Why does the city waste money on a day laborer site?

In case you missed it, a $673,288 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) federal funds spending plan was approved for fiscal year '0809 during the May 13 Thousand Oaks City Council meeting.

While portions of these funds were allotted to worthy causes, not so worthy is the $94,180 allotted toward maintaining the city's day laborer site for yet another year. Factor in the additional $15,000 for rental of portable toilets plus janitorial expenses, $109,180 of our tax monies are being misspent to maintain this site for yet another year.

I commend Councilmember Claudia Billde la Peña for being the lone dissenting vote of this spending plan. I also commend her inquiry toward any existing city programs which assist senior citizens on a fixed income with loans to improve their home, citing a call she received from an elderly disabled female widow constituent who's on a fixed income and who's being forced to make improvements to her home through code compliance.

City staff's response was that T.O. doesn't use CDBG funding for a program like this. Of particular offense was City Manager Mitnick's reply: "If we do something new, go down the path of a new program, it would be at the expense of an existing program. Somebody else would lose out."

Through this statement and their votes, City Manager Mitnick and council members Fox, Gillette, Irwin and Glancy clearly feel that it's more vital to utilize our tax dollars to fund an employment site for illegal aliens versus funding an assistance program for our elderly low-income citizens- actions which I find unconscionable.

Then again, these are the same four council members who recently voted themselves a 10 percent raise in their monthly council salary, which will take effect in December 2008; who voted to spend about $20,000 to fund a survey for tax hikes; and who voted to discontinue school crossing guard service at five locations, etc.

Isn't it time we demand accountability by our City Council for their corrosive actions and continual fiscal irresponsibility? Dawn Williams Thousand Oaks