This very concept of democracy demands that politicians must work together. Yet it does not mean there can not be true independence on a council of five, tasked with the responsibility of governing the needs of a city. All that is required, is conscience and the ability to withstand peer pressure.
What is right, is right no matter the individuals involved. It takes true character to vote your conscience. Especially if it is one that will make you unpopular with your co-workers and colleagues. Trust me when I say that while working in support of reducing property taxes with Prop 13 years ago, I learned just how unpopular one can be with co-workers who also happen to be politicians. Nonetheless, I proceeded with heeding my conscience and still sleep better at night knowing that I had the backbone to stand up against governmental powers that were hurting my neighbors and forcing them from their family homes.
With this current economy, again I must take a stand and publicly voice my opinion about how our city is running. The stand is one which I have taken based on addressing the needs of our community in regards to the foreclosures, once again because families are being torn from their homes. Some commenter's in the HesperiaStar.com article, that discussed this stand, are suspicious that I am in favor of the national bail out and expect more taxes for money to solve the problem, but nothing could be further from the truth.
As a true voice of independence, what I am actually standing up for is a RETURN of public money, back into the hands of Hesperian's that has already been set aside just for such a purpose. These are public funds that the city has long held onto, without dispersing these funds through their home owner assistance programs as originally intended. Truthfully, I have a problem with this as the cities own newsletter defines what the budget is and that the city council is directly responsible for deciding how the funds are dispersed.
In fact, the city has long already had the money set aside to help people get loans to buy homes - the only problem is that they just have NOT been so eager to get those loans processed. Instead the city council has allowed holding onto these public funds.
This is something I intend to immediatly change when elected. It is apparent now, more than ever, that these funds need to be returned into the hands of the people. We need to make this a priority. We need to be holding the city council responsible for dispersing these funds immediately, to help get our economy back in the right direction, before our area starts to decline further.
My plan as a city councilman would be to (1) to establish a ACTIVE loan program for first time owner occupied. First time owner occupied as being defined as someone who has not owned a home for three years or more. Additionally, credit counseling classes would be required to participate in this program. These loans would be made available to qualifying medium income buyers with the long term goal of stabilizing our city and reducing the over one thousand vacant homes which are currently a blight on our neighborhoods.
___Loan INFO
INCOME LIMITS
In order to qualify for a Mortgage Assistance Program home loan, the Applicant’s gross annual household income must not exceed the following limits: *
CATEGORY HOUSEHOLD SIZE
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Very Low $23,300 $26,650 $29,950 $33,300 $35,950 $38,650 $41,300 $43,950
Low $37,300 $42,650 $47,950 $53,300 $57,550 $61,850 $66,100 $70,350
Moderate $52,100 $59,500 $67,000 $74,400 $80,400 $86,300 $92,300 $98,200
*Year 2008 Income Limits as published by the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and updated annually
_______ END Loan Info
This money has already been set aside by the redevelopment agency which falls under state law and can ONLY be used for the program I have already laid out or (2) apartments, and if not used will (3) automatically revert to the state if not needed in our city. We simply need to use it, or lose it.
There are absolutely NO EXCUSES for this money not being available right now to people who wish to apply for this program - except I have seen absolutely no evidence that people who have tried are successful of gaining the help of this program. The people who have approached the city for these funds, are unsuccessful because the program has simply not been set up yet. Therefore it is my opinion that the current city council has been extremely derelict in their duties and options (2) more apartments and (3) sending it back to the state are not what will improve our community.
Russ
