The Big Atherton "I told you so..."

Every city in San Mateo (and California...and the US) is engaged in a budget cutting/revenue raising free-for-all right now. Everyday in our Morning News Round-Up another city, or school district, or government agency is dealing with budget short-falls.

Today is no different. Tonight, Atherton will be looking at their budget and trying to make difficult decisions about what to cut and how to raise revenue.

But Atherton's decisions are made more difficult by some (seemingly) really bad financial management. This bad financial management is -- you guessed it -- related to the Atherton John John's fiasco which has been described here and here. Pointing out this financial mismanagement, last fall Councilmember Charles Marsala warned residents and contractors that refunds were due many folks who may have been (illegally) overcharged for work done in Atherton. And if refunds were coming, that was going to impact the budget.

It wasn't just Marsala saying this either. This bad financial management issue bled into Atherton's campaigns for City Council in June and November...In June, Jim Dobbie and Elizabeth Lewis squared off for an open Council seat left vacant by Alan Carlson's departure. During this campaign, Lewis seemed to agree with Marsala that Atherton's finances were in trouble. Dobbie agreed with Councilmember Kathy McKeithen and claimed that Atherton's finances had never been better. (Lewis ended up running against McKeithen in November -- she now serves on the Council with McKeithen, Dobbie, and Marsala)

Tonight, Watch Dog guesses that Marsala and Lewis will be vindicated and Dobbie and McKeithen will eat a bit of humble pie...and because visual aids are always helpful to prove important points -- here is some archived campaign material from the Watch Dog Hall of Records:

Here is a Dobbie piece from the June election stating: Town Finances -- Continue improvement since 2002.














And one from McKeithen from her election in November stating: Town Finances -- Continue improvements since 2000; Budget Balanced





















Aside from the obvious Cut and Paste Politics at work here between Dobbie and McKeithen...these two seem to be really out-of-step with what is going on with Atherton's finances.

Compare the Dobbie/McKeithen campaign pieces and Elizabeth Lewis's piece where Lewis goes into detail about the problems with the City's finances.

Watch Dog doesn't know for certain, but everything in Atherton seems to come down to John Johns...so we guess this won't be any different.

A few things Watch Dog knows about tonight's Atherton budget session:

• John Johns will be mentioned...
• Marsala and Lewis should feel vindicated...
• Dobbie and McKeithen should explain their campaign material...
• Difficult decisions are about to be made...