It all starts on Monday at 10 AM with a press conference;
News conference to share the 2017 annual Ambulance Contract Performance Report
What is troubling about this report on Monday and later on Tuesday at the informational meeting is that the city council will get a first reading (Item #8) on a rate increase for Paramedics Plus Tuesday night at the council meeting, hardly enough time to review the increase. Why wasn’t this report provided a couple weeks in advance of the 1st Reading? Either way, due to the complicated contract, the council has NO choice but to approve the increase. So why even vote on it?
Item #6, the council will be voting on giving affordable housing more money. I have been a little critical of this program because instead of spending the money to refurbish older homes (which would be more equitable and give us more affordable housing) the city tears down houses and builds new homes that 1) don’t really fit into the neighborhoods 2) sell at a loss (to taxpayers) to make them ‘affordable’. I think to preserve neighborhoods we should be focusing on refurbishing older homes instead of bulldozing them. $2 million dollars could probably save 60-70 homes from destruction instead of just building a dozen new homes.
Paramedics Plus needs the money for national litigation and paying bribes to keep contracts. How could the council even consider an increase for this criminal enterprise.
Some older homes are beyond repair. Others should be saved historically. I believe there’s a better affordable housing method than getting the city into the home business. This money ends up in a developers pocket and he puts up boxes no better than those under inner city bridges. Why not down payment and closing cost assistance instead. The city has built private Wimbledon and a hotel on a golf course. At some point they must realize someone’s not going to build when they can’t compete with tax free government.
2 million will save 70 houses???? You crazy.
There needs to be a lot of stipulations before paying folks to fix up THIER properties. People need to qualify by income level, job status, sweet equity and length of ownership before we start handing out money to house flippers.