The Apple Valley town manager was hired in January 2018 with financial expertise emphasized to solve deficiencies; assistant town managers were let go. Today, there is no final budget for 2019-20, missing the legal deadline again for a month+. There also is a Prop 218 legal settlement of $3.15 million including $1+ million in legal fees expense, refusal to make any simple column calculation of monthly treasury reports for $50 million investment values management, no fund balances and no monthly department reports.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Information
Stop the water tax
The Town Council has insisted for years that water costs are too high in Apple Valley, and that a majority of the citizens agree.
Continue readingUpdate on Neighbors United
| Beneficiary | Amount |
|---|---|
| Emick | $1,050.92 |
| Leon | $1,050.92 |
| Nassif | $1,050.92 |
Who are ‘Neighbors United’?
If you’ve seen their misleading ads and other materials over the years, you may wonder who “Neighbors United” are and why they support everything done by the Town Council.
More evidence that small government works better (Mitchell)
I explained last year that there is an inverse relationship between government efficiency and the size of government.
And Mark Steyn made the same point, using humor, back in 2012.
Interestingly, we have some unexpected allies.
In a recently released study, two economists for the World Bank decided to investigate the effectiveness of government spending.
‘Costs continue to rise for Missoula’s water utility’ (Rhoades)
“The condemnation of Mountain Water Company was a victory not for good government, efficient utilities or the rate-paying public. It was a victory for lawyers, ‘expert’ witnesses, and foreign bankers. Citizens got left holding the bag. Our water is the same and our rates are the same, but now we owe a mountain of debt and have to repay it without the help of what used to be one of our biggest taxpayers. I wonder if the folks in California will make the same mistake.”
Town of Apple Valley accounting update (Lee)
As the red flags keep flying higher on the Town of Apple Valley finances, I thought it was time to put some historical context to how we have arrived where we are today, and feel free to speak up if you spot any errors, omissions, or mischaracterizations.
Opinion, Fact, Fiction, or Comic Strip? (Lee)
I’m not sure which of the above categories the Daily Press/Apple Valley Review falls into. You all saw the articles by Angela Valles and Mayor Art Bishop’s response to her. One has to wonder what these columns are? If they are merely opinion, then, of course, they do not have to validate what they are saying. That would certainly explain why Mr. Bishop took extreme liberties in his writing.
Spurs, Lipstick, and Opinions: A continued look into Town credit transactions (Valles)
Last week we talked about how I believe District Attorney-elect Jason Anderson should investigate the credit card transactions and travel expenses of the Apple Valley Town Council. This is part two in the series.
$216,000 in 2016 (Valles)
You may want to sit down for this one.
What if I told you that you could work for the Town of Apple Valley, retire in December of 2015, work zero hours in 2016, and still “earn” $216,000?