Dear Supervisor Maben,

Unfortunately I cannot appear before you on July 21, 2008 due to a conflicting City Council Meeting, but, as a Council Member for the City of Tehachapi, I respectfully and urgently request that the Board of Supervisors to continue the congregate meal program in Tehachapi in the same manner as being provided now. We, as a city, cannot lose our Tehachapi Seniors congregate meal site, nor the staff position of Senior Nutrition Site Supervisor, as recommended in the above budget. Diane King, the Senior Nutrition Site Supervisor for Tehachapi, does much more than oversee the meals at the Senior Center, she does quarterly update assessments in Tehachapi, Mojave, California City and Rosamond to qualify seniors for in-home meals. If you remove her position South Eastern Kern County will be morbidly underserved.

Diane has mustered the help of church volunteers to deliver the in-home meals; she has, on her own time, instituted activities at the Senior Center to increase attendance. Diane has also made strides in contacting doctor’s offices and directly contacting seniors to give them information on how seniors may avail themselves of the services provided. Until the last few days, Diane was not made aware of what her goal numbers are. This is a failure in leadership and the Tehachapi Senior Nutrition program should not suffer because of this lack of leadership.

Because I know most of the seniors present at our senior center, I strongly suspect that this one meal per day is the only nutritionally sound meal that these people are getting. With the cost of gas, food and every other commodity almost doubling in the past year seniors who were already on tight budgets are feeling the pinch even more. We have all heard the stories of seniors who have to choose between medication and food. To take this program away from this area would leave Tehachapi seniors without the meals, and without the social activity so necessary for seniors to remain vital.

A constituent brought the above-mentioned budget to my attention. The budget concerns the closing of the Tehachapi Seniors congregate meal site. As a representative of these seniors I protest the closing of this site and question some statements made in the discussion on page 223 of the County of Kern 2008-09 Recommended Budget.

Under Program Discussion there is a statement that, “…the Tehachapi site serves ten meals per day.” When I have visited the site I have seen the number served between 18 and 25. The number “ten” may be based on a yearly average; however, Tehachapi cannot be compared to other cities in the desert or the valley due to the long, cold and snowy winters where it is difficult for elderly people to get out in this inclement weather.

According to the budget presented there is an increase in payrolls and salaries of $331,282, yet according to the Positions Discussion there shall be multiple positions left vacant and unfunded, the addition of two positions, the deletion of three positions and “…the layoff of one Senior Nutrition Site Supervisor position in the Tehachapi senior congregate site, at an annual salary savings of $34,000.” This discussion begs to ask, with all of the savings on salaries noted here, why is there an increase in payrolls and salaries of $331,282?

Next on page 227 under Performance Measure # 5, “How are we doing?” there are two statements that I question, the first, “In FY 2007-08, the department assumed responsibility for two additional nutrition sites, Ben Austin Senior Center (Greenfield) and Taft Senior Center.” Why were these centers deemed to be more important than maintaining services for the Tehachapi area?

And, the next statement, “State officials predict that as Baby Boomers turn 60 years of age they will not take advantage of congregate senior meals.” This statement does not reflect the citizens of Tehachapi. We are a small town where almost everyone knows each other therefore we socialize perhaps more than larger cities would. And, what about those seniors in their 70′s and 80′s who are staying active longer? This statement disregards them.

Further, the City of Tehachapi has not been kind to the seniors. The $29,000 promised to the seniors was yanked away from them in our last budget meeting, because, “…they have not requested the money again.” This money was to repair a leaky roof, faulty air conditioning, and other maintenance issues. The City owns this building and as landlord should be responsible for these repairs anyway. The City is holding the seniors hostage because the seniors would not sign a new lease agreement. They were under the impression that they had a long-term lease. The City refused to authorize the money for repairs until the seniors signed the new lease. The seniors have had to obtain an attorney in order to have a fighting chance at dealing with the city and that is just not right. While the lease debate continues, the City Manager saw fit to pull the repair money for the seniors off the table.

As a city, we have enough parks and bike paths; the downtown has been spruced up enough. We need to use our RDA funds for needs not wants. We have seniors and the handicapped living in our redevelopment area that needs ramps to access their homes, and perhaps light maintenance work to make their homes more habitable or accessible. We need a new Senior Center located closer to senior housing. The center could be built large enough to accommodate office space for the State and County so that government is not spread all over Tehachapi and the space rents could offset the payments on the center. We all know that RDA funds are subject to abuse and misuse. I would like to see some of our citizens NEEDS filled with this money as this money was originally intended to do. Supervisor Maben, I call upon you to encourage Tehachapi’s City Council to broaden their focus on the use of our RDA funds.

Kindest regards,

Stan Beckham
Council Member
City of Tehachapi
(661) 822-1907

At this point we have at least 10, or up to 20 Credit Cards in the amount of $10,000 each for a total of $200,000 in liability to the City outstanding. During a Council Meeting I urged that these cards have their credit limits reduced to $5,000 each, Ed Grimes was not present and neither was Phil Smith. The Council approved lowering the limits on the Credit Cards. At a recent council meeting, when I questioned a payment for cookies & doughnuts charged to one of the Staff’s cards, Greg Garrett jumped up and told me that the Staff Cards still have $10,000 Credit Limits he only reduced the Council Members card limits.

This is another blatant disregard of a council directive by Greg Garrett. I DO NOT like having these cards, especially for City Council members and I do not plan to use mine. In light of the recent abuse of such a card by the Superintendent of Edison School District and a former employee of TUSD, I prefer that we not have these cards available. There is too much leeway for fraud with these things around.

These cards were implemented by Jason Caudle at the urging of Ed Grimes and without the approval of the Council and then carried out by Greg Garrett. The City Council is NOT aware of how many cards are outstanding. We did not receive policies and procedures for the use of these cards until we had had them for two weeks. This is how your Interim City Manager and your former City Manager handles business in this town and this is what your City Council Members, Deborah Hand, Ed Grimes, Phil Smith and Linda Vernon tolerate.

As is my right under Cal. Const., Art. II, Secs. 13-19; §11023((a),(c)), I am filing my 200 word response as follows:

Approximately two years ago I became your City Council Member by the largest plurality of votes among four candidates. Since then I have worked tirelessly on your behalf, as I promised, to make your local government open, accessible and responsive to the needs of the citizens we council members are supposed to serve. Apparently, in this endeavor I have stepped on some toes. I am accused of behaving unprofessionally and creating a hostile environment – what I actually do is ask tough questions and demand straight answers. I am accused of disrupting work at City Hall – the truth is I won’t rubber stamp staff recommendations preferring to thoroughly investigate and understand the potential consequences of an action before voting on it. I am accused of disclosing confidential information in the public forum – the fact is that I have always advocated transparency in government and will continue to fight for citizens’ access to information affecting their lives and well-being. I am accused of defamation and deceit – claims that are simply untrue. See this recall for what it really is: an attempt to silence YOUR VOICE so the Council majority can continue their back room politics and unchecked spending spree.

The PDF link contains the comment that I sent to the Tehachapi News, my goals as your City Councilman, the Notice of Intent to Recall that was published in the Tehachapi News on 04/28/2008 and the article on the Empire Land Company Bankruptcy. This is the company that Jason Caudle, and your other four Council Members, Hand, Grimes, Smith and Vernon voted for to construct the new City Hall and Civic Center. This is the company that these people thought was financially solvent enough to take on this project as opposed to Tower Investments with the Capital Hills project. AGAIN, your Council Members did NOT do their homework!

Because of this atmosphere and the public’s distrust of what was happening at City Hall and what was happening with their money, I ran because of my distrust of what was happening with our water situation and what I observed of the goings on at City Hall that led to my distrust of our City officials. The people spoke against what they perceived as corruption in their City Officials. I was told things would not be so bad once I had a chance to get behind the scene and see how things worked. I am sad to report that things are as bad or worse.

Your City Council refuses to oversee what the City Manager, Interim City Manager and his staff are doing. They do not ask questions and they rubber stamp everything that staff recommends on the agenda. Very rarely over the past 18 months has your City Council voted NO on any item on the agenda. They not only did NOT create a committee to study the mid-year budget review, your City Council did not even discuss the budget. The Finance Director reviewed the budget with the Council for 45 minutes. The Council has less than 15 minutes to ask questions. The budget was never talked about again and was voted through at the next council meeting. This is ridiculous when you are dealing with these amounts of money. Families spend more time discussing their household budgets than we spent discussing YOUR City’s budget. Your tax dollars.

We need new people in November 2008 to fill the two seats that are coming vacant. People that will ask questions and hold the City Manager and his Staff accountable. We need people that can make honest and learned business decisions before the people on the council and your Interim City Manager run this City into the ground or into bankruptcy.

2006 Election Results

We need a City Manager that has the vision and the foresight to build such a complex and then manage this complex so that it pays for itself in a large part. This auditorium could be used for conventions, classroom learning, as well as, concerts both local and commercial. The local groups should be able to use the facility for a small usage/clean-up fee. After all this facility is for the residents of the Tehachapi area.

As of this date, 05/14/2008, Jason Caudle, and now Greg Garrett, Ed Grimes, Deborah Hand, Phil Smith and Linda Vernon are moving full speed ahead on a City Hall with a Civic Center so small as to be worthless to the Tehachapi Performing Art Center. But, they are willing to plow hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Beekay theater which is structurally unsound and has now been found to have asbestos and has been taped off and quarantined until a professional asbestos removal crew can be called in to clean it up. How much more will this cost us? And, when it is all said and done this renovated Beekay Theater will house 50 people. Here’s your tax dollars at waste. And, this is Deborah Hand’s and Ed Grime’s pet project.

What a Civic Center Auditorium could look like.

Also, noteworthy, on a council weekly update I received from Garrett on April 25, 2008, the following information was provided, “While doing a routine internal review of project funds, Staff found $29,820.55 of uncollected money for the Downtown street scape improvements.The City will be receiving this funding from CalTrans.” If the numerous audits that the City goes through are so worthy, why wasn’t this picked up in any of them?

More on Investigative and Financial Audits

The City Council is determined to shove this shopping center site down the throats of the Citizens of Tehachapi without so much as a needs analysis from the public that TPAC undertook for their facility. With the elections coming up, Mayor Hand and Ed Grimes are going to get their way before they are voted out of office come hell or high-water and the Publics’ opinion be damned. I would like to see some input on this blog regarding your honest opinions of this fiasco of a City Hall/Civic Center that is yet to be built.

View the Correspondence

I hope, with the selection of the proper new City Manager, to be able to work with him to target and recruit businesses to the Tehachapi Valley that will offer real livable wage jobs for our locals without negatively impacting our way of life. With the green building techniques being in the spotlight and with our abundance of wind energy I believe we can successfully attract businesses that leave a smaller footprint.

The Kern Economic Development Corporation

Because of the complexity of the public service ethics laws and the importance of understanding public service ethics principles, state law requires local officials to receive two hours of training in ethics principles every two years. Cal. Gov’t Code ss. 53235(a), (b). The four core principles are:

1. Public officials may not use their offices for personal financial gain.
2. Holding public office does not entitle one to personal advantages or perks.
3. The Public’s business must be conducted openly.
   • My own note on this subject is from what I have observed, our city has brought items forth in Closed Session that, in my opinion should have been discussed in public.
4. Merit-based decision-making based on fair processes produces the best results for the public.

The guide also notes these laws constitute minimum standards for officials’ conduct. They are a floor for conduct, not a ceiling, just because a particular course of action is legal does not mean it is ethical.

Stan Beckham Participation Certificate