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City of Roseville

Video of the February 15th Meeting!

City of Roseville Minutes (as they post them)

Roseville City Council

Libertarian Info

Placer County Libertarian Party
www.AmericanLiberty.org

CA Libertarian Party
http://ca.lp.org

Libertarian Party (National)
www.lp.org

CATO Institute
www.cato.org

Michael Patrick Murphy, Placer County LP Vice Chair, Candidate for CA State Assembly District 4
28th of February, 2006

I had heard rumors about the infamous Roseville City Council. I knew that Roseville is a bastion of neo-conservatism similar to my town, Rocklin. I also had such a bad experience with Roseville's neo-conservative telephone company, now renamed SureWest Communications, that I was glad to move to Rocklin rather than pay for the monopoly that CEO Brian Strom's SureWest held on service in Roseville.It was sad when Bob Doyle passed on. He was perhaps a true conservative in the purest sense. We enjoyed many a Saturday conversation until Corporate decided I shouldn't speak with Bob anymore. I also remember trying to help the downtown businesses coordinate with the then named Roseville Telephone Company in an attempt to "redevelop" the town through their private coordinated efforts. I thought I was ready for anything when I arrived at my first Roseville City Council Meeting to present reasoning for Roseville to start watching its pennies during our time of war.

Karl Marx thought an iron hand was needed to shift into true communism.

It would seem on the surface that Roseville's City Council has both, the "Iron Hand" part and the "Communist" part down pat. I would love to give you the minutes, which will most likely be very incomplete, to demonstrate my points, but they haven't posted them yet. Lets just say they love to spend your money for their own edification and for those that they really represent.

Edification

It wasn't long ago, that Roseville, loaded with recent property taxes that reflected the increased property values of the California housing boom, found a need to create a new City Hall reminiscent of those of many growing cities in America. Few citizens understood that the low interest rates were actually funded by loans from Europe,China and Japan. Imagine the savings of the poor in those countries, who work for 1/20th of the money we make, funding our mansions here in America. It is truly amazing and the average American would find it even more amazing that they actually owe $500,000 to the Federal Government in addition to their home loans and credit card debt which amounts to an average of another $85,000 per average family. Most of Roseville's citizens are beyond bankrupt! They remind me of Donald Trump's remark as he passed a fellow on the street with a cup in his hand. As the Donald went in to get a loan to cover his millions of dollars of indebtedness, he remarked that that man was millions of dollars richer than he was at that moment. Yes, that's the Roseville citizens situation and Roseville's City Council doesn't seem to have a clue as they built their new buildings and glorious Council meeting room. Borrowing and over spending by the City of Roseville reflected the irresponsible nature of its own neo-conservative citizens.

The February 15, 2006 Council Meeting

At first, I had to fill out a form that would include my speaking topic and name and residence location. That in itself was unusual for me. They don't do that at the Rocklin City Council Meetings, nor at the Placer County Supervisor Meetings.

Next, the meeting started by a screen rolling down and an introductory movie showing a glamour shot of each City Council member. I mused how funny it would be if the US Congress ever decided to have such a movie. It would run for an hour and a half every day they convened. I thought I was watching an introduction to the evening news. How glorious the council appeared!

Next was the Pledge of Allegiance, a pledge that destroys the very fabric of America every time it is stated. Few Rosevillites understand that it was written by a Christian Socialist. Few listen to the dead founders of our country that understood that for the first time in history, a government was about to pledge its allegiance to the people and NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. Silly citizens.

Then it was time for public comment which is allotted up to 25 minutes. They called for me to speak. I started by saying that we have a war going on in Iraq and that Roseville has its part to play. The whole council started talking amongst themselves seeming to ignore anything I was saying. They were not listening to me. I went on anyway, "My own view stated simply, was that if you want a war, you go. Don't steal my money to send someone else's child to go to your war. Alright, the majority may have disagreed with me. We'll at least make sure the troops have armor and support to make their enlistment a safer one. Okay, as a nation, we didn't do that either. But what is really macabre is that ..."

The Mayor cut in by saying that their attorney said the council couldn't do anything about the war and therefore my talk was irrelevant. I asked which person up there was the attorney and Mayor Gina Garbolino pointed to Mark Doane on my right. I told Mark that I had mentioned that Roseville had a part in the War Effort and he mentioned that he didn't hear that part. (no wonder, I thought, they were all talking.) He said I could go on and so the Mayor gave me 30 seconds more, despite the fact I hadn't used more than a minute before I was interrupted.

Okay, I continued having lost a little of my track. Then, with an under funded war effort, the Citizens of Roseville go out and buy new cars and build new swimming pools or upgrade to a newer home. ( I forgot to mention that those purchases put money into the pockets of the same developers that funded Roseville City Council campaigns.) I said that Roseville had no business spending money on fun things and city redevelopment until the war is over and debts are paid down.

I rushed through another statement that Roseville's non-partisan elected officials should not be using the title of their office to endorse partisan candidates. Bang. My time was up. All in all, it was quite a "brow beating" for a first time speaker.

My new recruit to address the council from a Libertarian standpoint was a young lady and Roseville resident. She had joined me at the meeting to see how I operated before she did her own thing at future meetings. Of course I didn't want to speak out in the cities personal affairs. I hoped my new recruit might jump in, but she opted to wait until the next meeting. I knew the brow beating I got in front of her was pretty brutal and probably scared her a bit. We went to coffee afterwards where I showed her the things on the agenda that I might have risen up in protest against.

She tried to convince me she was still excited about speaking out, but I felt that her confidence was a little shaken despite the fact she had spoken before councils before to present facts and figures in a non-confrontational way. About a week and a half later, I received an email from her saying her new job would make things to hectic to continue on at the meetings.

The Roseville City Council was again rewarded for its rudeness and arrogance. People in Roseville cower before their council as they might before any dictator or authoritarian regime. Still, the developer money will back Roseville's incumbents for as long as it keeps paying off for them. The Roseville residents, like the sheep and lemming neo-conservatives that they have become, will again re-elect those incumbent council folks and the cycle of over-spending, redevelopment, imminent domain, and borrowing will continue on until the upcoming great crash. You see, Roseville is just like most small cities in America. They reflect their people's ignorance and laziness. The crash will come and many will find themselves on street corners with their cup in hand wondering if the next President will prescribe something to ease the pain. Perhaps, I thought, Roseville does not have leadership, only paid lackeys that "dis" their constituents.

The Solution to what ails Roseville

Roseville residents need only do a few things to straighten out their council.

1. Go to the City Hall and ask for a record of the Councilmen's campaign funding. Then you can follow the money and find out who they really work for, if not for you.
2. Go to the council meetings, grab the Agenda at the front door and then listen carefully. Remember their names. Watch how much the City borrows or is dependent on stable property taxes that might go down in a fiscal calamity. Remember Ben Franklin's warning. The government that governs least, governs best!" Look for a leaner more efficient government that does a few things well rather than too many things badly. Think of the money they spend as your own money.
3. When you find something you don't understand, ask a question.
4. When you see something you don't like, tell the council.
5. If they don't do as you ask and you still think that you were right, tell all of your friends and write the newspaper. Then vote them out of office during the next election.
6. Consider running for office yourself.

Volunteers are needed to Run Against Rocklin City Council and Placer County Supervisor Incumbents. Let's bring social and economic freedom back to Placer County!
Call (916) 435-9090 for more info.

Mike's views do not necessarily represent the views of the Placer County Libertarian Party Mike can be reached at mmurphy@americanliberty.org
Michael Patrick Murphy is the author of The Government, ISBN 0-595-30863-5