Stop squandering tax dollars in Ahmanson fight

The old English proverb "A fool and his money are soon parted" fits the folly of Calabasas’ legal expenditures past and projected in suing the Ahmanson Land company.

With a meager city budget of less that $18 million, Calabasas continues to chase windmills in their legal department. It’s common knowledge the city has spent and allocated $2 million to fighting the Ahmanson Ranch project of late.

Just imagine the good that $2 million would have done if spent on the Calabasas library, on after-school programs for the city’s youth or on Parks & Recreation projects!

With two disasters looming on the horizon: (1) the California state deficit of $24 billion and (2) the city’s potential loss of the Utility Users Tax (UUT) in March, it seems prudent that Calabasas legal should drop the idea of suing Ahmanson Land Company again over issues already fought and lost in the courts. The repeal of the UUT could result in a whopping $2.4-million erasure from the budget, or 18 percent of the recurring City General Fund revenues for 2002/2003, according to the Calabasas city’s own Budget Message. With the reality of these losses, it is unthinkable that the city attorney’s office would be allocated 5 percent of the budget with a hefty amount going down the drain to more attorneys and yet another Ahmanson lawsuit.

Our current council (or maybe the new council) would do better to sit down and try to negotiate some benefits for our citizens since services and projects will no doubt suffer over lack of funds in the future. The Ahmanson Ranch is an award-winning, well-planned project and will be a good neighbor to not only Calabasas but to all the other communities along the 101 corridor.

We simply need improved leadership in working with this role-model community. Using our sparse resources for another Ahmanson Ranch lawsuit is reprehensible and just plain unacceptable to me and many other Calabasas residents.

John Otey

Calabasas