. leaving 16 cents in hard cash to help needy people pay the rent.
Now, maybe that's just the way this program was set up and maybe this is the best way to do it, however, we suspect that when average citizens (and City Councilmembers) hear that 88 cents of every dollar goes to programs and services, they may wrongly think that 88 cents is going directly into the pockets of the needy. It's not.
Read on for more detail:
In its Statement of Functional Expenses obtained by the CM PRESS, SPIN shows three programs that it had in 2008, and which are probably still running. These are Guided Housing Assistance (GAPP),Substance Abuse Rehabilitation (SARP), and Street Services.
Again, we're just looking at the first program, GAPP, because this sounds most like the new program that SPIN got your money for last night. SPIN'S website describes this program this way:
What is GAPP?
SPIN provides move-in costs (first month’s rent and deposit) for permanent housing to low-income working families with children. The GAPP Housing Program is a one to two year case management program, offering supportive services such as assistance with child care costs, job development, tutoring, budgeting, counseling, workshops, car repairs related to work, as well as other services.
SPIN's STATEMENT OF FUNCTIONAL EXPENSES for 2008 shows where the money went in the GAPP program. Emphasis added by CM PRESS. Please excuse the way this software displays columns:
Salaries,payroll taxes& employee benefits $216,558
Transitional housing -
Guaranteed apartment payments $142,314
Food $9,501
Support services $47,535
Rent $24,109
Accounting $3,285
Office expense $1,744
Bad debt expense -
Counseling $2,795
Insurance $2,236
Telephone $2,585
Utilities $1,651
Transportation $27,372
Printing $892
Postage $702
Dues & subscriptions $55
Bank and merchant charges $125
Repair & maintenance $2,049
Security $222
Volunteer appreciation $521
Miscellaneous $211
__________________________
Expenses before use of donated materials and
services and depreciation $486,462
Use of donated materials and services $24,526
Depreciation $653
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Total expenses $ 511,641
Correct us if we're wrong, but it appears that out of $511,641 in expenses, $142,314 went to what seems to us to be the primary purpose of this program (first and last month's rent) and $369,327 went to salaries, counseling, and other items. We're not sure what the item "Food," or some other items actually mean in terms of this program.
We're not suggesting that anything is wrong in the above, but we did want to show that simply saying that a certain amount of money (in this case 88 cents of every dollar received by the non-profit) goes to "programs and services," may not be exactly what some people think it means.
But, maybe we got it wrong. Let us know.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
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