YOUR VIEWS
Times needs more clarity in its reporting
Dear Editor,
Your Nov. 27 article on the Morgan Hill Recreation Department’s results being over budget are grossly misleading. “Over budget” means to most people that an operation is profitable, not operating at a big loss as was the department. Your article would have been much clearer if you had written that the Recreation Department’s operations exceeded their budgeted loss or their budgeted deficit.
Looking forward to more clarity in your reporting.
Charles Cameron, Morgan Hill
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Thank you, Morgan Hill Community
Dear Editor,
Thank you to all of the people in the community who contributed to the Live Oak High School Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive. It was a success with your assistance as 125 needy families in the Morgan Hill Unified School District were helped to have a happier Thanksgiving. Approximately 80 different students took part in the actual collections and distribution to provide a sense of community.
Over 60 helped collect monetary donations and cans in front of three grocery stores on Veterans’ Day weekend. Then, with the money collected, more food was bought as well as turkeys for each family. Thank you also to several local restaurants that provided gift certificates to the teachers who encouraged the most collections of non-perishables in their classrooms, and thank you to all of the students who brought cans to your classes and supported the drive.
Everything was sorted and packed into 125 huge apple boxes, each weighing approximately 75-80 pounds on Nov. 19 and 20. This box plus another large grocery bag full of food, a large container of detergent, a loaf of bread, and a turkey, were delivered on Nov. 21 (non school day) to each family.
Thanks to the Morgan Hill Lions Club members who helped with the transportation and to the 24 students who helped deliver (two students with each Lion) on Nov. 21, it was another successful year.
The community’s generosity was very much appreciated! Have a great holiday season!
Kiki Nakauchi, Morgan Hill
Volunteer FBLA Adviser
Enterprises operating at a loss
Dear Editor,
The Nov. 27 Morgan Hill Times reported: “The Morgan Hill Recreation and Community Services Department exceeded it’s 2006-07 fiscal year budget by $208,742.” The article mentioned that the city’s enterprises are also competing with each other.
The paper might have said that the city’s commercial enterprises have a $208,742 operating loss.
It is, I believe, better communication to discuss city public services and budgets with different words than those used to talk about the city’s commercial enterprises operating for profit. Governments provide to serve the common good. When the city manager, via staff, recommended to the city council that the community theatre should be used, on a share the profit basis, and when he recommended that the CRC programs are to be contracted out to the Young Men’s Christian Association on a share the profit basis – alarms should have rang from the bell towers. Alarms for caution should have shattered the windows and when it was mentioned, I understand, that a member of the city council had then recently served on the board of directors of a YMCA.
A community selects managers who are skilled in operating public entities.
The managers are asked to provide the best police protection, roads, utilities, schools, parks, and such. The managers are not to convert the library into a bookstore/ book rental business, or convert the police department in to a commercial security company. The enterprises might make money but they would not protect and educate all the citizens.
The managers, I believe, lost sight of “serving the common good” when they told us they were:
- Building a community swimming pool and then created a commercial water park.
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Building a Community and Cultural Center and then created a commercial events center.
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Building a Community Playhouse and then created a share the profit enterprise. Only a nightclub would sell liquor for four hours during an evening’s entertainment.
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Recreation center (indoor public park) to bring together our community and then created a commercial athletic center that requires citizens to pay to become members of a religious organization.
The city managers lost sight of the public mission. They used city resources to compete for market share.
Without public consent they converted public assets, I suspect, by:
a. Changing the purpose of expensive facilities without clear disclosure and public consultation.
b. Changing the use of a $23 million building without soliciting alternate solutions from the community.
c. Implementing a ten year, no bid share the profit contract, with a ‘not for profit’ religious organization.
The city managers, I believe, are out of focus when they say, “Well, the city was short of money, and many people enjoy the facilities.” Some people would enjoy a tax-supported, $23 million restaurant in downtown Morgan Hill.
The city managers, it appears, are asking us to pony up another quarter of a million so “partners” can make a profit. And the poorer of us, who contribute, will still not be served.
Staten M. Johnston, Morgan Hill
