Bonnie Flickinger

==Stand-up Mayor: Flickinger helps save $7.5 million==
Libertarian Mayor Pro Tem Bonnie Flickinger helped save
taxpayers more than $7 million last month -- overcoming
fierce opposition from Republican and Democratic city
council members who didn't want residents to be allowed to
vote on the fate of two city taxes.
Flickinger's victory left her facing a possible censure from
the city council and a potential recall election from
supporters of the higher taxes.
But her persistence also saved residents of Moreno Valley,
CA, $7.5 million annually in reduced utility and business
taxes. Town residents rejected both taxes by popular vote on
June 4 by similar 52 percent to 48 percent margins. Both
taxes will no longer be collected after this calendar year.
The drama began last year when Flickinger tried for five
months to convince her Republican and Democratic colleagues
on the city council to allow the city's voters to decide the
fate of two town taxes -- a Utility Tax and a Business Gross
Receipts Tax.
"I finally succeeded in February, but only after being
forced to vote for a unanimous council resolution supporting
the taxes," she said.
"The City Attorney advised the Council that four of the five
council members would have to approve putting the taxes on
the ballot," Flickinger explained. "Two of the council
members steadfastly refused, stating publicly that they had
been elected to make those decisions on behalf of their
constituents. Finally, one of the holdouts relented, but
only under the condition that I endorse the taxes."
That piece of political maneuvering left Flickinger in a
quandary, she said.
"Should I violate the principle of honesty in government, or
violate the principle of government by the people?" she said
she asked herself. "If I had stayed true to my conscience
and refused to vote for the resolution of support, I would
have deprived the voters of the right to repeal the taxes.
Struggling with my conscience, I decided on behalf of my
constituents, and agreed to the unanimous resolution of
support for the taxes."
That put both taxes on the June ballot -- and left
Flickinger planning her next move.
"I subsequently announced to my colleagues on the council
that I was not going to campaign for or against the taxes,
but would remain neutral and spend the campaign period
correcting any misinformation that was disseminated by
either side," she said.
"This position so angered the other council members that
three of them spent almost an hour of a televised council
meeting viciously tearing me down. Two of them threatened to
censure me and remove me from all of my appointed positions,
including the position of Mayor Pro Tem," she said.
The public response to these vitriolic attacks was
tremendous, Flickinger said.
"My phone rang more in the next two days than it had in the
prior two months. All the calls were expressions of support
and of anger at the brutal attacks [from] the other council
members," she said.
That voter anger also translated into opposition to the
taxes at the polls -- and voters rejected Republican and
Democratic arguments that a "no" vote on the taxes would
result in the layoff of police officers and firefighters.
In the aftermath of the election, "I am now devising methods
of balancing the city's budget without the repealed taxes,"
Flickinger said. "The three critical Council members are all
up for re-election in November. [And] rumor has it that
someone is planning to try to recall me from [the] city
council after the November elections."
Moreno Valley is the largest American city (pop. 136,000)
ever to have a Libertarian mayor.
"Now, it is perhaps also the only American city where the
taxpayers had the opportunity to repeal their own taxes,
thanks to the Libertarian they elected to their city
council," Flickinger proudly noted.
::Source: LP News July, 1996