During our last City Council meeting, it was revealed that we had a $31 million surplus, which when added to our general fund now equals $186 million. It may be hard to believe that a city that’s 1.9 square miles and has 36,000 residents has such a healthy general fund.
Residents were confused by the three most recently elected City Council members during that meeting including our present mayor, vice mayor, and our recent former mayor deciding to take credit for the $31 million surplus. Which is impossible to do since those three had nothing to do with it at all.
So now what can we do with that extra money that would help our city?
Many areas in our city need extra attention.
Community gardens, traffic flow, crime, social services, seniors, disabled, LGBT youth, and helping residents with rent and food.
I think extra deputies are needed to crack down on the crime that’s impacting residents, businesses, and visitors — especially over on the east side of West Hollywood where they don’t get enough attention and help with crime on that side of town.
If you haven’t realized by now, the city of West Hollywood is an extremely special case and example of always having a healthy general fund.
Where most cities were suffering back in 2008, we still had $100 million in our general fund. Even cities today would love to have $186 million in their general fund, but they don’t and that’s why you see on the news all the cutbacks for services in other cities.
So now, the big question is how best to spend the money to improve the quality of life and safety for our residents.
Money may not solve all problems. But with a city that is successful and still has a lot of crime in the same areas weekly, it may finally change the crime statistics.
Maybe the residents should be surveyed to learn what they believe we should do with the surplus to help our city in the future?
Or maybe we can have a meeting next month where business owners and residents can discuss with the Sheriff’s Department about where best to spend the money to create a safer city.
Where do you see our city heading and how do we get there with these extra funds?
And finally, what do you see the pitfalls have been in the past with money spent, and where do you see it had been wasted?
Where do you see where we should be focusing our priorities for our city in the next five years? The next 10 years?
Jerome Cleary is a columnist for the LA Independent and lives in West Hollywood. He can be reached at jeromecleary@aol.com.
