Economic Recovery Work Plan

The California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency (BTH) requested that the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley (Partnership) prepare a Regional Economic Recovery Work Plan (Plan) for the San Joaquin Valley (Valley). The Plan covers the Valley’s eight counties. The purpose of the Plan is to identify projects and programs that can be immediately initiated to maximize the impact of the funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

Translated, it is this group's task to find a way for the neediest part of the State to get its fair share of stimulus dollars. Appointed by the Governor, the Partnership is the most comprehensive movement of civic leadership in the history of the Valley. Thousands of concerned stakeholders from business and industry, government, nonprofit and community sectors are involved in this effort. For the first time, public and private sectors from all eight counties are working together to find and implement solutions that will improve the quality of life for Valley residents.

The Plan is comprised of dozens of projects of regional signficance. There are plenty of traditional infrastructure projects proposed including over $200 million for improvements at the Port of Stockton. It also includes projects related to Air Quality, Water, Energy and Transportation (including High Speed Rail).

While there are not specific dollars set aside for Manteca. There are a number of programs and projects, particularly in the Economic Development field that would benefit Manteca. These include a request to help fund marketing San Joaquin County to national and international businesses, additional funding for Delta College's Small Business Development Center for assisting new business ventures, along with more funding for job training via the Workforce Investment Board.

In addition, the Partnership is proposing the creation of "Innovation Zones". The zones, established in coordination with universities and non-profit economic development corporations would provide $40 million per year in tax credits to spur new business products in California.

To read the entire report, click on the document below.


SJVRegionalEconomicRecoveryPlan_narrative.pdf

Highlights from "The Week in Review"

Here are some of the items of interest from "The Week in Review" (TWIR). You can read the entire TWIR by clicking on the link on the right side of this page.

Public Works:
Atherton Drive Extension Re-sodding: Quotes have been received for the re-sodding of the turf strips along the south side of Atherton Drive between Main and Union. Staff is processing the paperwork to engage Imperial Landscaping to replace the sod for an amount not to exceed $11,980. Work will commence within two weeks.

5th-Grade Student Stormwater Education: As part of the City’s stormwater public outreach and education program, Public Works distributed 500 stormwater activity booklets to all 5th-grade students in Manteca. The activity booklet contains short stories, puzzles and games that educate kids on what stormwater is and how they can help to prevent stormwater pollution.

Finance:
Sewer Revenue Bonds: On May 27, the City of Manteca Sewer Revenue Series 2009 bonds were successfully priced in the market place. After reviewing several bond structures, staff determined the best structure for the City at this time was a simplified tax-exempt revenue bond series. Build America Bonds were not used as part of the structure. Through the hard work and collaborative efforts of all members of the bond financing team, the interest rates on the issue were under 6%, which is well under the rates that were presented over the last several weeks. The net interest cost for the total issue is 5.74%. Staff is currently finalizing all documents, and the final closing for the issue is set for June 2.

City Manager:
Public Safety Sales Tax Oversight Committee (PSSTOC): The PSSTOC held its first meeting of the year, meeting on May 27. The Fire Chief presented a proposed updated five-year expenditure plan for the department, which includes a delay in the construction of a fourth fire station and some staffing changes. The Chief is proposing establishing three Shift Commander positions, along with three additional Captains to staff the new aerial ladder truck. These six positions will replace the nine Fire positions that were included in the original expenditure plan that would have staffed the fourth fire station. Due to continued declines in sales tax, the Public Safety Sales Tax revenues are also down. These staffing changes will help delay the need to hire more Fire Department staffing for the next two years. The PSSTOC accepted the report, and asked to be kept informed as additional budget information becomes available. The next meeting of the PSSTOC has been tentatively scheduled for November 5, unless new information is available prior to that meeting.

Federal Funding: The City’s lobbyist is closely monitoring the FY10 Federal appropriations process. Members in the House and Senate have finished submitting their appropriations requests to their respective committees. For the first time, members are required to post what projects they requested on their websites. Congressman McNerney submitted the following projects on behalf of the City of Manteca:

Manteca Solar Facility Project: $621,000
Austin road Interchange: $1,000,000
Manteca Arsenic Reduction: $434,500
Sewer Line Replacement and Rehabilitation: $2,000,000

It is important to remember that Rep. McNerney submitting these requests to the Committee does not guarantee any funding. It is now up to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to determine which projects will make the cut, and how much funding they will receive in FY10. It is possible that the House Appropriations Subcommittees will begin marking up bills as early as next week. We will continue to keep you informed as the appropriations process moves forward.

Budgets in the News

As we approach budget adoption season, we're beginning to see the many different ways that California cities are dealing with this historic drop in tax revenues.

In Los Angeles, 1200 positions are being eliminated and non-safety employees will be taking 26 furlough days. The city is still hoping to cut another $150 million in costs through salary concessions. You can click here to read more.

In San Francisco, they've already eliminated hundreds of jobs and over 1000 more positions are proposed to be eliminated after the City's largest labor union rejected a proposal to reduce compensation for holidays. Read about it here.

Non-safety employees have made concessions in Gilroy, but there are still potential layoffs for fire and police if labor costs can't be reduced. Read more here.

The jobs for half of Norco's firefighters will be eliminated unless their union can come up with $750,000 in budget concessions according to a report you can access here.

At the Sacramento Metro Fire District (which covers part of Sacramento County) they are closing three fire stations. However, they have been able to avoid layoffs due to salary concessions. Click here to read more.

And then we have the State of California and its $24 billion deficit (I think it was $21 billion last week). Click here to review the State's May revise. You can read more about the details here.

On a more positive note, I thought I'd attach a link to Joel Kotkin's website. He is one of the pre-eminent urban/economic geographers in the country. He was way ahead of the curve in predicting the many economic problems now being faced by the Golden State. I'm hoping that his article you can read here is also ahead of the curve. He argues there is still hope for the future economy of our state.

Manteca Firefighters Combat Apartment Fire

City of Manteca Firefighters responded to a two-story apartment complex fire. Upon arrival, they found heavy smoke and fire emitting from an upstairs apartment. Additionally, fire had extended into the attic area of the entire complex and was impinging on another apartment unit.

Two crews of Firefighters aggressively extinguished the apartment fires while firefighters from the Aerial Ladder Truck cut a hole in the roof and stopped the attic fire. Other crews simultaneously provided for salvage to protect the contents of the immediate and adjacent residences. Firefighters were successful in preventing the fire from extending into additional units. All occupants made it out of the building safely as a result of working smoke detectors. Firefighters remained on scene for approximately five hours performing salvage, overhaul, and fire investigation.

Quarterly Management Meeting

This Thursday morning, all of Manteca's management staff will be meeting for our quarterly retreat. We'll all be convening over at the Senior Center bright and early to discuss issues of citywide importance.

Besides the obligatory budget review, we'll be going over all of the major development projects in the City and the major infrastructure projects now moving forward. In addition, we'll have presentations on Customer Service Training and ways to access Federal Stimulus dollars.

The last hour of the morning will be a follow up to last quarter's meeting. At the last meeting, the management team broke into small groups to discuss ways that the City could operate more cost effectively and better service the public. While a number of the suggestions have already been implemented, there were dozens of additional ideas that warranted further discussion. On Thursday, staff will be prioritizing these additional ideas and putting together an Action Plan to ensure expedient implementation of keys projects and programs.

I look forward to future blogs where I can provide more detail on the Action Plan put together by our staff.

Latest from the Governor

From today's Sac Bee is an interesting article about the Governor's latest comments on the budget:

Schwarzenegger sees 'self-inflicted' budget wounds
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger considers himself a glass-half-full guy, and he ended his California Small Business Day speech in Sacramento with a dose of optimism. But it seemed clear the governor has just about had it with California's governance system, especially after last week's special election was a colossal failure. Though he blamed many of the state's budget problems on the current economic collapse, he said part of our woes are "self-inflicted."
"California hasn't had a responsible fiscal system since Earl Warren in the late '40s and early '50s," he said.

The governor ticked off a number of complaints about the system this morning:
-- The state relies too much on personal-income and capital gains taxes.-- The state doesn't have a spending cap, nor a "rainy-day fund" (the latter point is questionable given that Schwarzenegger asked voters to establish a "rainy-day" reserve in 2004, albeit one with weak restrictions).-- Federal judges tell California how to run its prison health-care system.-- Federal stimulus rules restrict how California can cut from its budget.-- California requires a two-thirds vote to approve the budget.-- An "endless list" of ballot-box budgeting requirements, including Propositions 13, 42, 49 and 1A, all of which he has championed in the past.
"Until we fix our system, nothing will ever change," Schwarzenegger said. "This is no way, of course, to run a state."

The last two points were most interesting. While Schwarzenegger did not explicitly say he opposes all of these facets of California governance, the mere mention of Proposition 13 and the two-thirds vote requirement in a list of items he says impinge upon his ability to govern is significant.
It was also notable that he named his own after-school measure, Proposition 49, among those that tie his hands and make it difficult to balance the budget. Schwarzenegger led the campaign for that initiative in 2002, and many believe it played a significant role in helping his gubernatorial aspirations a year later.

Schwarzenegger said voters sent "a very clear message" last week that California should live within its means, slash government and not raise taxes, though plenty of groups on the left would disagree. To that end, the governor's Department of Finance is expected to release more specifics today on additional cuts it would use to bridge the state's $24.3 billion deficit.

Addendum: Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear says the governor believes California should have a "robust debate" about its budgetary system, but Schwarzenegger does not support revoking the two-thirds vote requirement or Proposition 13.

Highlights from The Week in Review

Here are some of the items of interest from "The Week in Review" (TWIR). You can read the entire TWIR by clicking on the link on the right side of this page.

Parks and Recreation:
Big League Dreams 1st Quarterly Report: The City has received the 1st Quarter – 2008 Retail Revenue Report for the Big League Dreams Sports Park (copy attached). Growth continues in both revenue and attendance as all facilities are up and running, some at capacity. 1st Quarter retail revenue reached $462,720, which exceeds the 1st Quarter 2008 revenue by $117,648 – a 34% increase. The City received a rent check for $74,035 for the 1st Quarter 2009. A busy January contributed to the majority of this increase. Due to the strong start and financial performance of the facility in the first lease year, early rent provisions of the lease were triggered, and the City has been receiving rent payments since the 4th Quarter of 2007 (over two years ahead of schedule). Paid attendance for the 1st Quarter of 2009 totaled 97,522, compared to 71,337 for the same period in 2008 – an increase of 27%. The 2009 retail revenues are expected to continue to exceed original pre-construction projections for this lease year by over 10% or $150,000. Future revenue growth is expected to be in the 5 to 10%.

Parks/Golf/Park Planning:
Landscape Maintenance Districts – Written 30-day notices have been issued to contractors who are currently maintaining the landscaping in the City’s Landscape Maintenance Districts. The notices will inform the contractors that the monthly services that they have been providing will no longer be needed after June 30, 2009. Parks maintenance staff will assume responsibility for landscape maintenance of the LMDs on July 1.
Staffing and Service Levels – Four parks maintenance workers retired this week, and a fifth maintenance worker transferred to the Water Division. This reduction in work force will most likely begin to have an impact on maintenance service levels in parks in the very near future. Parks staff has worked cooperatively with Public Works staff to consolidate efforts where possible to provide relief to the General Fund and to improve efficiencies. One area in particular where Public Works assistance will help is trash removal from park sites. Staff has worked together to develop a plan and to install new trash receptacles in parks. The plan would have the trash receptacles in parks emptied on the same schedule as when the residents in the respective neighborhoods would have their trash removed. It is anticipated to have minimal impact to the operation of the Solid Waste Division, primarily because they would already be in the area. However, it is anticipated that this will allow Parks staff to reallocate more than 20 hours each week to other tasks.

Parks and Recreation Staffing: May 21 marks Steve Houx’s last day with the City of Manteca. Steve has elected to take the early retirement incentive that we’ve been offering to retirement-eligible employees. This program allows employees to receive two additional years of service credit if the City does not fill their position for two years. Steve has worked for the City for nearly 24 years – most of which he has served as the City’s Parks and Recreation Director. Although it is impossible to fill Steve’s shoes, I needed to appoint someone to step in and oversee the overall operations of the department. Effective May 23, Assistant City Manager Karen McLaughlin will oversee the department. Mark Hall, Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation/Facilities, and Bruce Mulder, Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation/Services, will continue to lead their respective divisions, and will remain directly responsible for them. I appreciate everyone's cooperation during these transitional times.

Pension Tsunami

Pension Tsunami is the name of a very popular blog that is tracking public employee pension issues in California and across the nation. As the stock market has tumbled and goverment budgets tighten, government employee pensions are becoming the latest flashpoint for limited government activists.

In my nightly (and sometimes overnight) review of local and state government issues on the web, I'm finding more and more chatter about the high cost of defined benefit programs. This chatter will only increase as cash strapped municipalities are forced to increase pension contributions to meet the demands of CalPERS to guarantee future benefits.

Not surprisingly, conservative anti-tax/limited government groups in Orange County are leading the way. The Orange County Register seems to be serving as their mouthpiece. Wednesday's Register editorial page had a rather pointed opinion piece on the State's inability to address pension reform. This piece was a follow up to a story they did on the top 20 employee CalPERS pensions in the State and a feature on double dipping by the retired City Manager of Anaheim. You can read the editorial by clicking here, the top 20 list can be accessed here and the double dipping story here.

Last fall, Orange County approved a ballot measure that requires a public vote before their county government can increase employee pensions.

The Los Angeles Times also was busy discussing pension reform as well. Los Angeles City Council members earn $178,000 per year. One of their Council members is very concerned about the future liabilities of the city's private pension system. This Council member is very familiar with their pension system since this former Police Chief is the city's highest pensioner at $265,000 per year. You can read that article here.

Election Post Mortem

By now, I'm sure everyone is aware that the State's feeble attempt to address a portion of its budget deficit has failed miserably at the ballot box. No doubt, we in local government will have $2 billion extracted from us in the form of a loan. School Districts and Counties will suffer far more than we will. We'll also indirectly suffer from the State releasing tens of thousands of prisoners early--many of which will be essentially unsupervised due to the cuts that State parole will suffer.

So what is next? And why should those of us in local government care? We've attempted to insulate ourselves as much as possible from the state budgetarily. However, we can't fully insulate ourselves from their dysfunction. As noted above, our local schools will suffer, our county safety net is going to suffer and our police officers will have no way to incarcerate many offenders. Our local unemployment rate will suffer as the schools and the county are forced to layoff local workers. Our businesses will suffer as the government employment ranks shrink and the schools, the state and the county directly purchase fewer items.

Our world economic crisis is now fully hitting home. The end of the bubble economy has also drained the coffers of a bloated and inefficient state government. Now is the time for all of us to demand fundamental changes in the way our state functions. Every aspect must be reviewed. I'm talking term limits, 2/3rd budget approval, legislative district boundaries, and most importantly in my view--the ballot initiative process that allows our State's constitution to be gutted on an annual basis. The system is now broken and beyond repair. The insanity in Sacramento won't end until we come up with a better way to run the state.

Certainly, those of us at the local level would prefer a lot less state control. Cities, counties and schools would be better served to have less interference from Sacramento. But that is just one of many issues that needs to be resolved. The time is now for all of us to demand change. We don't have any other alternative. Now I'm going to shut up. Thanks for listening.

John Myers has blogged an excellent election post mortem. Click here to read.

Landscape Maintenance Districts - Who Maintains them?

In Monday's Manteca Bulletin, the Managing editor continues to disagree with the City's proposal to take over management of the City's Landscape Maintenance Districts.

The article points out that the city would preserve five jobs if it were to take over the district maintenance. It also points out that these workers cannot perform other duties if they are dedicated to the districts. This is all true. However, this argument is not relevant to why the city is proposing taking over districts.

The city is confident that the public will be better served by the city workers performing district maintenance. After a thorough evaluation in comparing City costs with contracted rates, staff felt that the City could provide residents with a better value for their dollar.

The cost comparison was focused on direct costs that a contractor would have control over, such as the cost to perform the maintenance, electricity and water. City staff’s estimates to perform the maintenance of the LMDs is within 5% of current contracted rates. The added benefit is the potential to save money from reduced water consumption. All LMD combined funds equal approximately $1 million. Approximately $300,000 is for water alone. With Parks maintenance staff already on site, we anticipate an approximate 15% reduction in water consumption. The City only assess (taxes) for the actual cost to maintain the improvements. Therefore, if there are savings from reducing water consumption, the savings would be passed on to the property owners of the respective LMD, in the form of a lower assessment.

In addition, as noted in the article, city workers are here every day and can respond much more quickly to repair problems that occur in the districts. Using city workers also reduces overall support staff costs for the city as well--and thus benefits all taxpayers. Finally, there are many intangible benefits to preserving the city workforce. In times of emergency, such as a flood or other natural disaster, it is city workers who perform civil defense functions. As we continue to reduce our city workforce, we have less staff to monitor levees, clean up after disasters and assist our citizens in their greatest time of need.

The City of Manteca cares about its employees, many of whom live and shop in Manteca. The City has also invested time and money to train its employees. It’s true that when the City assumes responsibility for the LMDs on July 1, it will have a negative impact on private-sector contractors. Currently, the majority of contracted work is with contractors located outside of Manteca.

Staff has determined that the City can provide the same level of service, or better, to the LMDs without any increase in cost and, over time, could actually result in a cost reduction. At the end of the day, we are responsible for providing the best value to our citizens for their tax dollars.

I can also assure you that we are putting in place a management system that will ensure that all functions performed by city workers are done at the most cost effective means possible. At the conclusion of the Council Study Session last week, the Parks and Recreation Director recommended that staff work with the Budget Advisory Committee to set up a system that ensures that all city services are done at a level competitive with their private sector counterparts.

We'll be using this blog in the future to talk in more detail about how we'll be using "managed competition" to ensure that we are delivering quality services at the lowest possible cost.

The link noted below is the power point presentation on this subject at last week's Council Study Session. The final slides talk a bit more about the factors that go into "managed competition".

Landscape%20Maintenance%20Districts%20powerpoint%2051409bullets.ppt

Thanks to Deputy Director Mark Hall for contributing to this post.

City Council Headliners

Non-consent items of interest on Tuesday night's Council agenda:
-Approve the Woodward Community Park Dog Park site plan and provide direction to staff.
-Approve an agreement for preparation of an environmental impact report (EIR) for the CenterPoint Intermodal Center, and an agreement for the preparation of a Master Plan for the area surrounding the proposed Intermodal Center.

Consent items of interest include:
-Approve reorganization of the Operations Division of the Police Department, and authorize the addition of a relief shift Patrol Sergeant position.
-Approve plans and specifications and authorize a call for bids for the State Route 99/120 Interchange Landscaping Project.

A copy of the full agenda packet is available at the following link on the City's website:
http://www.ci.manteca.ca.us/CityClerk/agendas

Budget News around the State

A quick read of the morning news continues to reinforce the fact that Manteca's budget problems are not unique. Revenue drops may vary a bit from City to City, but we are all grappling with same challenges--how to continue to fund our services with less revenue and ever increasing labor costs.

Here is a quick tour around the State...

Sacramento's firefighters still want their 5 percent raise, but they are willing to put their raises towards "layoff relief". Read about it here.

In San Bernardino, firefighters may head to the ballot box to preserve jobs. Click here for the full story.

Just over the hill in Oakland, 12 firefighter trainees were released because the department doesn't have the funding to hire them. More here.

Down the road in Modesto, it is more of the same. Revenues keep dropping and services citywide are going to take a major hit. To find out what cuts they are proposing, read it here.

To read a little bit more about our budget situation, click here to read the Bulletin's Sunday story on our budget.

Highlights from this week's "The Week in Review"

Police Department:
OTS Grant: The Police Department has received notice that the Office of Traffic Safety has awarded us a grant of $87,800. The grant includes $37,800 for a new DUI trailer, along with the lights and equipment needed for DUI checkpoints, plus $50,000 in overtime funding for DUI enforcement.

Dispatch Service: The Police Department is continuing to look at ways to cut costs to the General Fund. During its presentation to Council, the Budget Advisory Committee recommended that departments look at outsourcing service, when appropriate, in order to save money. To that end, the Police Department contacted the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department regarding the possibility of outsourcing Police dispatch service. The Police Chief met with the Sheriff and his staff on May 13 to discuss the proposal. The Sheriff’s offer to provide dispatch service exceeded the cost of the City continuing to operate the Dispatch Center ourselves. While this did not turn out to be an opportunity to save funds, it did illustrate that we are currently providing this service at an economical rate for the taxpayers. The department will continue to research other cost-saving measures.

Public Works:
Atherton Drive Landscaping: Several Council members have expressed concern about the condition of the landscaping along Atherton Drive, adjacent to the Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley. Specifically, the concern seemed to be centered around the irrigation along the north side of the street and the fact it was not adhering to City regulations. Public Works staff verified the situation and again notified the contractor of the need to correct the problem. Previously, along the south side of Atherton Drive, the combined efforts of Parks and Public Works were used to bring the turf strip to a more-acceptable state. In response to community input about appearance of the turf strip, staff is following an accelerated schedule of delivery for re-sodding the turf strip. The re-sodding was a planned element for completion of the Atherton Drive Improvements, which was to be undertaken after current landscape maintenance periods were completed. The request for quotes for the replacement of the sod will be released by the end of this week.

Relocation of Power Lines: Pacific Gas and Electric crews continue with the relocation of the transmission lines on Union Road, between State Route 120 and Woodward Avenue. The new poles are in place and new wires are currently being strung. The schedule calls for the new lines to be energized on May 27. Once the new system is energized, the existing poles and wires must be removed. Mid-June is the target date for the old system to be completely removed. The final phase of the Union Road improvements will begin at that time.

Parks and Recreation:
Shasta Park Playground: The installation of a recognition monument is expected to be completed this week. The playground was constructed with a combination of Federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, and approximately $20,000 of donated funds from neighborhood residents. The City also received a $99,998 grant from the California Integrated Waste Management Board for the installation of the rubberized safety surfacing. The playground will be named in honor of Art Rocha. Mr. Rocha was instrumental several years ago in preserving the character of the park when it was re-designed to accommodate a storm drainage basin. A dedication ceremony is scheduled at Shasta Park on Thursday, May 21, at 6:30 p.m.

You can access the entire "The Week in Review" from its link on the right side of this page.

More than just a Ladder

Wal-Mart. Doctor’s Hospital. Food 4 Less. Bass Pro. Costco. Name any of the large buildings within the Manteca City Limits and you will be describing buildings that would require an aerial ladder to extinguish a large fire. Do you frequent any of these establishments?


In fulfilling the need to protect the community, the City of Manteca purchased a dual purpose “Quint” style Truck rather than the one dimensional “Traditional” style Truck. The difference is the “Quint,” in addition to having an aerial ladder, is equipped with fire hose, a pump, and a water tank just like a Fire Engine. For all intents and purposes it functions as a fire engine with the bonus of having an Aerial Ladder and other specialized equipment, required in firefighting efforts of large buildings. Many municipalities run their “Quint’s” as a front-line Fire Engine responding to all emergencies. As the above picture illustrates, the City of Manteca’s Ladder Truck has been busy responding to emergencies regularly when the next closest engine is at another emergency. In essence, it has become our fourth staffed fire engine.

This dual purpose ability to run the Aerial Ladder Truck as a fourth Fire Engine has served the citizens of Manteca very well especially with the delay of a fourth fire station due to budgetary constraints. An additional benefit is the nine Firefighters that staff the Aerial Ladder Truck are all funded through the Public Safety Sales Tax (PSST) and not by the General Fund. The PSST Fund was established to increase Fire and Police forces without impacting the city budget, which is struggling.

Emergencies requiring the use of the “Aerial Ladder” component of our Truck will be the exception to the rule. These emergencies are what Civic leaders refer to as “low frequency” incidents with “high consequences.” High consequences involve severe property damage or loss of life. They are few and far between, but it only takes once to have a significant impact on our community.

Budget Study Session Wrap Up

It was nearly standing room only this afternoon in the City Council Chambers as staff held a Budget Study Session with the City Council. This session was a follow up to the January 8th City Council Workshop which focused on methods to address an $11 million deficit in the General Fund.

Since January, every City Department has been working diligently to determine the most effective way to reduce costs while minimizing service levels reductions to the community. In addition, staff held four meetings with a City Council-appointed Budget Advisory Committee (BAC). The BAC came up with a series of recommendations to address both the short- and long-term budget challenges. The BAC presented a summary of their recommendations to the City Council back in April.

Today's meeting was held to review the BAC recommendations in more detail and get an update on the Budget situation from City staff. Updates presented today include:

*Revenue projections for 2009-2010 continue to decline--it has dropped another $600,000 since January--down to $28.8 million.

*2008-2009 net cash flow looks to come in about $2.6 million better than budgeted due to the cost-cutting already implemented by every department. Since we'd originally assumed about $2.0 million in current year savings, this additional savings offsets the lower revenue expecations.

*Taking into account 2008-2009 savings, we have a $9.3 million budget gap to close for 2009-2010

Recommended measures to close that gap include:

*Implement development fees that require full cost recovery

*Shift Landscape Maintenance District Responsibilities to City Staff

*Implement Employee Furloughs (already done)

*Freeze Vacant Positions/Review opportunities to consolidate positions (done)

With these actions, we should be able to reduce the gap to less than $3 million. Staff will continue to review additional actions to close the remainder of the gap. Since 85% of general fund costs are personnel, additional reduction in personnel costs are going to have to account for the majority of the additional cost reductions. There are obviously two ways to achieve employee costs reductions--either reduce pay or reduce positions.

As a service organization, it is my goal to preserve positions. Every reduction in staffing reduces our ability to serve the public. I will continue to work closely with our staff to see what we can do to reduce costs without losing any staff positions.

I'll be talking more about specific issues discussed at this session in future blogs. To review the power point presented at the session, click below.

Budget%20Workshop%2005_13_09.pptx

More Thoughts on the State

All week, I've been telling my staff that I'm done talking about the State and their budget follies. Unfortunately, I just can't help myself and I keep reading more things that I want to share. The Ventura City Manager Blog posted a great essay yesterday on the upcoming election and some of the ideas floating around to reform state government.

He talked about a group called "Common Sense California".

Some years ago, a small group of thoughtful and idealistic activists from both parties (and independents) saw this trainwreck coming. They began meeting and tossing around ideas for heading it off. They adopted the name "Common Sense California." At first, they aimed to "reform" Sacramento. They had sensible ideas, like Redistricting reform to blunt the partisan stranglehold (an idea voters have adopted, but is still years from implementation.) Ultimately, however, they came to the conclusion that democracy needs to be reborn at the local level before we can fix Sacramento.

They preach a simple, sensible message: we are going to fix our monumental self-induced problems only by changing from a "take no prisoners" activism that punishes moderation to an inclusive dialogue that seeks win-win consensus. Common Sense California doesn't claim we can solve our budget, transportation, economic and environmental challenges with a three point panacea. Their mission is "to help solve California's public problems by promoting citizens' participation in governance. We work with city governments, school districts, regional governance associations, and non-profit organizations to both support and promote legitimate civic involvement."It is a long way from the digital OK Corral of virtual bloggers who never listen because they have all the answers. Which is why a revival of healthy civic involvement is so promising. Click here to learn more.

He concluded the blog with a quote that has become one of my favorites:

Winston Churchill said it best: "Americans will always do the right thing, after they've exhausted all the alternatives." Californians have zealously passed initiatives, recalled officials, ousted judges and ranted about the futility of it all. Now it is time to get serious and work together to put our State back on the right track.

You can read the full post here.

Budget Study Session Thursday

The City Council will be holding a study session on the budget this Thursday afternoon at 3:30pm in the Council Chambers.

Staff will be presenting an overview of the budget modifications made to date to address our $11.3 million budget deficit. Back in January at a Council work session, staff outlined the issues and challenges facing each department in addressing the budget deficit. In conjunction with a Council-appointed Budget Advisory Committee, staff has been making both immediate and long term adjustments to every department's spending plan.

To date, we've already reduced staffing levels in nearly every department. Staff has also received Council approval for cost-saving restructuring plans that impact Public Works, Community Development, Police and Public Works.

At this point, it is appropriate for staff to get confirmation from the City Council for addtional cost saving ideas. Some of the major issues to be discussed include the proposal to have staff take over the maintenance of landscape maintenance districts, the shifting of Development Services to a special revenue fund and postponing until September adoption of a final budget.

Partnership with State of California

Firefighting resources within Santa Barbara County have been overwhelmed this past week in their efforts to combat a large wildland fire. As such, the City of Manteca Fire Department is entering the sixth day of having an engine company deployed to assist communities in the Santa Barbara area. The fire engine being used is provided to the City by the Office of Emergency Services (OES) from the State of California.


In turn, the OES fire engine is required to respond to all official mutual aid requests by the State, staffed by Manteca firefighters. The City of Manteca ultimately benefits from this provision with the State, as State reimbursement for personnel staffing costs typically exceeds City expenses, and the OES fire engine can be used as a backup to serve the emergency response needs of the City of Manteca throughout the year. Additionally, firefighters throughout all ranks gain valuable experience that is then brought back to the City of Manteca and serves the citizens well.


For the first 48 hours in Santa Barbara, our OES engine company performed “bump and run” structure protection where firefighters stop the fire from igniting a home and then rapidly move to save another. Manteca Firefighters have made multiple saves over the past week. They report being tired but are all healthy and strong. Thankfully, there have been no injuries to our Firefighters!

Updated Numbers from the State

From today's Capitol Notes Blog:
Late word this evening that will get everyone's attention: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has informed legislative leaders that if three of the six budget-related ballot measures fail next Tuesday, the state faces a $21.3 billion deficit between now and next July.
In a letter to the four legislators this afternoon, Schwarzenegger actually offered two new assessments from his budget team of what lies in store for California: a $15.4 billion shortfall if Propositions 1C, 1D, and 1E pass, and the aforementioned $21.3 billion if they fail.

Thus, the best case scenario now has a budget gap in excess of $15 billion! This includes the $8 billion deficit now predicted for next year, along with a $7.4 billion deficit for the balance of this year--up $5 billion from the $2 billion we discussed in Saturday's blog post. To read more about this painful news, click here.

More on the State

The legislature is beginning to pour over the numbers I mentioned yesterday. An article in today's Sacramento Bee mentions the many options that State is considering to close the ever-expanding budget gap. Besides picking the pocket of local government, another frequently mentioned solution to the budget gap is to take $5 billion from our schools--thus potentially putting federal dollars at risk and certainly exacerbating the unemployment problem since most school funding is for jobs.

Other than schools, the big money at the State level is in prisons. Their latest proposal as noted in the Bee article:

Schwarzenegger aides have warned public safety groups he may propose an early release of up to 38,000 prisoners, split between 19,000 undocumented immigrants and 19,000 low-level offenders. The governor may also seek to house those who commit "wobbler" crimes in county jails rather than in state prisons.

The plan would save an estimated $335 million in 2009-10 and $849 million in 2010-11.

This plan would also put those criminals back in our communities. The additional local policing costs would likely be in the hundreds of millions and the property crimes would likely cost us billions!

So it looks like the State's solution to its problems is to make things worse for all of us. As I noted yesterday, we've got a broken system. As one national columnist recently noted:

If, since 1990, state spending increases had been held to the inflation rate plus population growth, the state would have a $15 billion surplus instead of a $42 billion budget deficit, which is larger than the budgets of all but 10 states. Since 1990, the number of state employees has increased by more than a third. In Schwarzenegger's less than six years as governor, per capita government spending, adjusted for inflation, has increased nearly 20 percent.

He also noted that it will likely be very difficult for the nation to get out of this recession if a State with 12 percent of the nation's population continues to struggle. I realize we can't do anything overnight. But I believe it is time for us to seriously consider completely revising our State government. Things are only going to get worse in the meantime!

State Revenue Continues to drop

From "Capitol Alert":

The latest on California politics and government
May 8, 2009
Controller: State's revenues $2.1 billion below estimates
California has received $2.1 billion less this year in tax revenues than projected in the February budget, according to State Controller John Chiang.
In April alone, the state's General Fund revenues were down $1.89 billion, 16 percent below what the February budget projected.

This is on top of the $8 billion hole projected in March. If the ballot measures fail, that would add another $5.8 billion, leaving the State a whopping $16 billion in the hole. This may not be the final number as the Legislative Analyst's Office hasn't updated their numbers since March.

The bottom line for those of us in local government is that we should just assume that the State is going to take another chunk of our revenues next year. The magnitude of the number is not known yet, but for Manteca it will certainly number in the millions of dollars. Hopefully, the number will be somewhat mollified by an acknowledgement from the State that they are going to have to start cutting at the bone, just as we are doing at the local level.

Someday, State government is going to cease to function and then they will be forced to make the fundamental changes necessary to survive in today's world. Until that time, we at the local level are going to have to continue to assume that our revenues are going to take a hit every year and we should plan accordingly.

Highlights from this week's "The Week in Review"

Here are some highlights from this week's "The Week in Review" (TWIR). You can access the TWIR from the right side of this page or by clicking here.

Fire
Long-Term Mutual Aid Assignment: One of the City’s engine companies was dispatched to Southern California on Wednesday evening, May 6, to assist with the wildland fires in the Santa Barbara area. The crew is part of a Strike Team from San Joaquin County, which also includes engine companies from Stockton, Woodbridge, Tracy and Escalon. Our engine company is staffed by Captain Dave Breitenbucher, Engineer Tony Taberna, Firefighter Ryan Avant and Firefighter Nick Haas. In addition, Captain Kyle Shipherd, is helping to lead the assignment as Assistant Strike Team Leader. They arrived safely in the Santa Barbara area late Thursday night and have been assigned to structure protection.

Public Works
Discount on Flood Insurance: The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is a program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that nearly 20,000 communities across the United States participate in by adopting and enforcing floodplain management ordinances to reduce future flood damage. In exchange, FEMA makes Federally-backed flood insurance available to homeowners, renters, and business owners in these communities. To encourage additional floodplain management activities beyond the NFIP minimum, FEMA established the Community Rating System (CRS). CRS is an incentive program that rewards floodplain management activities that exceed the minimum NFIP requirements. Public Works has been working with FEMA staff over the last several months to demonstrate how the City’s existing floodplain management activities exceed the minimum NFIP requirements and thus qualify for a reward under the CRS program. Specifically, Public Works demonstrated to FEMA how existing street sweeping activities and storm system maintenance activities reduce the risk of flooding in the City. Given these proactive maintenance activities, this week FEMA has designated the City of Manteca as a Class 9 CRS Participant, which entitles all residents and businesses to a 5% discount on flood insurance. Class 9 is the highest rating achievable, given the geographic features of the City. Public Works will continue to work with FEMA in the future to maintain this benefit for the City’s residents and businesses.

Community Development
Crivello Estates: Staff met last week with more than 30 residents regarding the proposed Crivello Estates residential subdivision on Louise Avenue. Staff and the applicants addressed traffic issues, building height concerns, the extension of the existing park, and confirmed that the General Plan calls for residential housing on this site, not open space. Staff believes most of the neighbors issues have been satisfied, although there are traffic-calming issues in the two adjacent subdivisions that need further discussion, but are unrelated to the specific Crivello Estates proposal. Staff will be meeting with the Planning Commission on May 12 again to recommend approval of the project, with changes that were agreed to by the developer.

Pinching Pennies can be Pound Foolish

Over the past two weeks, the Admin Services Director, the Finance Director and I have had great discussions with all of our labor groups. We are now attempting to have face to face meetings with employees in every department. Our goal is to make sure that all of us understand our current budget circumstances and what we are trying to do to make sure that we can sustain a high level of service to our community during these tough times.

One subject that comes up in every discussion is why we are still making capital expenditures in a time when many employee jobs are at risk. The expenditure most frequently questioned is the remodel of our Permit Center. Many believe that this $400,000 investment would be better used to preserve jobs. I can understand why people feel this way, but after learning the facts, you'll find that this is actually an expenditure that WILL preserve jobs in the long run.

Here are the facts:
*The original remodeling proposal was for $1.5 million and it was substantially reduced in light of the current budget situation.

*By creating a one-stop shop for permits, it will reduce operating costs by about $300,000 per year.

*The funds used for the permit center are facility fees that can ONLY be used for capital expenditures and not for staffing.

*We are currently requesting millions in fee increases from the building industry. These increases will be hard to justify if we aren't able to improve our customer service.

There are number of other qualitative benefits as well that were outlined in a Bulletin story earlier this week. To view the story click here.

When you add up the numbers, the one-stop shop will likely return $10 to the City for every dollar that was spent. In these budget times, we need more opportunities like that!

I can assure you that every expenditure is closely scrutinized these days. If something actually makes it onto the agenda it is because it is an expenditure that benefits the city or is something we are legally required to do. I encourage staff members to contact their Department Head or contact me if they are wondering why we are making certain expenditures.

Not all the economic news is bad...

We're deluged daily with depressing economic news. Every week we hear about the unemployment rate heading north as mass layoffs impact every business sector. However, the New York Times had an excellent article today about job growth. It points out that despite being in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, millions are still being hired. In fact, while 4.8 million workers were fired or left their jobs in February, 4.3 million workers were hired in that same month.

If you are interested in reading a little good news, click here.

Another story in the New York Times focuses on Sacramento real estate. The story is entitled "Where Home Prices Crashed Early, Signs of an Early Rebound". The story basically concludes that we've found the bottom of the market. While not great news, let's hope they're right and we don't have another year of free falling prices. You can access the story here.

The Los Angeles Times also weighs in on today's residential real estate market. While higher end homes and homes in outlying areas are suffering, moderately priced homes are being snapped up quickly in today's low interest rate environment. While LA prices are now yet down to 2005 Manteca prices, there are a lot of homes now selling for less than $500K as noted in the story you can access here.

Breaking News: The State strikes again

In an earlier post, I mentioned that there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to our local budget. Due to these many unknowns, we will likely wait until September to adopt a final budget for this year. One of the key unknowns is what the State of California plans to do to local budgets if the ballot measures fail on May 19.

In today's Capitol Blog, John Myers has reported that the State Department of Finance in its updated "May revision" to the budget is threatening to go after a sizeable chunk of local property tax revenues to help balance the budget.

Here is an excerpt from the post:

The 'Plan B' scenarios if the special election measures are defeated continue to trickle out of the administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This afternoon, a new one: the governor is prepared to propose a $2 billion suspension of the 2004 constitutional initiative protecting city and county revenues.
Talk of suspending 2004's Proposition 1A comes on the heels of a meeting yesterday where Schwarzenegger aides told the firefighting community that voters rejecting the measures on the ballot in two weeks time would result in as many as 1,700 firefighting positions.One local government official on this afternoon's call said the plan would be to borrow as much from local governments as Prop 1A allows -- 8% of property tax revenues in the 2008-09 fiscal year, estimated at $2 billion. An aide to the governor confirms the proposal was discussed.
That borrowing would not be easy... or cheap.
The five-year-old constitutional amendment, championed by Schwarzenegger, requires that the money be repaid with interest within three years. It also would require a supermajority vote of the Legislature.
Word of such a plan comes almost five years to the day that Schwarzenegger struck a deal with cities and counties for help back then, in exchange for Prop 1A.
"We have to get our act together as a state," said the governor on May 12, 2004, "rather than always looking to the counties and to the cities and take money away from them."
The suspension of 2004's Prop 1A has apparently been in the works for a while. Earlier this afternoon, I asked the budget campaign team for documentation supporting their new TV ad's assertion that "24,000 firefighters and police" could get laid off if the measures fail.
The document that I received referenced the Prop 1A suspension, and was sent to me before word of the proposal was confirmed by both those on today's call and the Schwarzenegger administration.
All of this is leading to a fairly intense debate as to whether the governor and his team are fairly, or unfairly, predicting dire consequences should the ballot measures fail.

To read the entire post, click here.

For Manteca, the hit would likely be in the neighborhood of $1 to $1.5 million.

In the News

As cities began to hold budget hearings and adopt budgets, we'll start seeing an avalanche of news stories about the trade off between salary reductions and layoffs.

Click here for the latest from Roseville, one of the wealthiest local governments in the state. Their revenue base is highly dependent on auto sales and retail sales--the two revenue sources which have dropped the most over the past year.

We've been tracking Santa Rosa closely for months. The story you can access here reports good news. Major layoffs have been avoided as both the Police and Fire Departments have made major salary concessions to save jobs.

Things aren't going as well in San Bernardino as a minority of the City Council is attempting to restore vacant firefighter positions that were frozen to save jobs. You can read about it here.

Here in Manteca, the Bulletin wrote a very positive story this past weekend (click here) about our attempts to meet our budget goals without impacting jobs and service levels. We've still got a lot of work to do, but I'm confident that our bargaining groups will do everything they can to work with us to preserve the high level of service expected by our community.

City Council Headliners

Only two non-consent items on Tuesday night's Council agenda:
-Consider introducing Ordinance No. 1411 approving sewer connection fees.
-Consider request to waive City-related costs for the Memorial Day Weekend Event.

Consent items of interest include:
-Accept the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) of $147,000 and approve the Police Chief's spending plan.
-Approve reorganizations within the Parks and Recreation, Public Works, Community Development and Finance Departments as a result of reduced staffing levels.

A copy of the full agenda packet is available at the following link on the City's Website:
http://www.ci.manteca.ca.us/CityClerk/agendas

The magic number is 67,754

The State Department of Finance annually updates the population of every City in the State. As of January 1, 2009, Manteca had 1,631 more residents than on January 1, 2008. While the housing market has slowed down, it isn't surprising that we've continued to add population. As noted in today's Bulletin, Manteca built 897 housing units in 2008.

Here is how Manteca's population has grown this decade:

2000: 49,255
2001: 51,655
2002: 55,288
2003: 57,526
2004: 60,176
2005: 61,809
2006: 63,389
2007: 64,488
2008: 66,123
2009: 67,754

To see the statewide chart, click here.

While some may complain about the rate of growth or growth in general, this is a positive sign for the economy of our City. Both retailers and businesses prefer to locate in communities that consistently grow in population.

For those of you who are numbers freaks, there is another chart available on the State's website that shows city population by decade from 1850-present.

Here is how Manteca has grown in size since it's incorporation:

1920: 1,286
1930: 1,614
1940: 1,981
1950: 3,804
1960: 8,242
1970: 13,845
1980: 24,925
1990: 40,773
2000: 49,258

The chart showing historical data is very fascinating, it includes every city in the state and many unincorporated towns as well. For example, you can check out the population of San Francisco relative to every other city in the state in the late 1800s. It is also amazing to see the rate of growth in Los Angeles and its suburbs from 1910-1930.

You can check out the spreadsheet by clicking on the link below:
calhist2.xls

The Good Guys Win!

Every time the State is not able to balance its own budget, they use funds from local government and redevelopment agencies to fill the gap. Billions in property tax dollars are shifted from your community annually to help balance the budget. The State started this permanent shift in the early 90s. When state budgets are really out of wack, they also steal money from local redevelopment agencies. They've taken several billion dollars out of local agency coffers periodically since 1992. This year, they proposed to take $350 million statewide.

This year's theft would have taken $1.377 million from Manteca's redevelopment agency.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge Thursday told the state it can't take money from city redevelopment agencies. Judge Lloyd Connelly said a provision in the state budget approved in September, which would have required redevelopment agencies statewide to transfer $350 million to the state, is unconstitutional.

More information about the lawsuit is available here on the California Redevelopment Association website.

In his 14-page ruling, Connelly stated that the state's action is unconstitutional because the redevelopment money won't be used in the agency's area. "The funds are distributed without any procedures to assure that the schools and educational programs receiving funds contributed by the city redevelopment agencies are serving students within the redevelopment project areas ...," Connelly stated. Thus, the money will go to projects unrelated to the agencies' projects, he stated.

“While we understand the difficult situation with our state’s budget, taking redevelopment funds is unconstitutional, plain and simple,” said John Shirey, executive director of the California Redevelopment Association. “We repeatedly warned state lawmakers that raiding redevelopment funds to balance the state’s budget violates the Constitution, yet they took these funds anyway.”

While a great victory for all redevelopment agencies, Thursday's ruling, however, isn't likely to be the last word. It is expected that the State Department of Finance will appeal the decision.

Highlights from "The Week in Review"

Here are some items of interest from this week's "The Week in Review" (TWIR). A full version of this week's TWIR and previous TWIRs can be access from the "links" section of this website or by clicking here.

Police Department
Every 15 Minutes: The Manteca Police Department participated in the 2009 “Every 15 Minutes” program on April 23 And 24. This year’s event was presented at Sierra High School and included the students from all four Manteca high schools. This presentation is a cooperative effort between the School District and local emergency responders. Agencies participating in the event included the Manteca Police Department, Manteca Fire Department, Manteca Unified School District, Lathrop-Manteca Fire Department, Lathrop Police Department, Manteca District Ambulance, San Joaquin County Sheriffs Office, San Joaquin County Superior Courts, San Joaquin County District Attorneys Office, Kaiser Hospital, Manteca Tow Company, P.L. Fry Funeral Home, California Highway Patrol, and PHI Air-Medic Service. Along with these agencies, the program used more than 90 volunteers, 25 School District buses, and was attended by 1,311 students. The “Every 15 Minutes” program is a very powerful and emotional program used to reach out to high school juniors and seniors and educate them about the consequences of drinking and driving.

Public Works
Projects for Federal Funding: Last week was a busy week for Public Works Engineering staff, who prepared a number of appropriations requests to meet deadlines for our Congressional representatives. Staff submitted four requests to Congressman McNerney’s office, plus eight to Senator Feinstein’s office. The projects included interchanges at McKinley, Austin, and Union Road, plus funds for a reclaimed water distribution system and other utility improvements. These projects will compete with others submitted by entities throughout the State and nation for Federal funds that could be included in one of the appropriation bills that Congress will pass in the coming months.

Parks and Recreation
Spreckels Recreation Park: Construction of the masonry wall on the west property line has been completed. The installation of solar security lighting and the fencing to separate track users from spectators is expected to be completed in May. The Anderson 209 volunteer group is continuing to progress on its work on the starting hill gate and support systems. Anderson’s target date for completion is May.

Parks maintenance staff has been installing wood chips in planter beds and tree wells throughout the City. The wood chips are produced by Tree Division work crews from routine pruning and chipping operations. Recycling the wood chips provides multiple benefits, such as diverting waste going to landfill sites, retaining moisture in the ground, keeping weeds down and providing a more attractive appearance.

Damages:
Woodward Park vandalism – Vandals damaged 27 irrigation heads. Labor and materials to replace the heads cost approximately $200.

Primavera Park received graffiti by vandals three times in the past week. Labor and materials to remove the graffiti cost approximately $140.

Approximately 25 shrubs were destroyed by vandals in the Paseo West Landscape Maintenance District. Labor and materials to replace the shrubs is expected to cost approximately $450-500.

Downtown Discussions

As noted in the Bulletin today, a meeting was held Tuesday night to discuss the formation of an Improvement District to provide additional resources to the downtown area. The Sun Post also had a more expansive article in today's edition.

Tuesday night's meeting was very well attended and included a healthy debate about whether or not property owners should tax themselves for maintenance, marketing and security. The proposed Property Based Improvement District (PBID) would allow the downtown to function more like a typical shopping district. Modern shopping centers normally have a merchants association that jointly pays for these services. Traditional downtowns often put themselves at a disadvantage by not working together to maintain, secure and promote their district.

PBID's have now been implemented in more than a thousand older shopping districts across the country and are a proven way to help downtown catch up in today's competitive retail and office environment. Assessments are based on a variety of formulas, but cost is usually based on the building square footage and the size of the lot. The dollar amount for a small business owner is usually less than $5 per day--far less than what it would cost for that owner to provide his own security, marketing and maintenance.

Besides the obvious benefit of pooling resources, it also allows for self-determination. While the assessment has to be approved by the City, the funds are controlled by a Board which is composed of the property owners in the District. In addition, the District approval doesn't guarantee its continued existence. The District's life is only five years--after that it must be renewed by the property owners. Almost 100 percent of the Districts formed in California over the past 15 years have been renewed after the first five years. That is certainly a testament to the effectiveness of these PBIDs.

I believe the primary reason for the high renewal rate is the process required to form the District in the first place. A business plan is required before the property owners vote on the formation. These business plans include very specific goals for the District and describe the means to execute the business plan. The business plan is put together in a collaborative process among all of the property owners. By including all the owners in the planning stage, it requires all of the property owners to agree on the goals and objectives for the District. Requiring this process means buy-in from the owners. Buy-in from the owners makes it much easier to successfully implement the business plan.

While these plans come up with specific actions and programs, that is not the most important achievement of the business plan. The reason these plans are well executed is because the plan creates a governance structure for the District. This is what is typically lacking in older shopping districts. While there is typically some sort of merchants association in a downtown, there are usually a dozen or more other groups that also claim an interest in downtown. There are also a hundred or more owners not participating at all. In other words, it is anarchy with no one group setting forth the vision and implementing actions for the District. In the PBID, there is one group in charge of all activities in the downtown. There is no confusion as to who decides. Decisions are made in an orderly and democratic matter by a governing board selected by the property owners.

Manteca has fallen into this anarchical pattern. There are a number of small groups all dedicated to different issues downtown. Some are focused on traffic bulbs, some on beautification, some on promotion, some on signage. In addition, there are service clubs and other non-profits all involved in some shape or form. While all these groups are well-meaning, without a coordinated effort, most of the energy is wasted--and at the end of the day, we have a downtown lacking identity and business.

The process currently underway is attempting to harness the energy of all of these groups to make a better downtown. It won't be easy. Stakeholders are understandably skeptical due to past experiences. However, a process with a proven track record hasn't been attempted in the past. This time, failure is NOT an option.