Fixing what's broken. Watching every dollar.
I've gotten this question directly from Glendora families, so here's a straight answer: I support Measure G. 

 

Here's why, what I'd want you to know before you vote, and what I'll actually do about it if I'm elected.​

Why now

Glendora's schools are good. Three of them were named California Distinguished Schools this year, and our buildings should match that. Right now they don't - the district's facilities assessment found classrooms and labs close to 70 years old and underground pipes failing badly enough to cause gas leaks and sewage backups. Those are the district's findings, and checking them against what actually gets built is part of the job.

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What Measure G does

Measure G extends the bond tax rate Glendora voters approved in June 2000, $33 per $100,000 of assessed value. Your rate stays where it is. What changes is how long you pay it: instead of that rate winding down over the next few years, it runs through roughly 2057.

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In exchange, the district can borrow $86 million for facilities work. Roofs, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, labs and classrooms, campus safety. Total repayment over the life of the bonds, principal plus interest, is estimated at $161.3 million. That figure is in the district's own Tax Rate Statement.

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It also qualifies Glendora for $50 million in state matching funds tied to this measure. That money isn't guaranteed; the state still has to appropriate it, but without a local match it goes to another district instead of ours.

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None of it can go to teacher or administrator salaries or general operating costs. That's state law, not a district promise. Which means bond money can't fix the district's budget deficit, and the budget deficit can't be fixed with bond money. Two different buckets.

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Two things worth knowing before you vote

There is no legal cap on the rate. General obligation bonds in California are secured by a property tax that is, in the resolution's own words, "unlimited as to rate or amount," and the $33 figure is an estimate, not a ceiling. The district has committed in writing to only issue bonds if the projected rate stays at $33. That's a board commitment, not a law. Commitments like that hold when somebody at the table is paying attention to them.

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The project list is broad, and the priorities get set by the Board later this year. That's the job I'm asking for.

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Where I stand

Yes. Glendora kids are sitting in buildings that were already old when my family got here in 2017, and turning down $50 million in state money to fix them leaves this town worse off, not better.

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I'll put it the way I'd put it to a neighbor: the repairs don't get cheaper by waiting, and paying for them a year at a time out of the general fund means cutting something else every year to do it.

 

Voters get to decide this in November, and that's how it should work. I think the case for "yes" is a strong one.

What I'll do about it

Putting a bond in front of voters was the easy part, and it's already done. The part that matters starts after.

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Measure G already requires:

• An independent citizens' oversight committee, seated within 60 days of the election results

• Annual independent performance audits, to confirm funds are spent only on what voters were told

• Annual independent financial audits

• A public report to the Board every year on what's been collected and spent

 

Those aren't promises I'm making, they're already written into the measure. My job as a trustee is making sure they're not just a formality. That means the oversight committee actually functions, its findings are genuinely public and easy for a Glendora parent to find, and the project list voters were shown is the project list that gets built.

Either way

My job on the Board is the same whether this passes or fails: take care of Glendora kids, and take care of the money this town hands the district. If it passes, I'll watch every dollar of it. If it fails, we still have failing pipes under 70-year-old buildings, and I'll be asking how we fix them without the match.

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Glendora families have trusted this district with their tax dollars before. My job is making sure that trust is earned again, in daylight, with real numbers families can check for themselves.