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City Council May Sell Dollars for 55 Cents Apiece

At its next meeting (https://is.gd/aqaLG3) the Monrovia City Council will consider selling dollars at 55 cents apiece. Sorry, not to you.

The situation is that Monrovia gets money every year from utility rates to put its power lines underground. Currently Monrovia has about $437,000.

If Monrovia was to put its own power lines underground, it would do so in areas with high fire danger, such as along Norumbega or the Ridgeside/Oakglade Loop.

But ... in order to have enough money to do even the cheapest of these projects ($4.65 million) it would have to wait about 20 years for enough money to come in to cover the costs, assuming nothing changes.

Or ... Monrovia could sell its funds to a city with an aggressive undergrounding program at 55 cents per dollar.

So ... city staff is recommending selling the $427,568 the city has accrued for about $240,000.

Source: https://is.gd/khp3Sp

- Brad Haugaard

5 comments:

  1. I saw the agenda, but are you able to clarify why the city would sell 427k in order to get 240k? What does Monrovia get out of this?
    Reminds me of when my grandfather would trade with my brothers their dimes for his nickles. After all ths nickles are bigger so they must be worth more.

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    Replies
    1. Because the city can’t spend the money for 20 years and figures it’s better to have a lesser amount of money now.

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  2. I see what the city gets out of it. But, what do the Monrovia utility ratepayers who had to pay more for electricity get out of it?

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  3. Is this proposed approach legal? At the very least, it is illogical and goes against the intent and spirit of what the funds have been appropriated for.

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  4. Local politicians are lousy at math. This is absurd.

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