This charter amendment would strike the words "Comptroller,
and "Treasurer' from our City Charter. Nine years ago the Mayor
and City Council duped voters into eliminating these elected
positions under the guise of saving money. The positions were
eliminated but the names were not deleted from the City Charter.
The City Clerk (an appointed position) purportedly took over
the Comptrollers functions and the Director of Finance (an
appointed position) purportedly took over the function of the Treasurer.
For nine years it has been understood that in the City Charter the
words Comptroller and Clerk were interchangeable and that the
words Treasurer and Director of Finance were interchangeable.
Obviously it has created no harm to leave these two words in our
City Charter so why delete them now? Because it has slowly
dawned on voters that no money was saved by eliminating these
positions, in fact excessive spending skyrocketed, and that an elected
Treasurer and Comptroller are critical to ensuring
fiscal accountability and to prevent excessive spending. There is a move afoot to
bring back the elected positions of City Comptroller and Treasurer.
The words Comptroller and Treasurer should be left in the
City Charter, it obviously has created no harm to leave the words
in and, if these positions are reestablished by an initiative of
the people, it will save us from having to vote on yet another
charter amendment to reinsert the words.
Vote NO on Proposition 4.