The Cupertino CourierLettersCity Council: I'll take my $1,987 in cash When the city bought the water system in March 1960, they issued $905,000 worth of bonds, and figured that over their 25-year lifespan the bonds would accrue $765,565 in interest annually. That makes a total of $1,670,565 over the next 25 years. The City Council, in leasing the water system to the San Jose Water Company, estimated that there was about $2,500,000 in reserve for the water system, which could now be spent as the City Council saw fit. They ignored the fact that the original bonds and interest and the contingency fund had come out of the pockets of the water-system users. That makes $4.2 million the city has collected in the past. Now they've collected $6.5 million more, which will be paid for by the water-system users over the next 25 years. I'll limit my claims: I've only paid for water from Cupertino for 29 years of the 37 that the city has run the water utility, so you only owe me 78 percent of my share from the past. And federal life-expectancy tables say that I'll probably be dead in 2016, so you only owe me for 19 of the 25 years the city has been paid by the new operators of the water system, who have paid up front. That's 76 percent, and I'll average them to 77 percent. Based on your own notions of "You and Us" as exemplified by this rip-off, I'd like my money up front. Feel free to send me a check for my 78 percent of $10.7 million. I guess I'd rather have it in cash than in some sort of city payback. You guys don't seem to have much interest in keeping your word. I'll accept a check for $1,987, which is my portion. I'll admit that 29 years ago there weren't anywhere near 4,200 users, but 25 years from now, at the rate at which four houses are replacing one, there may be a lot more than 4,200 users. Please don't delay; I'll need that money to pay my water bills. You've notified me that starting the first of this month I'm a customer of San Jose Water. I have one other concern about my hurry to get your check: Think what would happen if some smart lawyer heard of this deal and decided to start a class-action suit. The third of the city that you spit on for not paying "market rate" for their water might very well be willing to let the law firm have 50 percent of that $10 million, just to get the other 50 percent themselves. Say, does anyone know a lawyer willing to take this as a contingency case?
Robert J. Levy A response to DeCinzo from Steve Haze Regarding Mr. DeCinzo's political cartoon of myself, when you have the opportunity, please refer to my Web site at www.NeighborhoodsFirst.com. I believe that there could be some information with an added dimension that may be applied to your craft.
Steve Haze Send your letters to Postmaster General The mail service in Cupertino continues to decline rapidly and complaints to both the local post office and the regional management center result in only temporary improvement. I would like to encourage those in the Cupertino who are receiving their mail late, as we do, or misdelivered, as we do, to write to the Postmaster General in Washington, D.C.. After talking with a supervior at the 800 central service number concerning a problem with our neighborhood mail delivery, I was given the Postmaster General's address: The Postmaster General, Marvin Runyon, 475 L'Enfante Plaza S.W. Washington, D.C. 20260-0001 I understand that letters to the Postmaster General result in the problems being immediately addressed by Washington. Hopefully enough letters of complaint may finally bring about in improved delivery service for all of Cupertino.
C.A. Lafranconi Statton for City Council This is an important council election for the city of Cupertino. We hope residents will become familiar with the candidates and vote on Nov. 4 We are both leaving the council, and we would like to feel that the city remains in good hands. One candidate who has our enthusiastic support is John Statton. We have worked with John for many years and know he will do a great job on our City Council. John has a strong economic development background that will be very helpful in addressing important issues facing our community, including revitalizing Valco and other local shopping. He has 10 years of local community service under his belt, and our experience is that he has always emphasized getting diverse people working together for the common good. We believe he deserves your strong consideration.
Lauralee Sorensen Vote for Sandy Hay "Politics as usual," I think not. Admittedly, as a tenured facutly member of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, I have a vested interest in the upcoming board of trustees elections. However, I sincerely believe there also is simply no better candidate than Sandy Hay, a former faculty colleague. Sandy Hay offers the hope for not only a most needed new voice of change on an often most inattentive and contentious board, but also will provide a balanced and fair position most compatible with the community at large. Sandy Hay is the first faculty member of the district to run for the board, and since he is on a "retirement" teaching contract, he will give up more than half his income by fully retiring to run for office--a committment suggesting principal first and politics second. Not to elect Sandy Hay is to also encourage the same level of incompetence and 'disunity' that has often been demonstrated by the current board. Students, staff, faculty and citizens of the district deserve better, the choice is simple. Elect Sandy Hay.
Scott C. Heffner
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This article appeared in the Cupertino Courier, October 22, 1997. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||