I.B.

Voters' Guide
To Whom is our City Attorney Really Accountable?

W
hile the City
Attorney’s Office
is supposed to rep-
resent the City’s best inter-
ests, recent findings indicate
that our city’s attorney may
not be able to advise the
Council objectively.
Our current City Attorney
Lough and our previous City
Attorney McDugal, also rep-
resent a number of other
municipalities. While many
of the problems of the vari-
ous jurisdictions are similar
in nature, the same cities the
City Attorney represents are
also members of SANDAG /
MTS and the San Diego
Unified Port District. Having
the City Attorney flitting
around from city to city like
a hummingbird or honey bee
might be a temptation to
implement regional policy at
the local level. I would ask
whether or not they also do
work for SANDAG , the
County Supervisors' Office
or what other Cities or agen-
cies?
The City Attorney bills
hourly for litigation, whether
he wins or loses a case. A
City Attorney might not give
the best objective advice on a
legal matter if he is being
influenced by outside policy
or procedures. If he advises
the City to litigate a case
rather than submit, and the
plaintiff prevails, the City
loses the judgement and the
Attorneys’ fees. It is in this
City Attorney’s best interest
to litigate, because that’s how
he makes his money.
Litigation is discussed in
closed session. It’s a secret
from you and me. A moun-
tain of current and recent liti-
gation has occured due to the
incompetance of this council.
A review of the case records
at the Superior Court indicate
that excessive litigation is
occurring and costing the res-
idents of Imperial Beach
unnecessarily. Two upcom-
ing cases for censorship will
cost the City more than $2
bricks for Veterans Park. He
would have advised them
that the EDCO trash increase
is an illegal tax , which
would be challenged and
they would loose!
When Imperial Beach’s
City Attorney is also giving
seminars on the Brown Act
to the City of Chula Vista,
advising the City of Lemon
Grove, changing the wording
of council resolutions he
screwed up in Solana Beach,
how can he see things from
Imperial Beach’s unique
point of view? He doesn’t
have to have our city’s best
interests at heart. He is there
million in judgements plus to protect the Council, no
attorneys’ fees according to matter what it does — legal
the ACLU. If the City or not. One thing’s for sure:
Attorney was really objec- you’re paying his fees, no
tive, he would have advised matter how frivolous the
the Council not to censor the actions of the current City
content of certain memorial Council.

Duh!
jected cost of the inspections
was to be so high, the city
staff was proposing that the
city only charge the property
owners $50 to $150 for the
— First of all, the fire
department is already on the
payroll and we will just be
going out on the time you are
already paying us for from
has had as many as eight
rental units in Imperial
Beach, and that I have paid
the annual ‘fire safety inspec-
tion fee’ for the past 13

M
onday night,
March 14, 2005,
the city council of
Imperial Beach in agenda
item 6.2, "Fee Study
Review and Adoption of
City Wide User Fee Master
Schedule," voted unani-
mously to increase user fees
charged to IB citizens.
The minimum fee increas-
es will be to the city's
already-suffering building
industry, which can expect
planning and building
inspection fee increases of 33
per cent. Those of you who
have rental properties will
experience "fire and safety
inspection" fee increases of
250 to 500 per cent. Those
who have commercial prop-
erties — in this town where
businesses come and go at an
alarming rate, and the ‘com-
mercial vacancy’ rate is the
highest in the county — will
be subjected to a brand new
money grab.
The city is implementing
a "commercial property fire
and safety inspection pro-
gram."
The plan is for the Fire
Department to start inspect-
ing commercial properties
this coming April 16; and,
for the bill to be sent to the
property owner shortly there-
after. "Maximus," the city’s
consulting firm, has project-
ed that the city would only be
recovering the actual cost of
the inspections if it charged
as much as $750 per com-
mercial inspection.
Meanwhile, Mayor Rose,
stating at least three times
that she is "confused here,"
asked why, if the actual pro-
inspections. Rose stated that
she didn’t see how a new
program such as this was
supposed to generate new
revenues for the city when,
according to the consulting
firm's own predictions, the
city would be losing hun-
dreds of dollars on each
inspection.
For the answer to this
puzzle, council turned to Fire
Chief Sotlo, the man who
devised the plan. The Chief
was obviously very dis-
traught and literally didn’t
know how to answer the
question so that he could jus-
tify the program — even
though it appeared destined
to be an immediate financial
drain on the city — but, he
eventually came out with
these rules of highway rob-
bery:
the general fund, and we will
be bringing in additional
money via the new inspec-
tion fees.
— Secondly, no one says
that we are actually going to
carry out the program past
the first year — notice that
the property owner gets the
bill immediately after our
first inspection starting this
April 16, but that he will get
subsequent bills on the
"anniversary date" of that
first inspection, not necessar-
ily only after further yearly
inspections.
City council actually saw
the light and commented on
it to the effect that the city
will only lose money on the
inspections if the city actual-
ly carries them out. EXACT-
LY!
Consider that this writer
years, and never once has
any unit been inspected for
fire safety. If such an inspec-
tion program exists, it is only
on paper and the homeowner
user fees are not being used
for fire safety inspections as
is called for by law when
such fees are collected, but
are instead going directly
into the city’s general fund
which makes them a tax and
not a user fee at all.
Next, the chief stated that
the consultant's estimates for
inspection were too high, but
that if they proved to be
accurate then the council
could always come back at
any time, perhaps as soon as
December of this year, and
raise them some more.
Councilwoman McCoy,
after telling the consulting
SEE DUH, PAGE 8

Oct. 2006 - I. B. Voters' Guide - Page 7