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Good afternoon. Tonight, the city council is going to hire a team of over 18 “consultants”, whose job is to line their pockets with your tax money. Of course, they would not say that, but that is what is going to happen. Let me tell you why. Let me pretend I am the city finance director, and if I were, this is the story I would tell. In 2006, this is what the finance director might have told the council. “Dear council, I am the best finance guy in America. I am your Fiscal Messiah, and I am going to drag you into the promised land of interest rates. I promise that if you issue your water bonds under what I call an “Interest Rate Swap”, you will save untold millions of dollars. My scheme allows our banker to determine how much interest we have to pay on our bonds. That interest, which is paid by the taxpayers, will go up and down, but it is a miracle of savings. I have a team of bond managers who promise to be honest and save us money.” Now, it is March of 2008, and tonight, this is what I think the finance director will tell the council. “Dear Council, WHOOOPS!!!! Imagine my surprise! The interest rate market has tanked! Modesto, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. That problem is that our cost of interest on the water bonds has tripled, and we are paying over $100,000 dollars more each month than I promised you. DARN. I am soooooooo disappointed. Well, it is you who decided to take my advice, so it is your fault. Of course, I have no idea of how to fix this problem. And make no mistake, it is a HUGE problem. So, as stated in my staff report, I have brought you a team of 18 people named now, and at least 5 more to be named sometime in the future. I have no idea of how much this will cost, so just approve a blank check. After all, every month that goes by will cost an EXTRA $100,000. But, because this is such a big problem, my team has no idea of what to do, just yet. So, give us at least 8 weeks to come up with a plan. Oh, come on now, you are just going to have to bite the bullet and pay the piper. You ask, what if the situation gets worse? Hey, I told you every thing would be OK. Just throw $300,000 or $400,000 at the interest payments, and several more hundreds of thousands at my very good, very large and VERY expensive team, and soon, every thing will be all right. Just drink the cool aid and continue to take my advice. Remember, I am your Fiscal Messiah.” Well folks, that is how I would tell the story. I guess we should just watch the meeting (5:30 on Comcast channel 7) and see how the council deals with gross failure on the part of the finance director. That’s all, Dave
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Opinion 
