It's always very revealing to look back on what our overly-confident mayor and council were asserting back in December 2014 when they decided to purchase the El Con Community Center and three Golf Courses and compare it to what they are telling us now. While they will never admit that they were wrong about any of their promises or predictions, a look back in time tells the story.Flashback to December 17, 2014
Below are two quotes from Mayor Hiremath from the 12/17/14 council meeting. This is the meeting when the council voted to purchase the HSL El Conquistador property:
"...We’re telling you that in the first two years, we’re going to lose major money on it…I know we’re going to lose money, but I think we have a good plan to help turn that around and that includes capital investment.”Fast-Forward to June 2018
“A lot of things have been floated around and one is a bond…Councilmember Burns mentioned it. Councilmember Garner mentioned it. How are they going to pay for the bond?...What’s the revenue source going to be? It doesn’t matter what it is…It’s not free money. There’s interest on it. Why do I want to saddle my residents…to pay extra money when we have the cash?"
Well here we are, 3½ years later, and the new FY 2018/19 budget includes a $6MM bond to finance capital improvements required for the Community Center and Golf Courses. What happened?
I’ll tell you what happened. The Mayor and Council, along with the staff, completely ignored what was clear to everyone else. The money promised by the Mayor and Town Staff in 2014 NEVER MATERIALIZED.
The Town’s 2014 Power Point presentation
According to the Town’s Power Point presentation on 12/17/14, the promised capital improvements were:
FY 14/15 FY 15/16 FY 16/17 FY 17/18
Golf $50,000 $1,310,500 $1,282,500 $130,000
Comm. Ctr. $760,000 $550,000 $490,000 $466,000
Total $810,000 $1,860,500 $1,772,500 $596,000
The Town’s chart below shows the specific work that was to be done and in what year it was scheduled.
Fast-Forward to March 2018
Below is what they actually spent on capital improvement.
FY 14/15 FY 15/16 FY 16/17 FY 17/18 (Thru 3/31)
$37,873 $499,774 $72,414 $29,464
Deficient $772,127 $1,360,726 $1,700,086 $566,536
Summary
• They promised to spend a total of $5,039,000 in capital improvements by FY 17/18.
• They actually spent just $639,525.
• This is $4,399,475 less than what they promised.
They have been wrong repeatedly, forcing them to renege on their promises year after year. It is now 3½ years later and this council still refuses to accept reality. We cannot allow them to continue in office for another four years.
