YourPublicMoney.Com
Introduction

Last update - 6/12/11

YourPublicMoney.Com is addressed to politically active citizens across the political spectrum in Mendocino County on California's North Coast.

The County of Mendocino’s debt crisis is severe and getting worse. Debt payments consume a higher percentage of our County's budget than any other in California. Debt payments per resident are twice the #2 County – 6 times more than average.

Today’s debt is around $275 million. Over a half-billion dollars will be extracted from our weak local economy over the next 30 years to pay this debt. It won’t produce one minute of County services or one dime of infrastructure. Kids not even born yet will be paying this debt we put on their shoulders.

Debt payments will almost certainly double from 2010 through 2015. The number of funded staff positions will come close to being cut in half as a result. Our County’s solvency is seriously threatened.

Our County is being ground between a rock it mostly didn’t create – the bad economy – and a hard place it mostly did –debt created by its failure to properly fund pensions.

After years of trying to get County officials to see the extent of our problems and do something I've sadly concluded they aren't going to do it. The "financial culture" inside our County is too dysfunctional - the inertia is too great.

The people need to intervene to demand the financial truth - how bad is the debt, how was it created, what are its impacts going to be, what reforms are necessary and what are we going to do about this crippling debt?

County officials have four fundamental financial duties to the people:

These duties are "self-evident". They aren't "left wing" or "right wing".

County Officials spectacularly failed to live up to these duties over the past two decades. This debt is the result.

But we have to face another failure of duty - We the People didn't hold our County officials accountable. If we had we would not be watching the broad destruction of County services today.

YourPublicMoney.Com takes no position on what employee benefits or County programs should be.

We absolutely take the position that whatever benefits and programs the County provides it must fully disclose their expense and properly fund them.

The most important change needed is to build a consensus across the political spectrum of people active in local politics that County officials will be held accountable to fulfill these duties.

YourPublicMoney.Com's mission is to help citizens understand the County's finances and debt and help create such a consensus.

This Website

This is a quick tour of the website.

If you see this Icon in the website click it to see more information for that topic.

Sections in the Website (See menu at top)

Mendo County Debt: (click title to go to section) This section summarizes the County's debt: What it is, Where'd it come from, What are it's effects, What went wrong, and What needs to be done.

It's 11 pages - think of each page as being worth about $25 million - that's the total County debt divided by 11.

Archives: Previous issues of our email newsletter and home pages tied to those newsletters.

Reports & Video: This section presents several types of information - Reports and Memos we've produced, videos, reports from other entities such as the Grand Jury, and our data sources.

You are in the "About Us & Website " section.

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