Dear Editor:
To begin with, I am writing this letter as an individual
councilperson and am not writing on behalf of any other
councilperson or the city in general.
Dear Editor:
To begin with, I am writing this letter as an individual councilperson and am not writing on behalf of any other councilperson or the city in general. Since there is so much talk going on about the new police station, I would like to clear up some points that seems to keep falling through the cracks.
The money that is being used for this station came from police impact fees that developers paid to the city. No city jobs or programs were cut back or lost because of this.
When I explain that the money is from an impact fee, I then get asked “If we already have that much money, then why does the city say we are in a financial crisis? Why don’t we just use that money for other things?”
I wish it was that easy. There are state laws that say when we collect impact fees, we, the city, must collect them for a specific reason, i.e., the building of a new police station, and that we can only use that money for that reason. The law does not give us the ability to move that money from project to project or department to department.
And as I have stated to this paper, when our station is completed and Morgan Hill’s station is completed, I know that we will be in the best position when it comes to each building future use.
When our officers are still using this station in it’s present form, Morgan Hill will be looking to expand theirs or start the process all over again. In the long run, we are getting the better deal.
And lastly, if the Council was not to build the new station, then again, by law, we would be required to reimburse each and everyone of the developers that paid into the impact fees for the station. So in a nutshell – either we build it or we start writing checks to developers.
Russ Valiquette, City Councilman, Gilroy
Submitted Wednesday, Jan. 14 to ed****@ga****.com
