Crime and safety
I would hope that all citizens read the published Crime Logs in the local papers.
Pay attention to the crime and crime patterns in your neighborhood.
Do your family, neighbors and the police the favor.
The crime data is issued from the surrounding law enforcement agencies to help alert citizens of issues in their community.
Alert the police when something looks suspicious so they can better investigate.
You are the eyes and ears of your community.
Rick Paap
Los Alamitos
RCSD Personnel / Payroll costs out of whack
Firstly, let me say that I am glad that Rossmoor and the RCSD has been successful in not being annexed by another city.
If this happens, issues and costs will skyrocket.
The RCSD is funded from our Property Taxes and Fees charged for facility usage.
The total revenue projected for FY 2012-13 is approximately $1.2 million.
The Total Expenses including Capital Projects and some allocation for Law Enforcement is approximately $1.6 million.
Included in the $1.6 million Total Expenses this fiscal year is conservatively $.4 million in fully-loaded Payroll Costs.
This is right at 25 percent Payroll/Total Budget. On the surface, this appears reasonable.
However, included in the $1.6 million in Total Expenses are costs associated with the Street Lights, Rossmoor Signature Wall, Rush Park Bond and Street Sweeping (Pass-through Expenses).
These items total another $.5 million. The management and administration of these expenses require minimal RCSD time and expense.
No, I do not know the time/$ amount.
And should I inquire, I feel comfortable in stating I will not receive a response.
So if you back out the Pass-through Expenses and Payroll Costs, the RCSD spends $.4 + million per year to manage $.7 million of the Total Expenses.
Yes, there are some minimal costs associated with the Payroll function.
Yes, there are many challenges in managing the Parks, dealing with the Governmental issues, Law Enforcement, Recreation and Capital Projects. I have highlighted my concerns to Henry Taboada and the Rossmoor Board of Directors.
Their response: None, which is typical and consistent.
Taboada stated in a response to a 2012 Grand Jury investigation (I am paraphrasing from memory): that there was no need to do an efficiency study of the RCSD Payroll/Operations as no one is interested nor would they read it.
Well, I am both interested and concerned.
The Board of Directors and Rossmoor citizens should also be concerned.
How many transparent and efficient businesses do you know of where the payroll costs are in excess of 65 percent of the expenses managed?
Dave Burgess
Rossmoor
Running to aid in New York
I just got home from a trip to New York as I was registered to run the New York Marathon this past weekend.
Instead, I volunteered in Staten Island with a few new friends from around the world.
I live in Seal Beach and I’m an avid runner and have been planning on my trip out to New York since April when I was selected to run.
It has always been a dream of mine to run New York.
While I was on my flight Friday late afternoon to New York, I saw on the satellite TV that the marathon had been cancelled.
At first, I was shocked as the race was only a day and a half away and had wished they would have cancelled it earlier to avoid flying out.
Then I started to think there must be a reason why I was flying out and I jumped online to see if there were any updates on volunteer opportunities.
I wanted something positive to come out of my trip.
Late Saturday afternoon, I was able to find an opportunity along with some other runners to volunteer in Staten Island.
The experience I had on Nov. 4 was beyond what I ever expected with over 1,000 runners showing up to help.
I was able to help two families clean out their homes in addition to working with donations.
I met some amazing people who were personally affected by the marathon that I will never forget. I came home with a life-changing memory that will last beyond any marathon and was the best race I never ran.
Kristen Boscia
Seal Beach
Logical questions
Why?
Logic dictates that we ask why employees with combined decades of experience working under two administrators and dozens of Golden Rain Foundation boards, would “suddenly” file lawsuits claiming that they are being treated in a manner that conflicts with existing law.
According to the documents The Sun reported were filed in court, it is obvious that these employees had endured egregious behavior over time and felt they had no other way to make it stop.
Supporters of the defendants are now making laughable claims … such as the salary (set by the GRF Board) of the administrator (hired by the GRF Board) is higher than their salaries “back in the day,” so it must constitute “elder abuse” and the administrator—but not the board who hired him or agreed to his salary—should be investigated—which, of course, makes no sense at all.
Equally preposterous is the claim that they are merely seeking “golden handshakes.”
People currently “blaming the victims” are the very people who are permitted to publicly berate our staff at board meetings, which violates GRF policy and it is in direct violation of established laws on how people must behave in the workplace in the 21st century.
In a week or so (today is Oct. 30), the results of the presidential election will be in and half the country will be furious at the results.
But that doesn’t mean that “the losing” group can do whatever it wants to unseat the winner of that election.
The “losers” will have to reorganize and do better next time.
“The losers” who wanted our administrator gone merely needed to wait until his contract expired and, with the current board, vote him out.
But they weren’t that smart. They attempted to make him go away by metaphorically setting the entire workplace on fire.
And now they are trying to charge him—and the other victims—with the arson.
Some of my neighbors might be trusting enough to believe those shoddy defense claims, but I cannot imagine that any currently seated court or arbitrator will fall for them.
Sue Savage
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