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Stanton - Al Ethans  Former Stanton Council Member Al Ethans quit at the end of February and will not be fulfilling his obligation to us Stanton Residents. He ran for re-election for a 4-year seat on the council in 2016 but has resigned one and a half years early. As our Council Member since 1996, Al Ethans has a long history of raising city taxes and fees on us Stanton residents and businesses. This is money we could have used for bills, holiday gifts for our children, and in some cases food for our family. When Al ran for office in 1996 his campaign materials read, "...it is very important for me to continue to oppose any new taxes and work towards the total elimination of our utility users tax." We can see now that he does not keep his major campaign promises. Here is just some of former Stanton Council Member Al Ethans' record on raising our Stanton taxes and fees in our city: 1996 - 2001 - Council Member Ethans did not let Stanton voters vote on the utility tax from the time he got into office in 1996 until 2001. What happened to his promise? 1997 - Al Ethans supported the Stanton parcel tax. Us Stanton Residents defeated it! 2001 - Al Ethans Supported the Stanton utility tax on tap water, cell phones, electricity, natural gas even though he said he would not increase taxes during his campaigning for office. 2010 - Al Ethans voted for an increase in Stanton's trash fee without the vote of the people. 2012 Al Ethans Voted to place a 50% utility tax increase on our ballot even though he said he would not increase taxes during his campaigning for office. Major fundraising and campaigning in favor of the 50% utility tax increase leads back to Al Ethans' home address! Luckily us Stanton Residents defeated it! 2012 - Al Ethans increased our city sewer fee again (2nd year in a row) without a vote of the people while he was writing on his 2012 campaign website "no new taxes". 2014 - Al Ethans put a city sales tax on our ballot which made our sales taxes the highest in Orange County. 2017 - In Stanton there is also a cable TV franchise fee, SoCal Edison franchise fee, lighting and landscaping fee, trash franchise fee, protective service fee... Who knows where all these fees came from since it's difficult to keep track of them all and too many times Stanton Residents we not allowed to vote on these fees. Don't get me wrong, taxes are a good thing. They keep our local government going. But, Stanton has a very long list of "extra city taxes" that most cities in Orange County do not have. Many city taxes and fees we are not allowed to vote on. Something interesting is that Midway City and Rossmoor are nearby and similar in size and have almost none of these extra taxes so why do we? More businesses closed on Beach Blvd. and around the city. Some highlights include the closure of Ralphs Grocery, Albertsons, Sizzler, Freshia, Red Robin, Mimi's, Acapulco, Wendy's, Mario's, Burger King, China King, El Ranchito Market, and what used to be major shopping centers are almost completely vacant. This reduces our sales tax base. Stanton businesses are gone which reduces employment opportunities for our community. We still have nearly the highest unemployment rate in all of Orange County and Al Ethans still has not created a plan for employment opportunities in over 20 years. Al Ethans has cost us taxpayers over a $1,000,000 of funding to our Sheriff and Fire departments leading to less sworn officers, crime suppression and fire personnel. Our taxes didn't go down but our safety services did. It has been uncovered that his home addresses was used for the recent campaign that would have increased our utility taxes by over 50%. If it were up to him a family of 5 would be paying around $500 a year on the city utility tax and cell phone tax combined. City Hall cannot be trusted with more of our money. Sorry but there is no real fiscal transparency. City Hall just spent more than $24 million over the past few years on parks but this huge expenditure is mysteriously missing from the Stanton budget! Go to the Stanton website and try to find it in the budget. And the huge pensions for our city and safety service workers are missing too! Go look for yourself. Tens of millions of our dollars unaccounted for. Did you know that Stanton has been acquiring properties such as small strip mall, strawberry field, commercial properties, residential properties, etc. when they claim to be poor? This adds up to over 60 properties around the city. I thought we were told for years that the city had no money? More taxes for “safety services” is the same old tired story that we were told back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The same story in 1997, the early 2000’s, 2012, and 2014 too. Remember, ask yourself, "Why doesn’t nearby Midway city, Rossmoor, and surrounding unincorporated islands have all these extra taxes for ‘safety services’ like Stanton does"? Al Ethans has had a dramatic negative impact on our city and has not followed through on his major campaign promises.
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