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Mountain View’s city employees will now be eligible for low interest home loans worth up to $100,000 thanks to a late Christmas present from the City Council approved Tuesday.
The council voted 6-1, with John Inks opposed, to invest $2 million in low interest home loans worth up to $100,000 for city employees.
The First Responder’s Homebuyer Assistance Program was pitched as a way to encourage more city employees to live in the city so they can quickly respond in the event of an emergency. Firefighters and police are known to live in far-off places like Turlock, where they can afford to buy more land, but the program was extended to include other city employees as well.
The program is funded by $1 million from the city’s Below Market Rate Housing fund and $1 million in general funds. Police and firefighters of all income levels can use the general fund portion of the program, while any city employee making less than 120 percent of the area median income can use the BMR-funded portion. The home must cost less than $1,047,000 and be the employee’s primary residence.
Inks said the program would “nibble away at general funds and BMR funds,” and have administrative costs which city staffers acknowledged are unknown. Council member Margaret Abe-Koga disagreed, saying it was an affordable way to attract good city employees while also providing a better investment return, in loan interest, than the city would get otherwise.
The $2 million should have been used to improve services such as police protection, more fire fighters, better parks and recreation. We overpay city employees, give them benefits that industry cannot afford, give them pensions so they can double dip, and then the city manager complains about budget problems. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see what the real problem is.
“…while any city employee making less than 120 percent of the area median income can use the BMR-funded portion.”
Less than 120%!? LOL
I work in the private sector, so I must be loaded. Maybe I can make a donation.
“The home must cost less than $1,047,000 and be the employee’s primary residence.” Wow. Let’s not make them live in anything smaller for less! God forbid they would make it available for teachers as well.
More unbelievable nonsense from the City Council. This is exactly why I voted for John Inks.
RECALL!!!!
I’m sure that all city employees of the library, parks and rec, senior center, etc are not making this kind of money per year. Check out the city budget before you lump everyone in this category.
There are many people who make less than 120% of the area median income. Although the city employees are not to blame for this, in the past it’s been made to sound as if the good people working for the government are doing the rest of us a favor.
The pay scale for city employees was posted on another thread a few weeks back. It surprised me in that it was higher than I had thought.
And for what it’s worth, with the exception of Inks, this is the worst city council in recent memory.
I know many of the city’s police and fire employees and the simple fact is that the vast majority of them cannot afford to live in the area.
This poses significant risks to all of us when a disaster occurs. There will be simply be a very small number of trained first responders in the area to assist in triage, rescue and logistical support. But instead of thinking about the very real possibility of being short staffed in a disaster, most of the commenters on this post choose to think that this is some sort of backroom political shadiness designed to pad the pockets of fat cats.
Lumping all municipal employees into the same pool and then generalizing the anger is short sighted and narrow thinking.
It’s the very same narrow thinking, small minded commentors who will be complaining about the slow response times of our city services when a disaster strikes. On that day, it won’t be appropriate to say I told you so, so consider this a preemptive strike.