Power Points

By Joseph John "Joey" Racano

A few more points important to Huntington Beach...

First of all, let's talk REDEVELOPMENT. According to the laws of redevelopment, an area only retains it's redevelopment area status for a certain amount of years. Redevelopment is a temporary designation. In Huntington Beach however, this law has been ignored.

Further, things have gone awry- Huntington Beach's Redevelopment area in South East Huntington Beach has lost 1.6 Million that was to come from property tax on the AES Power Plant. But AES got their buddies at the State Board of Equalization to de-value their property- even though they just spent 1/4 BILLION on plant upgrades! Friends, this is the only place on the entire coast where the property value is diminishing instead of skyrocketing!

Did I mention that in Huntington Beach, our redevelopment has lost an average of 16 Million dollars per year for the last 5 years?

POWER PLANT FIASCO

Of course I also want to see the AES Power Plant re-tool (using union labor for safety reasons) from single pass cooling up to combined cycle cooling configuration that will bring the plant into compliance with the Clean Water Act. This is way overdue. It also precludes the Poseiden Mis Adventure. The AES plant is very bad for many reasons and not only dumps unheard of amounts of bacteria while sucking in and killing all sea life for 2 square miles (!!)but is actually sitting illegally on a Tidal Flat. The darn thing is a lot of trouble and needs to go. In the words of the Governor of the State of California, "Hasta La Vista, Baby!".

Bolsa Chica

Save the entire Bolsa Chica, Mesa and Wetlands!

Mobile Home Parks

Stop the illegal take-over of Cabrillo Mobile Home Park by Mills Land & Water- this is highway robbery!

Also, pass the Mobile Home Conversion Ordinance ammendment. This will give fair market 'real-in-place' value to homeowners of Mobile Homes as well as protect the residents -75% of whom are elders- from traumatic moves in the golden stage of their lives.

ANIMAL KINDNESS

The people of Huntington Beach have a lot of dogs, yet generate few calls to OC Animal Control. This means we are good pet owners. WE NEED OUR VERY OWN PRO-HUMANE SHELTER! We already pay more to OCAC than does any other city, yet we are the very best dog owners. Guess how much they get from us? A MILLION $$ a YEAR!

Our own pro-humane shelter makes good sense! I suggest we do the feasability study over again, because the last one was way overblown, I remember that sham well. :)

Finally (before I talk your ears off) let's do a feasability study on regionalization of public safety services. This is a great way to increase public safety while reducing costs and risks.

With all the corruption in our local government and despite a bloated top heavy budget, we need to focus more on public services for our elders, and elect people like me who don't absolutely worship money and power. Let's give the kids wireless internet access, skateboard parks and open libraries- and a really awesome state-of-the-state recycling program! Hey, I'm excited!

Vote for me- I'm #5 on the ballot, #1 for a clean ocean!

Love and respect,

Joey Racano

ps thanx to the LWV!!