PAGE TWO

Tales of the Ivory Tower

This page will be sorta dedicated to a few interactions between myself and some of the City Council members as well as the City Manager and City Attorney.

DANG NAB DOSE CITIZENS ANYWAY!

Back in the olden days, about 2009 the Gang in the Ivory Tower still upset that the citizens shot down their attempt to add a 1/2 cent raise to the cities sales tax decided to try to make an end-run around the voting procedure.

They took it upon themselves to institute a fee they called the 911 fee.

What this would do is charge all citizens with landline phones or cell phones a flat $1.49 fee per month to be able to use the 911 system.  The second choice if you did not want to pay the $1.49 per month charge would be to pay a $50.00 charge whenever you did use the 911 system.

Because the fee would pay for a specific city service, the city attorney argued it would not be considered a tax and therefore not require voter approval.

Then on Dec 11, 2009 this appeared on the cities website:

UPDATE: Last night, as anticipated, the City Council voted to repeal the 911 Fee — by unanimous vote.

I then e-mailed the City Manager Mr Rick Cole;

As you are aware the city of Ventura instituted a "fee" which they classified as a 911 telephone fee.  The courts found it was in fact a tax and was illegally installed.  The city was ordered to cease collecting the fee and to return the monies that had been collected to the citizens.

The city put a deadline on people wanting a refund and a totally ridiculous means in order to receive this refund.  I recently inquired with the city clerk about how much money the city still retained after the the refund date ran out.  The total retainded by the city according to the city clerk was $1,202,908.

This is a pretty nice chunk of change, It would appear to the uninformed that the city has performed another illegal act by keeping this money and making no attempt to return it to the people that is was stolen from.  Noting the fact that the city has records of every person that was charged this fee.

Rellis Smith

The answer I received from Mr Rick Cole, City Manager was:

Rellis: when did the court order a refund?  What court was it?  When did the trial or hearing take place?

Rick Cole

sent from my iPhone

Mr Cole knew full well that although the City Council had stuck their collective tails between their legs and repealed the 911 fee because they knew that the courts had found against other cities in the same situation and they didn't want to look bad in court.

Mr Rick Cole never did answer my question about the $1,200,000 the city had stolen from the citizens.

Rellis Smith

February 24, 2010

Snack Bar and Pro Shop

Dear Gang in the Ivory Tower, I hereby invite all of you to take a ride around town and witness the massive weed growth that is inundating our city.  Witness also the crumbling streets and sidewalks, witness the shabby condition of the street trees, witness the overall shabby condition of our city.

Then once you have done this, ask yourselves if you honestly think it is a wise and prudent idea to increase the debt of our city by $600,000 in order to build a snack bar and pro shop at a money losing golf course.

Rellis Smith

 HAPPY NEW YEAR, YA'  ALL

12/31/2011

City Council Members

City of San Buenaventura

This is the last time I will be e-mailing you folks until next year.  Being as how it will be a New Year and we now have the “New and Improved” city council I hope one of you will decide to do the morally decent thing for the citizens of our city and place on the Council Agenda an item asking the council to vote to place a proposition on the next General election allowing the citizens of Ventura a chance to vote on electing a Mayor and moving our local elections to coincide with the General election.

Out of 7 (seven) people on the council dais I am betting there is at least one with enough courage and foresight to do this.  It is high time to bring San Buenaventura out of the 18^th Century and join the rest of the world in the 21^st Century.

If none of you decide that you are intelligent to see the advantages to this proposal, perhaps one or more of you could do me a great favor and spell out the reasons why you prefer the Status Quo.  Sans the council agenda item you can expect to be receiving a follow up e-mail from me on the subject each and every week or more.  Plus watch the local newspapers because I will certainly entertain you with my adept manner of writing about the Life in the Ivory Tower and the Gang that inhabits it.

Rellis Smith

Rellis39@sbcglobal.net

Of course as usual I received no answer from the entire council.

2/7/2012

It’s a simple question….

I sent a question to the My Ventura Access, which is a way to get information from the city that you may not be able to get any other way.

My question was very simple, I asked, “How many extraordinarily high water bills for the customers of Ventura water were issued in the past 90 days.

I received this childish answer from Mr. Rick Cole, City Manager of Ventura and Crowned head of the Gang in the Ivory Tower.

Tue, February 7, 2012 9:35:02 AM

RE: City of Ventura case number 60696

Ron:

I'm sorry, your question is both vague and beyond the scope of a California Public Records request. "Extraordinarily high" is vague. But more to the point, the California Public Records Act ensures the public has access to public documents.

Billing issues do come up from time to time in any utility. I trust yours is being handled professionally and courteously.

Best wishes,

Rick Cole
City Manager

I answered Mr Cole with this e-mail;

I see you are still having my questions directed to your office, I still maintain that is an illegal interception of mail, it may be e-mail but it is still mail.

My question, to your limited intellect, is quite possibly vague; however to anybody else it would be a direct question and can only be taken one way. If the cities computers are not capable of having that information on hand, it is apparent that there is a problem with either the computers or you are simply lying about it.

I will be at the next Council meeting with my problem with Ventura Water.

Best wishes to you also

Rellis

Champion Gadfly

2/9/2012

For well over 30 years the city has been paying the State of California $900,000 per year in order to hold a place in line in case we ever decided to hook up to the States Water Pipeline.

30 years @ $900,000 equals $27,000,000 of our tax money that we will never see again.

Regardless that Councilman Jim Monahan has stumped for the State pipeline for 30 years the city knows it will never hook up to it.  One of the main reasons is that whenever the idea hits the state for any reason they will and have decided to limit the amount of water that they will allot to their customers.

I e-mailed the City Clerks office under the Ventura Access link and placed  this question on the web site:

Is the city of Ventura still paying the state of California over $900,000 per year to keep there place in the pipeline status?

Because the City Manager, Mr Rick Cole constantly has all my e-mails routed to his office so he can decide if the question is valid sent me a one word answer to my question.

The word he sent was "YES". So instead of using the $900,000 for the crumbling infrastructure in our city the Gang in the Ivory Tower still pays it to the State.

Also back in 2009 the city came up with a doozy of a way to spend our tax money.

The Gang in the Ivory Tower, through the auspices of the "Public Art Program" has launched another way to toss our Tax Money into the prevailing winds.  The "Artistic Bicycle Rack" program is due to start in July.  What the heck is the "Artistic Bicycle Rack" program you ask, well it's a program that the Gang in the Ivory Tower feels will go a long way to promote the city of San Buenaventura as a "Bicycle Friendly City".

They are asking the "Artists" in our city to present ideas on "Artistic Bicycle Racks", the will be judged by some "Arts Commission" and the winners will be awarded $5000.00 each for the winning submissions.

I then sent an e-mail to Ms Denise Sindelar, the Ventura Interim Cultural Affairs Manager, asking how many of the $5000.00 "Artistic Bicycle Racks" were going to be installed.  The following are a couple of e-mails from Ms Sindelar.

Dear Mr Smith

Thank you for your interest in this project.  As per the process for the selection of artwork for the public art collection, the Public Art Commission will review a recommendation from the artist selection panel once the Bike Rack proposals have been vetted.  The number of racks to be fabricated will be determined through this process.

Sincerely,

Denise Sindelar

Interim Cultural Affairs Manager

City of Ventura

I then asked if there was a mimimum or maximum number of racks proposed.  Here is the answer.

Dear Mr Smith

At this time there is no set number, minimum or maximum, identified to be fabricated.  There is $35,000 of Public Art Funding identified for this project.

Sincerely

Denise Sindelar

Interim Cultural Affairs Manager

City of Ventura

I then replied, so what it all means is that the Gang in the Ivory Tower and the "Public Arts Program" have decided to toss a "Minimum" of $35,000 into the abyss never to be seen again. 

This is obviously the same "Artistic" method that brought us the underwhelming beauty of the "Bus/Home" bus stop at the Pacific View Mall for only a small charge of $3,000,000.

 This is a bannter between Mr Rick Cole, City Manager and myself after Mr Cole did something he never has done before, he called me on the telephone.

Dear Mr Cole

After thinking about the phone call you made to me the other day where you advised me that you were tired of all the questions I ask and the way that I ask them I decided you were in dire need of a lesson in our Constitutional rights:

1^st Amendment of the Constitution of the United State of America states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment or religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This is of course the essential liberty, without which all other freedoms are impossible to put into practice. No special circumstances, no emergency, no unforeseen contingency can dilute the plain meaning of those words or that phrasing.

It is true you did not try to stop my freedom of speech, however you did make a City Manager “rule” that in the future instead of directing my questions to whoever I pleased or decided they were the proper person, you told me that in the future you had directed the City Clerk that all questions from me were to be directed to your office so you could personally decide if my question was “relevant”.

From the dawn of history, despots have relied on the idea that, quite literally, their word is law, or absolute.  I have never met or heard of anybody I would trust with the job of deciding in advance what it might be permissible for me or anyone else to say or read.  To claim to possess exclusive truth is a vain one and cannot be tolerated.

I would imagine that the act of re-directing mail, albeit, e-mail could well be highly illegal and prosecutable under the law.

I would therefore advise you to not direct the City Clerk to re-direct my e-mails to your office, they should and must be directed to the person or department intended.

Rellis Smith

Rellis39@sbcglobal.net

911 Fee Money

Mr Rick Cole, City Manager

Another e-mail exchange between Myself and Rick Cole, City Manager

From: "Cole, Rick" <rcole@ci.ventura.ca.us>
To: RONALD SMITH <rellis39@sbcglobal.net>
Sent: Tue, February 7, 2012 4:59:54 PM
Subject: Re: 911 Fee

Ron, I know this is a kind of sport with you. As you well know, the payers of the fee were offered an opportunity to ask for a refund. Most did, many did not. The residual, having already been spent, wasn't stolen. It was spent on Police services, specifically the 911 Center operational cost.

Rick Cole
City Manager
City of Ventura
805 654-7740
Blog: www.cmblog.cityofventura.net
Twitter: @venturacole

Tue, February 7, 2012 7:03:12 PM

Re: 911 Fee

The problem was the way you and the council decided that people had to perform to get the refund. Many people probabley didn't get the message, many were older and had problems getting to the city hall and many of course speak limited English.

The city had all the records of who paid into the 911 fee and simply should have refunded the money with no strings attached.

Rellis Smith