Hello everyone, Certificates of Participation, aka COPs. Sadly, there are those of us who are learning, or already knew that the City of Santa Rosa Council Members DID NOT need to ask for a city-wide vote regarding the "Certificates of Participation" for the $10 million dollar lease-back finance instrument they chose for the reunification of Old Courthouse Square. Ever wonder WHY they never put Old Courthouse Square to a public vote? Please find the guideline below, as per the "CALIFORNIA DEBT AND INVESTMENT ADVISORY COMMISSION" outlined in 1993, at such time when COPs were voted into the State of California. We're verifying if this 1993 version is the only current version. Guideline 17 states: Solicit Public Participation in Tax-Exempt Leasing Decisions For us geeks who like to read public policy, there's a glimmer of good news held within pages 40-52 (link below). You might be pleased to learn that Santa Rosa voters may have a chance to change and/or monitor the way the Santa Rosa City Council chooses to use COPs for funding FUTURE projects. Yes future projects. And wouldn't that be nice to have that choice tested before a city-wide vote in 2016? Read pages 40-52 to learn the possibilities. Its a fast paced and scorching read into the dark side of COP use, abuse and administrative guidelines a used by city and county governments. Please click on embedded link below. While these pages hold no definite promise of Santa Rosans having a vote in accepting or rejecting COPs , its worth looking into isn't it? And we are! We want to make sure another $10 million dollar COP project (or cluster projects) CANNOT PASS approval without a PUBLIC mechanism of oversight. COPs give City Council too much latitude to pass us by on the public vote. Lets NOT allow this insult to our intelligence happen again, okay? Thank you for your support.