| "Absolutely Outrageous" Councilman Mario Gomez Calls Efforts Led by Ric Loya To Spend Public Funds For Saving Vitally Needed Hospitals From Closure What is even more "Absolutely Outrageous" Is For Gomez To Give Gratis $160,000 In Public Funds on 1-day Celebrations, Fiestas, Flowers, Contracts to Friends and Campaign Contributors, Council Pay Raises and a $30,000 Gift of Public Funds To Private Business Group and Friend Meta 2000 January 24, 2005 Editor, WatchOurCity.com Huntington Park, CA - During the January 18, 2005 council meeting, councilman Ric Loya placed on the council agenda an item exploring feasibility of saving two local hospitals from closure. Councilman Mario Gomez called Loya's proposal "Absolutely Outrageous". The council agenda states that "Staff [is] to conduct a feasibility study on the potential purchase and financing of the Community and Mission Hospitals and to report back to City Council in no more than ninety (90) days; staff to hire a healthcare consultant to assist staff in conducting the feasibility study and report back to City Council in 30 days with recommendations including costs. (City Council meeting December 13, 2004)". According to Mario Gomez, it is "Outrageous" to spend public funds on feasibility studies to save a hospital from closure while, according to him, neglecting public spending needs for senior citizens. Councilman Gomez's stated: "This is very rare that I would agree with…Enrique…the fact that our senior citizen…building has not been constructed…the fact that we tore it down and has not been replaced and the fact that…Council is maybe considering spending large sums of money in order to investigate whether we can afford maybe going into the hospital business and that we’ll be looking at spending $20,000 to $50,000 dollars to do that at the preliminary study with the follow-up study to reach God knows how many dollars, I think is outrageous. Absolutely outrageous that we would even consider spending money to do a study on something that we all know is not doable, not with our…our finances the way they are and then leave the senior citizens high and dry with nothing to me is scandalous, so I’ll just leave it at that". Evidently, Gomez is good at speaking before thinking. Councilman Mario Gomez is seemingly not known for clear, logical and composed thinking, and, as witnessed by anyone attending council meetings, is prone to rambling emotional outbursts. Very unbecoming of a respectable councilman, not to mention the blatant hypocritical pandering to senior citizens. Councilman Gomez may recall that he voted to spend nearly $160,000 in public funds seemingly without once giving any thought or consideration to senior citizens, or the city's preschoolers, or little league players for that matter, as evidenced by his choice to vote for the following highly questionable public funds expenditures: - $30,000 in free cold-hard public cash to his friends at Meta 2000, a private business group. - $20,000 to a consultant to promote Measure L, that won seemingly by Public Relations campaign deceit, with Mario Gomez evidently manipulating the truth of the new taxes. - $22,000 to award a transportation contract costing the city extra by not choosing the low bidder, choosing instead to award the $4 million contract to his friends and campaign contributors Fiesta Taxi and Oldtimers Foundation. - $16,800 total per year in a $350 raise that Gomez and three other council members gave themselves while reportedly they were not gainfully employed elsewhere. - $11,000 for an event on Pacific Blvd (Dia de los magos). - $3,000 for flowers for a BID event. - $24,000 to continue to allow Escareno access to additional travel allowances in a two year period. - $15,000 per year in total pay of "volunteer" commissions to close to $200 per meeting. - $3,000 by approving Gomez's good friend, councilman Ed Escareno's cell phone expenses. - $15,000 combined pay to city commissions per year, all friends of city council members, some do not even live in the city and still get paid $1,200 per year as appointed Arts and Culture Commissioners. Senior citizens actually believe Mario Gomez and his council cronies are looking out for their interests. Absolutely Outrageous! To quote Gomez once more: "not with our…our finances the way they are and then leave the senior citizens high and dry with nothing to me is scandalous, so I’ll just leave it at that". |
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