Congratulations, Guadalupe! You got the money you were hoping for! Now just don’t mess it up.
We heard for months that the city of Guadalupe was ready to go as belly-up as a goldfish at a smorgasbord, mostly due to the fact that some long-running iffier-than-iffy accounting practices had painted a rosier financial picture than actually existed on the government level. This is the keep-the-lights-on level. The make-sure-there-are-officers-on-the-streets-to-protect-you-from-the-bad-guys level.
I’m glad I’m not the person who first combed through the official financial records to find the numbers that showed Guadalupe was much further down the hole than previously imagined. The initial physical reaction probably would have led me to believe I was coming down with Ebola: headache, nausea, bleeding from the eyes.
The situation was so dire, we were told, that unless all of the good-hearted, civic-minded, and willing residents of the city agreed to flick their thumbs up in favor of a trio of new taxes, Guadalupe would be no more.
It’s not like it would get wiped off the map or anything. It would just likely cease to exist as a city, meaning it would unincorporate or disincorporate or do whatever it is cities do when they give up the dream for good and settle back into the warm, slightly disappointed embrace of the larger county.
“Well, Guadalupe, you tried,” Santa Barbara County would say. “And that’s the most anyone can ask of you.”
But that’s not going to happen.
Probably.
With the measures that passed on Nov. 4—bumping the city sales tax from 8 to 8.5 percent, ripping off a $2,250 cap on various utility taxes, and upping business licensing fees—Guadalupe will now be rolling in the dough.
Actually, a more accurate way to say it is that Guadalupe will now be rolling in less worry. Because they’re not yet out of the danger zone.
Two things:
First, the ballots cast a few weeks ago don’t immediately make cash appear in the city’s coffers. The votes aren’t magic—that I know of, anyway. In reality, city leaders are going to have to wait for new fiscal years to begin, new waves of purchases to be made.
Second, Guadalupe got itself into this financial pit in the first place when apparently no one noticed that something untoward was happening in the budget region for 15 years. That’s a long time. Like, a dog’s entire life.
This is the city that, back in the early 2000s, had a mayor who was suspected of making personal calls—including to an adult line or two—from his city-issued cell phone. The Santa Barbara County grand jury called the city leadership dysfunctional. This was a deeply and profoundly problematic government that everyone in the county recognized as being deeply and profoundly problematic. Even if everyone couldn’t hear the bickering directly, they could see the effects of it.
There’s been a leadership overhaul since then, but we’re still feeling the effect almost two decades later.
Plus, more recent leaders had plenty of opportunity, it seems to me, to get their house in order but didn’t until an outsider came in in the form of a new city manager, looked at the numbers, and said, “Hey, wait a minute … .”
A couple of these leaders won their campaigns in this year’s City Council election, celebrating victory alongside the measures’ supporters. Hooray! But listen: I have a word of advice for you returning leaders.
Don’t let this happen again.
Guadalupe’s not in the clear yet. As best as I understand it, the city is still on the edge of the abyss, it’s just not exactly teetering now—like, a snowy plover landing on one side won’t tip it over into oblivion, but the situation could still be better. As I noted before, money isn’t rolling in overnight, and even an eventual influx of cash doesn’t mean the city will have a lot of green to throw around. It means that everyone narrowly avoided having to back off on the essential services to which they’re accustomed. Disaster has been averted, and now everyone has to buckle down and figure out how to claw back into the light.
Don’t blow it.
Now is not the time to be complacent, and it’s certainly not the time to pop some champagne corks and party. This is when the real work begins.
So roll up your sleeves. A lot of people are counting on the momentum that this recent election started to build.
The Canary believes in tough love. Send comments or tips to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 20-27, 2014.
