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By Yuliana Cerda
February 6, 2009 (La Mesa) -- The La Mesa City Council held an open forum meeting in the auditorium at Rolando Elementary School last Thursday night. The meetings are meant to provide an opportunity for citizens to voice concerns or input on issues throughout their city. La Mesa citizens voiced their views on an array of issues ranging from proposed cuts in police and fire budgets to road maintenance.
The most heated debate was on Proposition L, the November ballot initiative approved by voters to raise the City’s sales tax. Many residents of La Mesa felt that scare tactics had been used to have the proposition passed.
One concerned resident spoke during the meeting, saying Mayor Art Madrid had hired a public relations firm to ask residents who was most important, and although citizens ranked police and fire departments as the most important funding priorities, the City threatened to cut funds for those departments.
City Manager Sandra Kerl felt the campaign was not a scare tactic, because the police department and fire department would have suffered cuts, since every other department offsets their expenses with revenue.
“Prop L was everything we said it was and more,” said Councilmember Ernest Ewin.
“The reality is that there is a disconnect between what we do at City Hall and what citizens perceive,” said Madrid.
He went on to say the open forum meetings are meant to help address that disconnect, and fix it.
Another widely talked about concern was on Cal Trans lack of maintenance of parts of Interstate-8 in La Mesa, particularly the 70th Street onramp. One resident called the cracked pavement, dead palm trees, trash and lack of a proper curb, an “eyesore.”
The Council encouraged residents to become involved and call Cal Trans to voice their concerns.
Several other issues were brought to the attention of the Council, ranging from concerns about crime in La Mesa increasing to thanking the La Mesa Police Department for their continuing support at Rolando Elementary.
Information from these open forums will be used by the Council to set priorities for the next budget.
The City will host a strategic planning workshop on budget matters on March 17 at 8 a.m. at Fire Station 11, 8034 Allison Avenue in La Mesa.
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Yuliana Cerda is a fourth year journalism major at San Diego State University. She has worked for The Westminster Herald and KCR Campus Radio, and is now an intern at East County Magazine.
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