Kit Bobko Saves the Hermosa Beach School District?

We have good news, I think.  The Beach Reporter reports that Kit Bobko has discovered some interesting numbers in the city's budget:
http://www.tbrnews.com/articles/2011/02/24/hermosa_beach_news/news10.txt

It seems that Hermosa Beach spends $624,000 per year catching dogs, cats, and raccoons.  Yes, that is $1,710 per day, 365 days per year.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the exact dimensions and demographics of Hermosa Beach, the city is 1.3 or 1.4 square miles, and it has a population of about 20,000 people.  I would like to know how many furry critters are caught per year.  Then we could figure out what we are spending per furry critter caught, and compare that to the amount that Hermosa Beach itself spends on each student in the Hermosa Beach City School District.  If anybody has any statistics on this I would really like to see them.

I do not feel very threatened by cats, and I don't see why they need to be caught.  If there is a raccoon problem that I have never noticed, having never seen a raccoon in Hermosa Beach (though I have seen very slow moving Possums), then maybe home owners and businesses should be fined for leaving their garbage cans uncovered, just like people are ticketed for blocking the street sweepers from cleaning my street 100 times per year.  That could also head off any potential rat problem for which we might have to hire a Pied Piper to solve in the future.  I have heard that hiring Pied Pipers can be tricky business.

And as for dogs, make the owners pay if their dogs need to be caught.  Problem solved!  We now have a spare $624,000 for the schools!

This does make me wonder what else we are spending money on.  I know we inexplicably pitched in to buy an armored personnel carrier for the South Bay communities when defending the Surfer Statue against the terrorist onslaught was all the rage.  What did that total waste of money cost?  Has it ever been used?  How much are we spending to maintain it?

Keep up the good work Kit Bobko!  Digging into the city's finances may save us from having to sell out our children to LAUSD, the worst school district on Earth.  Two-thirds of a million here and two-thirds of a million there, and pretty soon we'll be talking about real money.


Hermosa Beach City Council
Peter Tucker Mayor peter@electpetertucker.com
Howard Fishman Mayor Pro Tempore kkfish@earthlink.net
Jeff Duclos Councilmember jeff@jeffduclos.com
Patrick "Kit" Bobko Councilmember kit.bobko@gmail.com
Michael DiVirgilio Councilmember mdivir@gmail.com
Councilmembers' phone number (310) 318-0216
Councilmembers' fax number (310) 372-6186

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