I am disappointed Zachary Clark’s article on July 31, “Belmont council rejects utility tax,” failed to mention key arguments that opponents made against the tax measure. Several of us complained at the council meeting that city officials would not release key findings of a $133,000 survey to determine support for a new tax, but the survey was not even mentioned in the article. Council members would not respond to these charges of secrecy at the meeting, and Clark should have asked them to respond for his article.
The primary purpose of the survey was to determine support for a community center tax, but the city would not reveal the percentage supporting such a tax, despite my California Public Records Act request for the survey answers. The city also would not reveal the percentage supporting a Utility Users Tax of 2.95% versus a utility tax of 1.0%, which were two separate questions on the survey.
These and other complaints by residents about the secrecy around the survey were detailed in my proposed op-ed sent to the editor July 19. Unfortunately, I never received a response. Clark could have used this information to write a more informative and balanced article.
Lack of transparency by city officials has been a continuing problem in Belmont, and I hope the Daily Journal will make more of an effort in the future to investigate this and fairly present both sides of political issues.
Tim is absolutely right. i followed this process myself and now I wonder how many clues Mr. Marshall misses when he reports on other topics that interest us. .
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(3) comments
keep it up Tim, good job
(Keep) not keep. Zoph would not be happy.
Tim is absolutely right. i followed this process myself and now I wonder how many clues Mr. Marshall misses when he reports on other topics that interest us. .
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.