Letter to my city council

[nadinbrzezinski]

Councilwoman Donna Frye
202 "C" Street, MS #104
San Diego, CA 92101

On the fourteenth of last month we called 9.11 since my father fell down and broke his hip. I was expecting a bill from the ambulance company, but here is where my question comes from. What exactly are our taxes used for in this city?

I called 9.11 for a valid medical emergency and I get a bill... don't I pay taxes to cover that emergency response from San Diego Fire and the Ambulance Company? And wasn't the service taken away from PRIVATE providers over ten years ago since it was a debacle when Sheaffer took it over from American Medical Response? Never mind the Advanced Trauma Life Support that my father received was well under any medical standard (yes I have sent letter stating why to Medical Control) and thankfully no sequelae occurred, I still need to ask. You see, I was a Paramedic Instructor for the Mexican Red Cross in Tijuana and if I had called the equivalent of 9.11 down there, there would have been no bill, They might have asked for a donation, but that is very different from a bill. Oh and the medical care, since I trained most of those medics, I now know it would have been better than what he got. (To put it mildly I was surprised at the scoop and haul done) If I had called 9.11 in Cleveland OH, where my brother lives, there would have been NO BILL, since his house taxes cover that cost. Let's not go into Canada or any other system with a national medical service, where the ambulance would have been covered by THOSE taxes. Yes, they are higher, but they get a hell of a return to their investment.

Oh and it gets worst. The police department is the lowest urban paid system in the State. Why we are having a hell of a blue flight from the city to other departments, at an average cost of five million dollars for each officer with five year experience. And do not get me started with the Field Training Program that has a series of problems with the program, that at a cost of 100,000K per officer failed. Yes, some should never be cops, but from having seen it first hand.. the problems are systemic and they are costing this city thousands of dollars in time and academy training. You can check it out, the failure rate for SDPD is amongst the highest in the state, and it has precious little do to do with standards.

Then there are the parks and recreation department, which we all know are in deep trouble.

Libraries... hours are getting cut, and they have little money for what they need, even simple things such as paper and pens for office use.

Schools, well between no child left behind and low funding some schools in this city are working with 1980s textbooks...

Of course the most obvious evidence of this systemic problem are the holes all over the city, which are not covered correctly and the remedy will be very expensive, which means resurfacing of roads wholesale.

Don't get me wrong. I am not against paying taxes, but I do expect a return for my investment. In fact, the lower taxes mantra from the right is exactly one reason for this problem. But before anybody speaks of this, first we need to KNOW where exactly are my taxes going so those audits need to be finished and let the chips fail where they may. So far, I have not seen that many services delivered. Hell, the only one I can see is the streets department, that performs heroically to keep the sewage system working, and the police, who in-spite of the aforementioned problems they do their job, as best they can, by chasing the radio... and remain a very professional force in-spite of deep morale problems due to low pay.

So what exactly are my House Taxes used for every year?

Sincerely,

XXXX

You see folks, time we all ask these questions from our local, state and federal reps... of course it helps when you know some of these details