Resident doesn't trust City Council

Many members of the City Council seemed baffled by the lack of trust expressed by those present at the Sept. 19 meeting regarding eminent domain.

We know that you don't know what we know.

What you don't know is that we old-timers have been through many city councils and many broken promises.

Experience has taught us that there are always hidden agendas that we know have existed in the past that fly in the face of what City Council members have voted on. And it is those hidden agenda that we are still concerned about that will surface, opening up another Pandora's box.

Experience makes us the wiser.

We know that information given to you for a decision on a vote is only as good as the intention of those who wish to guide you.

Case in point was the City Council's lack of knowledge that one of the worst rated "blighted" houses in Walnut Canyon had been purchased by the Redevelopment Agency (aka you, the city). How could the City Council not know about the expenditure of over $300,000 of redevelopment money spent? It only confirms about what power the Redevelopment Agency and its separate authority currently has. Can you imagine the additional power of eminent domain?

We know that if any portion of this proposal had passed, and abuse or unfair treatment did occur, the majority of downtown residents and small businesses could not afford attorneys to fight the city, regardless of promises made or broken.

We know that even those who were disappointed in your vote trusted that, had you voted for eminent domain, you would definitely be demolishing some portions of downtown Moorpark, regardless of your promise to us.

We know that the City Council's offer to put their guarantee in writing to protect our property rights to some degree was worthless because our forefathers had already put that guarantee in writing. It's called our Fifth Amendment. We know that even that guarantee is being broken city by city across this great nation of ours in the name of private enterprise.

I want to thank our gutsy Moorpark City Council members, not for granting our rights, not for allowing our rights, but for upholding our rights promised by our forefathers under the Constitution of the United States of American. It is in that we trust. Pearl Nuno Moorpark