Dear Editor:

For over a decade I have brought up the question of city finances, particularly as how they relate to salaries and retirement benefits. Every time the question was asked, the answer was always that "everything is fine."

Now, we are being told that the city is in need of additional revenue to accomplish several of the tasks that they should be tending to on an annual basis: public safety and street repair. And why is this? It is because of the profligacy of the city in the past in doling out compensation packages that could not, and cannot, be sustained. And now, the Piper has to be paid by diverting operating funds to the various retirement funds used by the city's employees.

Well, I say: Enough!

It is time for the City Council to be cut back to $1/year (including expenses), and perhaps the city manager and his chief aides/department heads need to become familiar with the minimum wage. 

You are the ones that caused this shortfall, now you need to suffer the consequences.

Drew Kelley
Downey