The Marymount Plan Has Already Cost Taxpayers, More Than Once

Taxpayer Funds Have Already Been Used!
When you read mailers for Measure P, The Marymount Plan there are a few things that are standard.

Whenever you see the big "Yes" it always goes with "Measure P" and then usually just under that, "The Marymount Plan".

When Dr. Michael Brophy brought a lawsuit recently about the language contained in an Argument relating to Measure P, the city of Rancho Palos Verdes and the County of Los Angeles had to send attorneys to court to represent the Respondants.

The funds used by the city of Rancho Palos Verdes and the County of Los Angeles for legal fees and services were paid with tax dollars, plain and simple.

So, whenever you read or hear that "The Marymount Plan will be built at no taxpayer expense" what you are reading and hearing it a falsehood, misstatement of fact, and a type of deception that I will elaborate on.

The claim Marymount continues to make is probably coming from the fact that the college will most likely should Measure P pass, sell the rights to build, administer, and maintain the student housing on campus and the associated services necessary to house students 24/7 at Marymount.

Contracts between Colleges and Universities and companies specializing in student housing are commonplace and they provide a generous and good deal of revenue to the institutions they take over the construction and operation of on-campus housing at.

Also, because the municipal code Marymount seeks for itself and no other business or resident includes language that would allow Marymount to sub-lease facilities on its campus to non-educational events and endeavors, more revenue would surely be created that MIGHT be used to construct things other than on-campus housing and a new dining hall.

But wait, there is more.....

Should Marymount find success in its quest with Measure P, building a state-of-the-art library would actually be an obsolete enterprise in this new day and age.

"Brick and Mortar" libraries are quickly becoming huge dinosaurs on college campuses and more and more schools from high schools to huge universities are now changing to virtual libraries where all the information found in a 'regular' library would instead be found on the Internet, or Intranet, or some other virtual storage entity.

Even if Measure P passes, I am very confident that Marymount would 'change their plans' about building a new library with concrete and steel and simply have students and others plug into devices that would provide abundant information that would be many, many times more powerful than the library now planned and also students and others would see vastly more information available at a fraction of the cost.

Do not be fooled into thinking Marymount will actually build a new library building. They probably would not and I think it would be rather less than bright to consider going headlong into the 21st Century with and old-style information gathering and storage device, which is what a library really is.

So, Marymount would probably contract out their rights and obligations concerning on-campus housing and they might even write in language that states the College has no real responsibility for what happens in or around on-campus housing as they would have sold off those rights and responsibilities.

Building a new brick and mortar library would not move Marymount into the 21st Century but it would keep it back in the older days by not providing the true state-of-the-art information storage and retrieval systems now going in at high schools, colleges, and universities all over the World.

I do think that eventually, should Measure P pass, a new athletic building would probably be built because it would be another revenue generation device and it would help market Marymount College to the wealthy parents who don't live in California or in the L.A. Basin.

The deception about tax money comes when Marymount claims something that is historically now, not true.

Their claim is based only on physical construction of the buildings on campus and not even about the remaining costs of placing a concrete median barrier along 1,000 feet of Palos Verdes Drive East, which Marymount did include in its Plan.

Taxpayers will have to pay for the costs of the barrier over and above the $200,000 contribution Marymount claims it will make.

The early estimated costs of such a barrier were in the range of $285,000, so Taxpayer funds of at least $85,000 would be necessary, but Marymount won't tell you that.

When Marymount paid for a mailer that quoted the City Attorney of Rancho Palos Verdes, who do you think paid the City Attorney for her findings?

As Ms. Lynch is representing the residents of Rancho Palos Verdes, it is the taxpayers who pay for her services and Marymount offered proof and didn't state whether they paid for Ms. Lynch's time and effort in creating the ballot language.

In a nutshell, here are three areas where Taxpayers HAVE ALREADY paid for services and may be required to fund more:

1. Attorneys' fees and Court Costs and other fees associated with a lawsuit brought by Dr. Brophy.

2. Time and services provided by the Rancho Palos Verdes City Attorney in creating the ballot language.

3. The Marymount Plan's contribution not being large enough to completely fund the center median barrier and the prospects that taxpayers will have to make up the difference.

So, Measure P, The Marymount Plan has already cost taxpayers and a portion of The Marymount Plan could cost taxpayers even more.

That is the truth and those are the facts and to date, absolutely nobody representing Marymount College has denied any of this and no one has even challenged my statements.

Please vote "No" on Measure P, The Marymount Plan.

Safety. Everywhere. Everyone. Every hour.