Real Name: Stan Beckham Cell: (661)822-1907 Member Since: May 29, 2006 Last Signed In: June 28, 2008 Profile Views: 5942 Blog Views: 6820 Your Tax Dollars At Waste, AGAIN! Support Main Street Tehachapi Requesting Investigative Audit of Tehachapi City Accounting TUSD - Student Resource Officer Response to Mr. Cajones DON'T FORGET TO BE AT THE MEETING, IT'S YOUR FUTURE CITY NEW CITY HALL & CIVIC CENTER - TOWN MEETING New Hall Ambulance Station Council Member Beckham Attends League of California Cities HENRY L. SCHAEFFER ELECTION RESULTS October 06 November 06 December 06 January 07 February 07 March 07 April 07 May 07 June 07 July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 
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Your Tax Dollars At Waste, AGAIN!
Here’s an update for you from Monday’s City Council meeting. In the past we have discussed Mitigation Fees. That Blog has disappeared, so I’ll redefine. Mitigation Fees are the impact fees that the City collects on new construction to offset the cost of water, sewers, new roadways, etc. Until recently under David James’ management, mitigation fees were NOT collected up front from the developer because there was some convoluted formula for calculating those fees based upon whether a retail space was going into a new development or a restaurant as each would have a different impact on the infrastructure.
Because these fees were not collected upfront from the developers and the developers were not disclosing these fees to their new tenants UNTIL AFTER the tenant had spent considerable money in tenant improvements, there have been three separate occasions where we as the City have made arrangements for the tenants to repay the City on a contract basis for these mitigation fees.
The two most recent instances were Que Pasa and Don Pericos. I argued during the council session that we, the City, were not a bank and the developers were pulling a fast one, to which Mr. Garrett agreed, and that we should not be loaning money even at 0% interest. Even the City Attorney agreed that he did not think the City should be in the business of loaning money. We wanted the developers to pay the fees and work out the situation with their tenants.
However, my esteemed colleagues, Mayor Grimes (at the time), Debra Hand, Phil Smith and Linda Vernon, in their infinite wisdom voted 4-1 against me to allow the tenants to repay the City at $3,200 per month over the next 3 years or roughly $115,000. NOW, Que Pasa has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The City is not listed as a creditor even though notice was given. That means the City most likely will never recoup these fees unless David James can come up with a solution.
Also, note, Don Pericos wants to renegotiate with the City because, expectedly, the $3,200 per month is eating into their operating margin. If you want to put a stop to this madness, please vote out Mayor Hand and Ed Grimes in November. Their ‘business usual’ attitude is wasting millions of dollars and with the State budget shortfalls that are looming we can’t afford Mayor Hand and Ed Grimes’ way of doing business any longer. Check out www.StanBeckham.com for more information.
53 comments from 13 users
posted by
packerfan
on Apr 9, 2008 at 05:41 PM
dreamkiller, I thought you were going to play ball. Game over? ProgressoDassani you summed it up perfectly. But I want to know whose dreams dreamkiller is trying to kill, the 3500+ voters in this town? Dreamkiller, do you think letting the old guard continue to take "Staff's recommendation" on the agenda items because your City Council Members haven’t done their homework so they rubber-stamp everything that comes across on the agenda is going to bring about change? You have accused me of a lot of actions here up to and including criminal. What do back that up with? I did eat crow for having a private conversation many months ago about Mrs. Hand's proclivities and that was written about in the TN. While there may be more to come on that front, I have not written anything or stated in any public venue that Grimes is a drunk. Where are you getting your information? From some of the things you have stated here it sounds like you have been sitting in on the council’s closed session meetings. That is a very bad ethical violation. You accuse me of having a group like this is a bad thing. Yet Hand has her supporters aka group and I guess that’s OK with you? You know nothing of my supporters. They don’t blog, but I see them everyday out in the stores and restaurants. Funny, they all say the same thing…keep their feet to the fire and don’t give up. You are doing a good job. Come November we’ll be voting in some help for you. I will take their ‘up front in my face’ word over the word of someone too scared to reveal his identity. As for Henry Schaeffer, Henry owns a home in Tehachapi and this man contributes a goodly sum to the tax base in Tehachapi and spends more time at his store than at his home. Remember Henry got 570 votes just on a write-in, if his name is on the ballot he’ll win by a mile. Don’t be surprised, there’s another dark horse coming in that will blow your mind. You speak to the impact fees of Golden Hills. Why not the City? If you live in Golden Hills then you are not a part of the electorate of the City of Tehachapi. You are wrong about a lot of the allegations of who is who on these blogs. And, I haven't heard you say one word about how Mrs. Hand packs the council chambers with 20 +/- of her "friends" when she wants to give the impression of public opinion being for one of her pet projects. She does this because she knows that no amount of petitions signed by those who cannot attend the meetings is going to supersede what the people present in the chamber say because Hand, Grimes, Smith and Vernon vote as a block rather than think and ask questions. That very action disenfranchises any other voter that could not make the meeting and have their voices heard. It may be legal, but do you think this is ethical? You can call this mudslinging if you like, I call it the truth and that is why you have this history of developers trying to stick it to upstart businesses and the City having to scramble to get paid back. If I hadn’t made a stink when the mitigation fees issue came up the first time for Que Pasa and Don Pericos, the City would still be doing things the same old way and we would have other future problems. I am not trying to squeeze the little man so the City can get YOUR tax dollars back. You just don’t get it. This restaurant may have survived without going Chapter 11 if the City hadn’t stuck them with the $3,200 per month that is eating not only into the profit margin, but also into the operating budget. For your edification Chapter 11 is reorganization and does not mean the restaurant is going to close. It means that the secured creditors will get paid but only a portion of what they are owed and this will be decided by bankruptcy judge and administered by bankruptcy trustee. The City of Tehachapi has a contract for the mitigation fees, but we are an unsecured creditor. If the restaurant doesn’t close, we will likely never see a dime of the money that is owed. Personally, I would like to see the City sue the developer for the fees, but that is not likely to happen with the council members you have now. How would you like to come in as a small business and have a budget in place only to be told at the 11th hour, “By the way you’re going to have to pay the City $115,000 in mitigation fees that we didn’t collect from the developer and that the developer never disclosed to you!” That’s is just not right and that is why I am telling you folks about this. Dreamkiller, whether you like my personality or not, do the right thing for the citizens of Tehachapi. Your negative comments are your point of view and you are entitled, but for every one of yours I have 20 people telling me to keep doing what I’m doing and go after the *expletive deleted* and make the changes we need made. I guess I’ll listen to the 20 and hope that your sensitive nature can adjust. Damn straight developer should have paid these fees in the first place. But, the City already had a procedure in place and the procedure was changed after the fact and after I “held their feet to the fire.” You don’t believe that the $115,000 per store is correct, or you can’t recall something I said in chamber, and then listen to the recording. After I was voted into office I strongly pushed for recordings of the council meetings so you can now go back and hear for yourself EXACTLY what was said in each meeting. Here's the link http://www.tehachapicityhal... If the link doesn't work, you can follow this path: www.tehachapicityhall.com Your Government>City Clerk>Minutes>City Council Meeting Audio Since you haven't been attending the meetings regularly, or your recall is in need of updating, you will find that I told the ladies that approached who were concerned about their mitigation fees that the prudent thing to do would be to get an attorney and go after the developer. Why did I do that and why am I holding the City responsible for this mess? Because David James and the City Manager were not upfront with these businesses and they knew what the developers were doing to their tenants. Because the developers and tenants already had an agreement, there was not much else that could be done at that point. Leslie at Alpha Canine Sanctuary found a solution to her problem. She found a different location. This is close to my home and I am happy to say that she did a great job working with her lender and making an eyesore building into a great looking building and the work that she does is invaluable to the City. As ProgressoDassani said, “How's this for "solution"? Hire two new council members committed to firing the head of the planning department, and hire a new planner with a strategy and a clue. Then, fire the current city lawyer and hire a new one to give competent, non-blog-based advice on how to retrieve money from the developers who benefited from the sweetheart deal the fired folks gave them.
posted by
dreamkiller
on Apr 9, 2008 at 04:55 PM
Soupwater- "How's this for "solution"? Hire two new council members " We tryed this solution when we voted Teel out and Stan in. All that got us was the happy little clown show, turned into a mean and hateful little clown show. Stan as done nothing but discredit his position as Councilman. Soupwater- "Meanwhile, you still don't get it - Que Pasa won't be paying the town, the town isn't even listed as a creditor! The town's "solution" (getting monthly payments from the ripped-off tenants) isn't going to work!" What is going to work, making these tenants pay all the money now and run them to close their doors? Like Stan wants! At lest now we are getting some of the fees payed back and have the sales tax as income. If we do Stan's plan we run these small new stores out and we don't get the sales tax and maybe not even the fees! jer72- "Being a person with a personal business online, I have a home occupation business license. I feel the fee to run this type of business license is rather high since I don't increase local traffic, there is no additional sewer use or water use." Congrats to you jer72 you are but just one of the few people that have a home business that pays for a business license! Have you compared what you pay to what people in other cities like Tehachapi City pay? You have very little impact on the city. I do feel you should have to have a business license but the city should only be charging you what it cost them to administer the license. Soupwater who is going to run for these two new council positions? Henry Shaffer? Don't get me wrong I love Henry and his store but he does not live in the city. Next up is Jim Richards who is just more of Stan! He will just continue the mean and hateful crud that now comes out of Stan's mouth!
posted by
ProgressoDasani
on Apr 9, 2008 at 03:12 PM
How's this for "solution"? Hire two new council members committed to firing the head of the planning department, and hire a new planner with a strategy and a clue. Then, fire the current city lawyer and hire a new one to give competent, non-blog-based advice on how to retrieve money from the developers who benefited from the sweetheart deal the fired folks gave them. OR we could follow your plan. Keep doing what we are doing, ignore folks who point out that it is being done wrong, and then accuse the folks we ignored of bad manners and negativity when they point out that what they said would happen, happened. Meanwhile, you still don't get it - Que Pasa won't be paying the town, the town isn't even listed as a creditor! The town's "solution" (getting monthly payments from the ripped-off tenants) isn't going to work!
posted by
jer72
on Apr 9, 2008 at 03:09 PM
This is reall a two problem issue. First the city didn't coolect the fees when they should have. That is when the developer wanted to build. The developer could have then figured that into his rental price for the tenant. Then the city could have place a fee into the first business license that makes for the offset of the general mitigation fee to the type of business going to be ran. Each year after that the license would be a flat rate per business type as they have now. The second problem that occured was that the developer was not fully honest with their tenants. They shoul have informed them that because of the new development their was also going to be a mitigation fee before they could open. Being a person with a personal business online, I have a home occupation business license. I feel the fee to run this type of business license is rather high since I don't increase local traffic, there is no additional sewer use or water use. posted by
dreamkiller
on Apr 9, 2008 at 02:40 PM
LOL oohchild!!! Just think about how much Stan and the City could make charging just Mexican restaurants and immigrants! We have a lot of both. LOL We have to many Mexican restaurants, that may be the reason behind Que Pasa's difficulty. The City should be recruiting a more diverse group of business types up here.
See soupwater... that was a jab at a problem ( to many Mexican restaurants) and a fix to the problem. ( recruit others) Your friend Stan needs to take note. Gube likes controvsery. I think he will post on something he doesn't even think is right just to see others go off. ( I am that way sometimes, and gube is entertaining due to it) Am I right Gube? oh and soupwater I am sorry for calling you Stan, I know now your not! posted by
dreamkiller
on Apr 9, 2008 at 02:32 PM
You do like to throw mud without having a positive statement about anything! Look at all your anti-cop post. I am sorry you don't like the fact that most people in this town support our police and we support positive change. Stan was voted in for change, he has become a joke. Sometimes change for the sake of change is not a good thing. We need to change things the right way without making hateful statements about anyone that disagrees with us. Well I got to go, I am meeting friends out at the Base to play Call of Duty4 . Soupwater you want to meet us there for a few games? You can even be on my team. Gube you can come to..................How much fun it would be to have the 3 of us in the same room after a few beers! Someone call the MP's!!! lol
posted by
oohchild
on Apr 9, 2008 at 02:29 PM
First, let me commend both PD & dk on an interesting & enlightening conversation. The "snarkiness" hasn't gotten out of hand, and there's lots of ideas to ponder. Thanks! Second, I want to thank gube for the comic relief. Your confusing "mitigation" fees with "migration" fees, coupled with your obvious bias about the migrant issue, has given me quite a few chuckles to break up the intense dialogue. I can just imagine the chaos, should the city require "migration fees" in conjunction with a Mexican restaurant! You're too much, dude! ;-) posted by
ProgressoDasani
on Apr 9, 2008 at 02:04 PM
I'm not Stan, and I don't know Stan. I don't know anyone posting here. I don't post under any other name. Believe it or not, its more information than you deserve. What you posted against me was this: Soupwater you like to throw mud as well, do you have a plan to fix this issue? Your the same as Stan. All you can say is " Its a clown show, they suck, drunks, potheads, but I can do better. " You used quotation marks, meaning you claimed I said those things. I didn't. If that isn't what you meant, then apologize! posted by
gube
on Apr 9, 2008 at 01:47 PM
that to me seems extreme.. posted by
dreamkiller
on Apr 9, 2008 at 01:44 PM
I am not sure, but if you read Stan's original post, it looks like $100,000's of thousands of dollars per store! posted by
gube
on Apr 9, 2008 at 01:40 PM
thanks dreamkiller that's pretty much what I thought they were. How much are the fees? posted by
dreamkiller
on Apr 9, 2008 at 01:39 PM
I didn't say you said that soupwater, I said Stan said that!!! However I do think your just Stan blogging under one of his many profiles! It is Stan's job as an elected official to find a fix for this problem, not just stand there saying " look at what the potheads and drunks did now"!!!!! Your right about this being a sinking boat! To bad the voters just added more weight to help it sink! posted by
ProgressoDasani
on Apr 9, 2008 at 01:33 PM
What plans do I have to fix it, Dreamkiller? This question is ridiculous. Why not ask a passenger on the Titanic to fix the gash in the hull of the boat? One can imagine this conversation in the North Atlantic.... Frenzied Passenger - "Captain, there's an iceberg dead ahead!" Captain - "hmmm....I think everything is OK..." Frenzied Passenger (a few minutes later) - "Captain, we ran into the iceberg!" Captain - "Yes, we made a mistake and we are now working to fix it..." Frenzied Passenger - "I told you the iceberg was there!!" Captain - "Sure, you like to throw mud, but do you have a plan to fix this issue?" Hey - like the Titanic, the situation may not be retrievable! It may require rising the rates on everyone in town. Seems fair that there would be a political price for that. And you made several inaccurate accusations against me. I most certainly have NOT EVER called anyone a "pothead", I have never characterized a city employee with the word "suck", nor have I have called anyone a "drunk". I stand by my description of the city planning office as a "clown show". Pretty mild term, considering.
posted by
dreamkiller
on Apr 9, 2008 at 01:32 PM
Water and sewer! These are impact fees. Its just like if you wanted to build a new home in Golden Hills. The GHCSD will charge you $6,000 for a $100 water meter. The other $5,900 goes into an account to fix and up grade the water system later down the road. These fee are just like that but in a bigger scale! The real issue is this, the city made the mistake not getting this fee out of the developers up front. The developers screwed their renters by not telling them they were going to pass that cost down to them. In order to help keep these businesses open the city made a deal with them so they could make payments. Now the city gets the money up front from the developers. This issue was solved till Que Pasa decide to file for bankruptcy( according to Stan) Stan is now scared the city will not get their tax! The businesses need to sue the developers for not disclosing this fee! The city needs to sue the developers for this fee! The city is trying to be nice and work with the screwed new stores and Stan is pissed that he was out voted once again! I wish I could quote Stan on what he told the Canine Creek lady when this happened to her. It was something like "to bad so sad. " I am sure if she reads this she will post what was really said. posted by
gube
on Apr 9, 2008 at 01:14 PM
dreamkiller exactly what services does the city supply the tenant for the migration fees? |
