Taxes, Wages and Endorsements

September 27, 2002

Dear Editor:

Fixed-income Santa Monica-Malibu senior citizens and renters should see the color RED when they view the many new bond measures asking for an additional $29 BILLION of new Property and Parcel Tax Bond Measures on their November ballot. Pass-through property taxes to renters are just a small sign of the obliteration of the State of California's wealth, and the Santa Monica-Malibu property tax payer and renters are paying the price.

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Measure EE is an example of but one of the 10 or so "blank checks" that the property tax payer and renter are asked to support. Measure EE proponents paint the SMMUSD schools Crimson Red in debt.

In my day ('50s) schools were colored in primitive Italian White, Spartan Grey or Metal Green not Ink Red. I reminisce that schools contained rows of lockers most of which could be found in gym. In the gym lockers were lined up against the wall atop chilly, unpainted cement. Lockers were secured with the proverbial combination lock. There was no furniture. A single wooden bench bolted to metal posts sunk in the cement was sufficient. Comfort, let alone warmth, was not listed in the specifications of building locker rooms. In fact, comfort in a locker room was frowned upon as "unmanly." Locker rooms were just plain functional.

There were never enough towels. Often I dried off with a tee shirt, blotted with paper towels, or shared. The shortage of towels was offset by an abundance of carnage dolefully given out by seniors to underclassmen. Mostly, it was pretty harmless hazing. To a senior classman, drying was a towel's secondary purpose. Its primary use was to raise red welts on bare backsides of underclassmen via snapping. Trying to get from the shower back to one's locker was to run a gauntlet. I certainly have not forgotten the sear of a wet towel sting. Seniors used the locker room to adjust attitudes of younger schoolmates.

As the years passed it became readily apparent to all of those who went through this passage of life, that while we went to the showers to clean up our bodies, it was the ritual of the locker room that taught us how to clean up our approach to life, to be answerable for our actions.

The SMMUSD and our state government should be answerable for their actions, but they have not been accountable to the voter. Seniors Citizens must once again adjust attitudes of our "youthful" government.

State, County and the local school district want more money and less answerability, and they expect property tax payers and renters to pay for it again and again. We must protect ourselves with our votes in November.

And that is all I have to say.

Tom Fakehany

September 27, 2002

Dear Editor:

In her zeal to promote the upcoming Living Wage ballot measure, Ms. Vivian Rothstein, in her recent editorial, forgot to point out the discriminatory applications of Measure JJ. ("The Facts Are In: Living Wage Makes Good Economic Sense," September, 20) Let me set the record straight of who will benefit and who will be exempt.

• All workers outside a very specific geographic zone are excluded.
• All workers inside that zone are excluded if the business for which they work falls below a certain revenue volume.
• All workers inside that zone are excluded if they work for a unionized hotel.

Unfortunately, Ms. Rothstein, a SMART leader and union organizer, cannot be trusted to provide the truth about the Living Wage debate. She is first and foremost a union organizer, and clearly sees the benefit of this proposed ordinance to the unions.

I cannot fault H.E.R.E. (The Hotel Employee and Restaurant Employee union), Ms. Rothstein's employer, for the clever way in which it is using this issue by tempting hotel owners to sign a union contract which will exempt them from the Living Wage ordinance, at the expense of the workers and to the benefit of the union in additional dues.

Union-negotiated hourly wages for employees are in many cases below the $10.50 proposed by SMART, and they will not increase to that level should the measure pass. Some of the workers who will be left out are the housekeepers and dishwashers, the people that SMART claims to be fighting so hard for.

Case in point. In 2003, a full time housekeeper, dishwasher, or laundry attendant at the Viceroy Hotel with a union-set hourly wage of $9.85 will be earning $20,488 annually. By being excluded from this ordinance, these hard-working employees will be deprived of $1,352 in annual income.

In addition, the union also collects $360 per year in dues for representation. I wonder if these employees who are being forced by the union to demonstrate during their lunch break and hold signs advocating a Living Wage know that they are being used!

Measure JJ is not fair to workers, it is discriminatory and excludes many workers citywide that do the same type of work but are being arbitrarily excluded. Most importantly, this terribly flawed measure does not come free! Estimates are that its implementation will cost the city and taxpayers an estimated $3 million.

Does it make sense to put through a law that favors so few and excludes so many?

Sincerely,

Klaus Mennekes
Vice President and General Manager
Hotel Casa del Mar

September 25, 2002

Dear Editor,

The decision of the Police and Firefighters Union not to support Bob Holbrook is bewildering ("Dinolfo, McKeown, O'Connor Win Public Safety, Teacher Endorsements," September 25).

Mr. Holbrook has been and continues to be the strongest supporter of public safety on the city council. What are the real motives behind the Police and Firefighters union?