The Starbird Philosophy That Guided Glendale for 14 Years
Don’t bother saying
thanks to Jim Starbird — he’s been living a dream for the past 14 years as
Glendale city manager.
A day after disclosing plans to retire at the end of the year, Starbird talked
about his love affair with the city and how he set his eye on becoming its city
manager more than three decades ago as his career as a public servant advanced
from Duarte, to Monrovia, to West Covina.
“I never had a
plan past Glendale, never visualized anything else,” Starbird said. “We’ll see
if there’s life after Glendale.”
At 62, in good health, happily married with his first two grandchildren just a
few months old, Starbird has the rest of his life to look forward to with the
security of a substantial public employee pension and a reputation as one of
the most effective public administrators in Southern California.
Personal reasons played a role in his decision, but the more important factors
were a sense that the City Hall organization was strong, with capable younger
people ready to step up, and that the city was through the worst of the
financial problems posed by the bursting of the housing bubble and the economic
meltdown.
“I wanted to get through this budget cycle. This has been tough, the toughest
year,” he said. “There are still big challenges and rising pension costs, but I
think every year after this is going to be better, because we’ve made a number
of structural changes this year that will put us in a position to see the light
at the end of the tunnel.
“We’re beginning to see a turnaround. We’re seeing it in our development
community. We’re seeing it in our revenue numbers. Each year is going to get
better, thanks to the considerable sacrifices made by our police, our managers,
our non-safety workers. They’ve given up pay and benefits and put new
retirement programs in place. This is a turnaround year.
EDITOR;S NOTE: Here’s video of what I told the City Council Tuesday when it rejected Bill Rosendahl’s effort to bring transparency and honesty to the deal with AEG for a downtown football stadium. Below that is a column written for Nina Royal’s North Valley Reporter on the stadium subject.
We Lose, AEG Wins — Are You Really Surprised?
Let‘s play “Heads I win, tails you lose” or, as AEG‘s Tim Leiweke calls it, “You borrow, T profit,”
That is what is at the heart of the proposal for a downtown NFL stadium that has city officials
scrambling to come up with an acceptable story for public consumption by Leiweke”s July 31 deadline.
For his part, Leiweke is running all over town holding meetings with community groups in an effort to drum up support that will drown out all the questions being asked about
le="color:#38373A">wby the
public gives away its land, pays for the infrastructure needed for a stadium, nearly doubles its enormous debt on the white elephant
Convention Center and gets nothing in return for allowing AEG to potentially reap billions of dollars in profits from bringing football back to Los Angeles for a third time.
The question has been framed in terms of whether the city is at risk borrowing up to $350 million to tear down and rebuild half of the Convention Center to make room for AEG‘s football stadium. The City still owes $450 million on the Convention Center -- which bleeds the general fund of nearly $50 million a year for debt service on the Convention Center, money that otherwise could be used for police and fire services and keeping parks and libraries open. This has been a losing proposition for decades despite promise after promise that if we only invest more money people from all over the world will flock to downtown L.A.
Leiweke says this time is different. Luxury hotels will sprout up all over downtown and L.A. will jump from one of the least desirable cities to hold a convention to No. 1. Thousands of jobs will be created and the city treasury will be overflowing with new tourist revenue. You can take his work for it – or you can ask the really tough questions about what the gets if that doesn‘t happen.
What is on the table is that the tens of millions of dollars in revenue from digital billboards that will cover the stadium and Convention Center wi
People all over the city are beginning to wake up to what is wrong with this deal and ask the right question, “What‘s in it for me?“ The answer is nothing but the bills and the right to pay a hefty price for a ticket to a football game.
What a breath of fresh air it was for me to
read Mr. Starbird’s political philosophy! It is
something I wish our council people – all, not just Perry, Zine, etc., should read, and do.
And the next election should see new faces, not just the same old, same old everywhere.
Not for many terms, either, keep getting new blood until finally the prevailing attitudes
are gone.
The first question anyone with half a brain should ask is if this NFL stadium is such a good deal, why isn’t AEG, Leiweke et al paying for it themselves? Why are they burdening the tax payers and returning nothing? Has no one thought to ask, what’s in it for us?
Of course. Many times. Including letters to council members, comments on Ron Kaye’s articles.
They turn a deaf ear and should be ousted.
For some reason (charter? – I do not think so) I think when there is a vote, union members support and vote for the council members who are benefitting from this obvious display of breaking
all rules of common sense and business practice
the city council and they also vote, so it keeps
going over and over again.
City employees should not belong to unions. Too
much hanky panky. Maybe the next election all encumbents will be voted down and new people who
intend to repair our broken city and state will
be elected one term at a time.
That is my prayer.