Time to Trim the Fat

We were thinking about our post about the $1.8 million earmark the City of Claremont received courtesy of Congressman David Dreier. It really is a prime chunk of bacon, applewood smoked and thick-cut.

You'll recall that a reader had sent us a link to a spreadsheet that lists all of the earmarks in the recently passed federal 2009 Omnibus Appropriation Bill. Here's the earmark in question:

Click on Image to Enlarge

We're still scratching our heads over this business. It's great that Congressman Dreier is getting federal money to help the cities in his district, but as we pointed out a couple days ago, there isn't really any argument to be made that Claremont is any more deserving of the money than Montclair or Pomona. Claremont's staff may just be better at sidling up to the feds and sweet-talking them.

But given Claremont's upper middle-class demographics, aren't we really being more than a bit selfish in diverting money from places where it might be more needed and where it might do more good? And because the need remains in other places, in the end, don't these sorts of fiscal diversions end up driving up the final price on things like the 2009 Omnibus Appropriation Bill?

In the retail business you might file this sort of thing under the heading "Leakage," like losses to shoplifting and pilferage. Selfish self-interest from towns like Claremont has a double cost, it turns out. We use our city staff to steal federal and state grant money from our less well-off neighbors, and then we have our local charities asking us to give more money to help out the people whom we've stiffed.

Sorry, Pomona. Nothing personal. In the social Darwinian world of competing municipalities, it's just the cost of doing business.

* * * * *

Incidentally, we were looking through some of the numbers in that spreadsheet. Congressman Dreier did have seven solo earmarks worth $5,152,000, and seven other earmarks that he shared with some of his fellow elected officials. Those 14 earmarks totaled $17,245,000.

While that sounds like a lot, there were plenty of others whose totals were worse, and it's not necessarily whom you'd expect. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for instance, had 21 solo earmarks for $15,667,000 and 33 total for $43,574,500, but that's hardly a surprise. However, Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), a member of what had been the party of fiscal restraint, had 19 solo earmarks for $16,290,000 - more than three times Dreier's solo earmark total, and more than Pelosi's solo amount:


By the way, has anyone seen the Fourth Estate poking around this information? Maybe it's too complicated or unsexy a story for a daily paper to delve into, but we think there's an audience for this, especially in these at a time when everyone's having to pinch pennies and cut back on expenses.

Earmark Remarks

We received an email from a reader who caught our post about the $1.8 million earmark the City of Claremont is receiving courtesy of Congressman David Dreier for an Emergency Operations Center.

DATE: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 10:02 AM
SUBJECT: 1.8 Million Dollars?
TO: Claremont Buzz

Buzz,

You may have overlooked the CERT (Claremont Emergency Response Team), as an emergency operation in Claremont. This is an active group of volunteers sponsored by the LA County Fire Dept, and managed by the Claremont Police Dept.

The CERT team is led by Capt Stan Van Horn of the CPD, who teaches curriculum and holds monthly drills for training.

After training, members are assigned to special groups with various responsibilities, in case of a major emergency. We are trying to be ready for fire, flood, earthquake, or attack, where large numbers of people may be injured or without shelter.

There are 50 or more volunteers who have taken the 20-40 hours of advanced training, have practiced triage, communications, emergency management, evacuation,and have learned how to use the police radios (on a special frequency) etc. Ongoing classes for volunteers are adding numbers to the CERT group regularly.

At last Saturday's training in Metrolink Parking Lot there were about 30 in attendance, who got a first look at the new trailer with the CERT generators, pumps, and tools for emergency. We learned water purification, and how to operate an emergency trailer grill for cooking, and about the radio mentioned above. Team members have uniforms and hard hats for identification and safety.

I hope that some of the money from the $1.8 million will find its way to CERT use. Our community will be safer as a result and the money will be well spent.

x

ps: Did you know that a mass burial site for up to 100,000 bodies is designated here in the Los Angeles Area? (Not in Claremont)

No, we didn't know about the mass burial site. We did learn from last night's city council meeting that the money is the second Dreier earmark in the past two years for police communications equipment. So, sounds as if the reader will get his wish for the use of the federal money.

At least that's what they're telling us. With the folks running City Hall, $1.8 million here means that much can be shuffled off to the "Police Station" pigeonhole, if they so choose, or just used in such a way that the stuff ends up as part of a new station/emergency ops center.

Bringin' Home the Bacon

David Dreier Earmark:
$1.8 million for Claremont
Emergency Operations Center

The 2009 Omnibus Earmark and Appropiation Bill signed last week by President Obama contained a little love for Claremont, courtesy of Congressman David Dreier. In a massive analytical spreadsheet posted by Taxpayers for Common Sense (both of them), we find down on line 7,575 (of 9,309!) an earmark of $1.8 million inserted by Dreier to fund an Emergency Operations Center for Claremont. This earmark represents more than one-third of the dollar value of Dreier's 7 "solo" earmarks, totaling $5,152,500. With other members of Congress, Dreier was involved in 14 earmarks totaling $17,245,000.

click on image to enlarge

The spreadsheet may be DOWNLOADED here. Within it there are worksheets showing all earmarks, earmarks by senator, earmarks by house member, earmarks by state and by party. It is worth your time but be warned: it is an Excel spreadsheet and you have to be comfortable navigating and doing searches in Excel. The download takes a few minutes as it is a 3 Megabyte file. (Lotsa earmarks)

There is an explanation of the methodology behind the spreadsheet here.

A tip of the green eyeshade to a Reader.