City Council Recall Rumors

Someone has been spreading rumors and telling people in our community that the city council recall is going to be stopped. I just wanted to notify everyone that the city council recall is still set to take place on August 15th and nothing is expected to hold up this election. Everything is on track and so far there are a great group of candidates that plan to run for office.

Enterprise Zone for McFarland?

This week's issue of the Delano Record reported on an effort by the Delano city council to have their staff file an application to have their city listed as a California Enterprise Zone. A city that falls under an Enterprise Zone status is able to offer businesses a greater incentive to relocate or establish sites within those zones. Shafter and Delano are currently the only two local cities that are designated as enterprise zones. There are currently 42 designated zones within the state with 23 of these zones that are set to expire this year. Several communities are filling out their applications to try to qualify for these spots that are expiring and I think our city should be one of them. This program is designed to target economically distressed areas in the state and I think our city would definitely stand out considering it is an area with low median household income and high unemployment. Here are some of the benefits offered by Enterprise zones:

• Businesses can earn $29,234 or more in state tax credits for hiring qualified employees that reside within the zone
• Corporations can earn sales tax credits on purchases or $20 million per year on qualified machinery and machinery parts
• Up front expensing of depreciable property
• Lenders and banks that lend to businesses operating inside a zone receive a tax deduction on the interest income for their loans
• Plus many more benefits...

Delano Record Article:
http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/052006_EntZone.pdf

How Jobs and Revenue Growth are stimulated in Enterprise Zones:

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/052006_growth_stimulated.pdf

Application for Enterprise Zone Status:

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/052006_EntZoneApp.pdf

California Association of Enterprise Zones:

http://www.caez.org/

I plan to bring this up at the next council meeting and see if this is something that we can come together and pull off before the deadline in September.

May 11th City Council Meeting

There was a very large turnout at the last city council meeting with several people from the community showing up to voice their opinions regarding the garbage recycling issue. From what I hear, it was standing room only, as citizen after citizen stepped up to criticize the councilmembers and the recycling service contract with Sunset Waste.

One person who owns a home and a rental property in McFarland described how she is being billed $15 for the use of one bin at her home and $60 for the use of one bin at her four-unit apartment complex. When she called Sunset Waste to inquire about why she was being charged so much more for the exact same service at the apartment complex the representative from Sunset Waste directed her to contact someone at city hall and hung up on her. For those that were not able to attend I will request a copy of the audio recordings and try to post copies of the recordings from the angry and frustrated people that spoke before the council.

I believe the recycling bill that was mailed out by the city a few weeks ago was a good reminder to everyone of the costly mistakes that Melendez, Cantu, and Santillano have made. As one person put it to me the other day in a symbolic manner, "They have just put the last nail into their own coffin". Meaning that now that people clearly see what price they are having to pay for the mistakes being made by these councilmembers, it is obvious why they deserve to be recalled on August 15th and they are only giving people more of a reason to support the recall.

Here is a copy of the meeting agenda for that day:
http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/051106+Meeting+Agenda.pdf

Looking at the items listed for discussion under closed session one of them is related to a claim being filed by Melendez. I wonder what this is all about and if it will end up costing the city any more money.