City Council Headliners

At 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday night, here are some items the Council will be considering:

Approve a letter of response to 2008/2009 San Joaquin County Grand Jury Case No. 03-08, and authorize the Mayor to sign and send a letter to the Presiding Judge of the San Joaquin County Superior Court.

Authorize the City Manager to issue a letter of commitment for the City to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy's Community Renewable Energy Deployment grant program.

Approve Change Order No. 9 for the Atherton Drive Extension Project decreasing the contract amount by $41,191.70, accept the project as complete and authorize the filing of a Notice of Completion.

Continued Public Hearing - Consider the appeal of the Manteca Police Department denial to renew Club Leon's annual dance hall permit (220 W. Yosemite Ave.).

Authorize staff to submit the City's draft Housing Element Update & Policy Document to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for review.

Consider approving of a Cost Recovery Program for the Fire Deparmtent on DUI and non-resident vehicle accidents; and, consider an agreement with Fire Recovery USA to provide billing and collection of fees.

Approve agreement for use of city facilities with Anderson 209 BMX Race Team, Inc. relating to maintenance of the Spreckels Recreation Park (BMX Track).

Appointments to the Manteca Youth Advisory Commission.

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

Public Employee Salaries in the news again

The Sunday edition of the Contra Costa Times has come up with the mother of all searchable databases (click here). The paper has been working for months to compile salary information on every single entity in the greater bay area -- which includes San Joaquin County. So far they've included 64 governmental entities with a total of 134,000 employees. The only local entity in the database is the County of San Joaquin (so far).

Here are some of the nuggets from the news story that accompanied the link to the database:

A public health care district in southern Alameda County paid its chief executive $876,831 in 2008 — more than twice as much as any other local government employee in the East Bay, San Francisco,San Mateo County and San Joaquin County, an extensive survey of salary data by the Bay Area News Group found.

The data show wide discrepancies in pay and sometimes high salaries in government agencies, such as the Port of Oakland, where a semiskilled laborer grossed $123,450 in 2008, and in Newark, in southern Alameda County, where more than half of the 215 city employees were each paid more than $100,000 last year and the average gross pay was $109,027.

San Joaquin County also had four employees in the top 10 highest paid employees — four doctors at the county's General Hospital, paid from $377,023 to $449,155.

The other two members of the top 10 were Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi at $424,810 and East Bay Municipal Utility District General Manager David Diemer at $380,023.

While the large salaries grab most of the headlines, it also points out the huge overtime often received by pubilc safety employees and the large percentage of safety employees earning over $100,000 per year.

While most employees don't receive these higher salaries, there is a widespread discontent among California residents with regard to public employee compensation. This is in addition to the backlash I've been documenting in previous posts regarding public employee pensions. As budgets get tighter and services diminish, there is no doubt that this discontent will continue to grow.

There are also a number of studies that argue that public employee compensation now far exceeds private sector compensation levels. Click here for the chart that demonstrates the results of one study. Whether or not you agree with the data is irrelevant, the reality is that public sentiment for government salaries is going south. I believe this is particularly true here in the "outer" bay area where housing costs and average household income is far lower than the bay area, but government salaries are nearly equivalent to those west of the Altamont.

I'll be discussing more in the future the challenges we are facing as we attempt to keep our salaries competitive with the "inner" bay area.

Highlights from "The Week in Review"

You can read the entire "The Week in Review" by clicking on the link on the right side of this page.

Community Development
The following is a summary of some of the activities under way in the Community Development Department:
B.R. Funsten pulled its building permit on August 26 for the expansion of its industrial warehouse/office project on Main Street/Industrial Park Drive. Work will begin August 28 on construction of the new building’s walls. The project is on schedule with anticipated completion on December 1.

The City received a series of plans for the construction of luxury outlet space at the Promenade Shopping Center last week. Staff anticipates completing an expedited review process that will enable construction to start within 30 days and be completed in February 2010.

Construction is ongoing on the new Hampton Inn Hotel project at the Promenade Shopping Center, and the owner is hoping to open the hotel in early December of this year.

Work is substantially complete on the Master Plan related to the CenterPoint project, and the EIR has been under way since June.

Staff will present the revised Housing Element to the City Council at your September 1 meeting. Council will be asked to forward the element to the State Department of Housing and Community Development for its approval.

Staff will be meeting again in two weeks with our local automobile dealerships to finalize joint efforts with the City and the dealerships on promotional activities designed to enhance their businesses.

Staff and the City’s consultant will hold our first meeting next week on proposed revisions to the Zoning Ordinance as part of the comprehensive update.

A meeting was held this week with the applicants for the proposed Austin Road Business Park project to review the project schedule for completion of its EIR, which is expected to be completed in Spring 2010.

Building Safety Activities:
The Building Safety Division conducted a total of 307 inspections during the week. The division issued 56 building permits: 17 Single-Family Dwellings, 2 Commercial Additions, 1 Change to Existing Plans, 3 Miscellaneous Electrical, 10 HVAC, 4 Miscellaneous Plumbing, 2 Patio, 1 Photovoltaic, 1 Power Pole, 1 Residential Remodel, 1 Residential Siding, 2 Commercial Reroof, 4 Residential Reroof, 2 Sign Permits, 1 Storage Rack, and 3 Swimming Pools.

A total of 34 new project applications were submitted for plan check services, which included 7 Single-Family Dwellings, 1 Change to Existing Plans, 1 Commercial Remodel, 3 Shell Buildings at Promenade, 1 Fire Alarm, 1 Fire Sprinkler, 3 Residential Masters, 7 Solar Masters, 1 Patio, 1 Residential Fire Repair, 7 Photovoltaic, and 1 Tenant Infill at Stadium Center.

Micheal Hosier, the City’s Chief Building Official, is conducting a free informational class on Thursday nights at 325 N Main St. on various construction codes. The class is currently studying the National Electrical Code. This class is open to contractors, inspectors, code enforcement officers and anyone else who may have an interest in learning this code. For information about these classes, contact Mr. Hosier at mhosier@ci.manteca.ca.us.

Public Works
Water Storage Tanks: Following up on the effects of last week’s power surge on the City’s water system, staff is taking a preliminary look at replacing the City’s aging elevated water tank. The existing tank located next to the Vehicle Maintenance Facility on Wetmore Street is seismically unstable and, as such, has been disconnected from the City water system for many years. Without the ability to safely store water, the tank becomes little more than an oversized antenna. Plans to remove the tank have been previously drafted, but until a suitable alternative antenna.

Parks and Recreation
Community Needs Survey: The department office has received several telephone calls inquiring about opening a Before-School Program at Joshua Cowell School, and an After-School Program at Veritas School. The department currently has surveys to these schools to ask parents their thoughts on opening these programs. The deadline for these surveys is August 28. At that time, staff will review the surveys and determine if additional programs need to be opened.

City Manager
BMX Track: Staff and the Mayor met with members of Anderson 209 on Wednesday to discuss the proposed Facility Use Agreement, which outlines Anderson 209’s rights and responsibilities to use and maintain the track. The agreement is on the Council’s September 1 agenda for final approval. Staff is proposing the City contribute funding to Anderson 209, to help offset some of its operational costs – still significantly less than it would cost for the City to maintain the track. In the meantime, work is proceeding on completing the construction of the track and starting hill.

PBID Surveys: City staff has been working for the past several months with a local steering committee and our consultant to pursue the possibility of a Property-Based Business Improvement District (PBID). Surveys were sent recently to business and property owners within a potential PBID boundary, though few were received. The committee met earlier this month and revised the survey, and agreed to hand deliver the survey to all business owners. At the same time, the City will mail the surveys to property owners within the boundary area. The purpose of the survey is to identify those areas where there may be interest in providing additional funding, and to determine whether there is initial interest in forming such a district.

NUMMI Closing

I originally blogged this AM about the pending decision on the fate of the NUMMI plant in Fremont. Here's an update.

Breaking News from the San Francisco Chronicle:

(08-27) 13:01 PDT FREMONT -- Workers at New United Motor Manufacturing in Fremont assembled in a giant meeting hall this morning to hear plant manager Kunihiko Ogura deliver the news that Toyota has decided to halt production at the factory in March, a move that dooms about 4,700 jobs inside the plant with huge ripple effects throughout California. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/27/BU6919EL3P.DTL#ixzz0PQBy7eAu

The 4,700 jobs in Fremont are just a small percentage of the total job loss that this plant closure will create in the Bay Area and the Central Valley. Local economists conservatively estimate that nearly 10,000 manufacturing jobs in San Joaquin County are dependent on the NUMMI plant. A good chunk of the domestically produced parts for the vehicles came out of plants in San Joaquin County. The NUMMI plant closure could increase our local unemployment rate by as much as 5 percent!

As is typically the case, the state of California was very slow at reacting to the pending plant closure. There were a number of bills plodding through the legislature to provide incentives for NUMMI to stick around. Even though Toyota had made it clear that a decision was coming in late August, the earliest any legislation could have passed would have been mid-September. (click here for an article that discusses the state's glacial progress in providing incentives)

While it still may not have staved off the closure, it is symbolic of the absolute inability of our legislature to do anything right--and further reinforces our state's anti-business stance. While I hope this will serve as a wake up call that California can't continue to run businesses out of our state, only time will tell.

In the meantime, the business leadership in San Joaquin County needs to help its existing industrial base survive this serious blow.

One Stop Permit Center

The City of Manteca's long-awaited "One Stop Permit Center" will be holding its grand opening celebration on Thursday morning. The $400,000 project is designed to process and expedite all planning, building, business license and limited Public Works/Fire development-related activities in one location. In addition, clients will now be able to pay all related fees directly at the new Permit Center location, thus avoiding an additional stop at the already over-burdened Finance Department counter. Business licenses will now be processed at the new Permit Center, and minor activities normally processed at the Public Works Department counter will now be handled at the new center.

This project is emblematic of what we are attempting to accomplish with service delivery of all city functions. This project not improves service delivery, the consolidation of functions will save the city over $200,000 per year. In addition, like most projects this past year, we were able to scale back the project without reducing the benefits to the public. By reducing the original budget by 70 percent, the operational savings realized by this project will pay back the capital cost in less than two years.

I realize that there will still be some critics of the project, who feel like we shouldn't be expending any capital dollars in the current economic environment. However, if we had decided to be penny-wise, we would not only not realize the future cost savings, but likely discourage future development projects from choosing Manteca as a business-friendly destination.

In other words, if you have a project that can save money, be delivered cost-effectively, provide better service to the public, and generate future revenue to the city and jobs to the public, how could we possibly not do it?

Real Estate Prices Fall Statewide

Here's one of the latest posts from California City News:
(P.S. That isn't a typo, that really says "1933"!)

State Property Values Fall for First Time Since 1933
As if you needed any more data to confirm the dire straights of the state economy, the Board of Equalization reported this week that total state and county property assessments dropped 2.4 percent from last year. We've all been hearing about property values in a tailspin for months, but this number is actually pretty significant -- it's the first time values have declined since the Great Depression.
Of course this means big trouble for state and local revenues, but that's no surprise. Here's the lowlights:
Assessed values dropped 9.9 percent in the northern San Joaquin Valley,
4.8 percent in the greater Sacramento area
4.2 percent in the southern San Joaquin Valley.
San Francisco and Trinity Counties both saw values increase by 5% or more.
Read more in the SacBee and LA Times. And a glimmer of hope: Realtors said home sales were up 12 percent last month.

Response to Bulletin re:Pedestrian Safety

In Saturday's Manteca Bulletin (click here for link), the editor takes the city to task for not maintaining a sidewalk adjacent to the Jack-in-the-Box on East Yosemite Avenue.

The City of Manteca makes every effort to maintain sidewalks so they are safe for pedestrians. It is not possible, however, for City staff to continually inspect the conditions of every sidewalk in the City. The adjacent property owner is in the best position to be aware of any problems. In fact, State law provides that a property owner is responsible for maintaining and repairing the sidewalk fronting his/her property in such condition that it will not endanger persons or property (Section 5610 of the State of California Streets and Highways Code).

In the case of the sidewalk in front of Jack-in-the Box on East Yosemite Avenue, the leaking backflow device is not owned or maintained by the City, but by the property owner. The City was not aware there was a problem until someone fell. The City has responded by cleaning the sidewalk, placing a barricade at the site to warn pedestrians, and contacting the property owner to ensure that the problem is quickly corrected.

The public should not assume that, just because a problem has existed for a long time, the City is aware of the problem. As a matter of fact, one should assume just the opposite. If the City knows of a problem that creates an unsafe condition, staff will take some corrective action immediately. In the case of overgrown bushes or slippery sidewalks, the City may not be able to completely solve the problem, because staff may have to work with the responsible property owner. At the very least, we will barricade the area to keep the public safe. In the case of cracked or raised sidewalks, the City may not be able to immediately remove the tree and replace the sidewalk, but staff will barricade the area until we can at least grind the raised edge to remove the trip hazard.

The City of Manteca has an easy on-line way to report this type of problem. You can access it using the "contact us" button at the top of the City’s home page at www.ci.manteca.ca.us. You can also call the Public Works Department at 456-8400. During non-business hours, any unsafe condition should be reported to the Police Department on its non-emergency number (456-8100).

The City’s Streets Division has been hard-hit by the budget crisis, but we will respond to unsafe conditions. So please let us know when you see a problem, so that we can, hopefully, fix the problem before someone gets hurt.

Two Track Economy

In Thursday's New York Times (link here), M.I.T. economist Simon Johnson adds credence to what many of us are thinking about today's economy:

The United States has, over the past two decades, started to take on characteristics more traditionally associated with Latin America: extreme income inequality, rising poverty levels and worsening health conditions for many. The elite live well and seem not to mind repeated cycles of economic-financial crisis.

He discusses the many competing economic forces we are now facing and how they will impact the average family. His bottom line concern is that the rich will survive and the rest of us will continue to lose ground -- possible indefinitely.

He doesn't provide any solutions, just food for thought--and the importance of finding a way to keep the middle class alive. He like most economists, believes that you can't have a healthy economy without a healthy middle class.

Highlights from "The Week in Review"

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

City Manager's Office
Follow-up from August 18 Council Meeting:
Megan’s Law – With the start of the school year and the expansion of no-busing zones, staff and the Council realize that the children in our community will be walking to school in greater numbers and from greater distances. It is important parents keep themselves aware of the potential dangers their children may encounter along these paths. One tool available to parents is the Megan’s Law database. This is a listing of registered sex offenders in each community. This program can be accessed by clicking on the link on the Manteca Police Department or Manteca Unified School District web pages, or at meganslaw.com. Parents can also make themselves aware of crime activity occurring in their neighborhoods by accessing the Police Department’s website and clicking on “Crime Maps.”

The Police Department conducts neighborhood meetings almost weekly to tell and show the citizens in attendance how they can access our Police web page and use Crime Maps to locate registered sex offenders, and show them how they can register to be notified weekly regarding crime activity in their neighborhood. The Public Affair’s Officer coordinates public awareness booths on the average of 10 to 15 times a year at various locations around the community. The Megan's Law computer is always available at these events, but citizens should remember that they can access the same website from their home computers for their convenience. This week, the Police Department attended three open houses at local elementary schools there the Megan’s Law and crime mapping programs were demonstrated. Last week, we set up at Home Depot and we had dozens review the local files. We are setting up in the next month for the day at Costco, where the programs will again be available to the public.

Weed Abatement – The Mayor requested information regarding a potential fire hazard (high weeds) on a parcel in the 300 block of North Main Street. Upon investigation, it was found the parcel in question has been issued a citation. This particular citation has reached the point where it has been sent to the court for legal action. The Fire Department will seek bids to clean the property as soon as the property owner exceeds the 30 days the court allows for the owner to mitigate.

Police
Attempted Murder Arrest: Approximately two months ago, officers went to Morgan Court in Manteca in response to a shooting. The victim was transported to the hospital with two gunshots wounds to his legs. The suspect in that shooting was Joseph Vigil of Manteca. Since that time, the Gang Unit has followed up on numerous tips. Those tips were passed on to the Fugitive Arrest Team – a team made up of U.S. Marshalls and officers of the Department of Corrections. On August 12, Manteca Police received information that Vigil was hiding at a specific residence in Modesto. Based on that information, the Fugitive Arrest Team was able to confirm he was staying at that house. On August 14 at approximately 7 a.m., Manteca officers set up surveillance of the house. Just after 10 a.m., Officers served an arrest warrant at the residence. Vigil was in the house and arrested without incident. He was charged with attempted murder and a parole violation hold, and transported to County Jail.

Possession of a Loaded Firearm: Officers were dispatched to a fight involving sticks at the west end of West Center Street. While en route, officers were told one person had a gun and was yelling about shooting someone. Officers arrived to find two males lying prone in the street and a security guard in uniform holding them at gunpoint. The security guard was directed to holster her weapon. She stuffed it into her front waistband, as she did not have a holster on her duty belt. She was told to put the gun in her trunk. An investigation determined that two of the individuals were fighting over a possible stolen cell phone. The security guard said she had seen the involved vehicles speeding into the area, went to her car, retrieved her personal firearm and detained the suspects, pending our arrival. She said she also saw someone with a firearm run into the field west of West Center Street. Statements obtained showed the guard had actually pointed her firearm at the 15-year-old son of a subject who ran into the field holding a cell phone. The guard’s credentials were checked. Her guard registration was current, but her firearm permit expired in 2007. Her supervisor was called to the scene and he said she had been warned she was not to carry a firearm with her at all while working for their company. The Security Guard was booked for Unlawful Possession of a Loaded Firearm.

Public Works
Power Surge: At approximately 3:00 a.m. on August 19, Manteca experienced a power surge, due to a vehicle accident in Escalon, where a car hit a major power line. This surge caused the controls at many of the City’s wells to shut off. Approximately half of them restarted automatically, but the remaining wells had to be manually restarted. In the meantime, pressure in the system dropped below acceptable levels. Although staff did not receive any customer complaints because of the early hour, the City is required to notify the regulatory agencies whenever pressure drops below minimum levels. Staff completed proper notification and is conducting additional sampling to ensure that water quality was not compromised in any way. The wells’ automated monitoring system did its job of notifying the on-call operator of the problem, so staff was able to respond quickly. Staff is investigating how to improve the system to prevent a recurrence of this problem.

99 Landscape Project: Staff is continuing work with representatives from San Joaquin Council of Governments (SJCOG) and Caltrans to obtain funding to landscape not only the Highway 99/120 East Interchange, but also to install some landscape on the 99/120 West Interchange. As of the most recent project team meeting on August 18, all parties were in agreement on the project scope, but some permitting and financial issues remain. The next milestone will come in September, when staff asks the California Transportation Commission to transfer responsibility and funding for the project from Caltrans to SJCOG. If approved, this would allow the City and SJCOG to administer the project and, hopefully, bid the project by the end of the year.

Retailer Blues

Today's links to the Sac Bee focus on retail sales--which as most of you know are not only the lifeblood of our economy, but really important to us in local government. Sales tax is responsible for 25 percent of our general fund revenue.

As I receive information on our revenues, I always pass them on to the readers. Today, I don't have any Manteca-specific information, but I do have some interesting news to demonstrate the horrific condition of our state economy.

There will be 15 smaller cities in the state (including nearby Ripon) who won't be receiving their next sales tax payment! These cities allocation was too high last quarter, and the adjustment to this quarter's payment completely wipes out their allocation. In fact over half of the cities in the state will be getting a readjustment due to last quarter's lackluster sales. Luckily, here in Manteca we are not one of them. To read more about this situation, click here.

In a related note, click here for a story that basically tells some personal stories of why sales taxes are dropping so quickly.

Defined Contributions for City of LaMesa

From California City News:

A big development in San Diego County--which along with Orange County is the hotbed of pension reform. City employees in La Mesa agreed to begin kicking in 8 percent of their salaries towards their own pensions. They were given half that amount back in salary increases, but the change is set to save the city up to $1 million a year, and establishes a milestone in the contributions themselves.

As Ed Mendel writes in his CalPensions blog, the "cities in the county had a front-row seat for the pension scandal in San Diego," and a working group of city managers decided to do something about it.

Read more, it's about your future. Also worth a read is a Daily Bulletin piece outlining the battle lines surrounding public pensions.

Items of interest on tonight's City Council Agenda

At 7pm this evening, here are some of the items being considered by the City Council:

Accept the COPS Hiring Recovery Program Grant in the amount of $1,479,340 and appropriate the funds as designated in the staff report. This is a federal grant that will go towards paying the salaries of four police officers for three years.

Determine George Reed to be the lowest responsible bidder for the 2009 ARRA Roadway Rehabilitation Project and award contract to same for $957,900. These are federal stimulus dollars that will be used to resurface portions of nine major city streets.

Approve contract for Services with Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) for 2009-10 for $87,406. This is a portion of the city's hotel tax that is used by the CVB to promote tourism in Manteca.

Approve a new Parks and Recreation Volunteer Program, Community Ambassadors for Manteca Parks and Recreation Services (CAMPRS). This is a new program to assist the department in providing services to the public.

Approve Facility Use Agreement with Anderson 209 BMX Race Team Inc. for the use and maintenance of the Spreckels Recreation BMX; and receive and file report on the status of the construction of the BMX track and provide direction to staff. This is the final agreement necessary to get the BMX park completed and ready to operate.

You can review the entire City Council agenda, including staff reports by going to the following link on the city's website:
http://www.ci.manteca.ca.us/CityClerk/agendas/index.html

Manteca Fire Crews Assist in Santa Cruz Mountains

Firefighting resources within the Santa Cruz Mountains have been overwhelmed this past week in their efforts to combat a large wildland fire. As such, the City of Manteca is entering the fifth day of having an engine company deployed to assist communities in the Bonny Doon area. The fire engine being used is provided to the City by the Office of Emergency Services (OES) from the State of California and all costs incurred by the City of Manteca are reimbursed.

For the past 24 hours Captain Franco Torrice (above left) and his crew (above right) have been working near the community of Swanson performing “progressive hoselays” to reach fire deep in the forest. They report advancing over 6,000’ of hose yesterday alone.

Our Firefighters report being tired but are all healthy and strong. Thankfully, there have been no injuries.

State getting ready to pick our pocket again!

Just when we thought we were safe, at least for a couple of months, I was sent this missive from the Capitol:

Local Highway Money is Target Again
By John Wildermuth
Journalist and Political Commentator
Fri, August 14th, 2009

The $1 billion in local highway money the state didn't get in last month's budget agreement could be a target again when the Legislature comes back from its summer recess next week, Darrell Steinberg, the Democratic leader in the state Senate, suggested Wednesday.

Steinberg, joined by local Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, was at a neighborhood health center in San Francisco's Mission District, talking about his suit to recover nearly $500 million Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger blue-penciled from state health and welfare programs before he signed the budget revisions.

"We could go back to (the highway money),'' he told the crowd of doctors, nurses, patients and various care providers. "That's one way to do this.''

Putting that highway money back into play also would give Steinberg and Senate Democrats a chance to stick it to their colleagues in the Assembly, who tabled the plan to borrow the highway money after Schwarzenegger and the four legislative leaders agreed to it as part of the overall budget deal last month.

More to the point, they dumped the $1 billion in highway funds out of the budget deal after Steinberg had pushed the bill though a reluctant Senate over the frenzied lobbying and loud complaints of mayors, council members and county supervisors from across the state.Not only did the Assembly's decision force the senators to take the heat for a tough vote that ultimately came to nothing, it also opened the way for Schwarzenegger to recover some of that lost money by chopping even deeper into health and welfare programs that Steinberg and other Democrats had fought desperately to save.

Going back to the original budget deal also makes sense because the Senate already has agreed to borrow the highway money, Steinberg said. It would take a simple majority to approve it in the Assembly, which means the Democrats wouldn't need any Republican votes.

If those highway funds could restore the money taken from AIDS prevention and treatment programs, services for battered women and children's health care, what Democrat wouldn't make that choice, Steinberg added, casually turning up the heat on the Assembly. While Schwarzenegger isn't saying yes to any new effort to go after those highway funds, he isn't saying no, either.

"The budget is over, the budget is done,'' said Aaron McLear, a spokesman for the governor.

"But if the economy worsens, we will have to go back to do more cuts and look at other measures.

"Translated from politicalese, that means that while Schwarzenegger won't guarantee to restore any of the current cuts, "other measures" that include another $1 billion in revenues could go a long way toward avoiding additional program trims if - or more likely, when - the Legislature has to go back into this year's budget to deal with more anticipated deficits.

Steinberg and the Democrats already are gearing up to battle any new call for more budget cuts. His suit arguing that Schwarzenegger's vetoes were illegal could go before a judge by the middle of September and he was talking tough to the crowd of supporters in San Francisco,"At some point - and this point is right now - enough is enough,'' he argued. "People who need help have given up enough for the state budget."We're tired of playing defense," Steinberg added. "It's time to go on offense.''

Highlights from "The Week in Review"

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

Police Department
Crime Continues to Decline: The Police Department is happy to report that major crime had dropped for the eighth consecutive month. The department’s statistics show that felony crimes are down 12.23% for the month of June, resulting in a year-to-date reduction of 15.5%. Burglaries dropped by 23.88%, auto theft by 5.88%, grand theft by 32.52%, and aggravated assault by 45.24%. Only robbery and arson cases showed increases. Misdemeanor thefts also dropped by 20.63%. The Police Department attributes the reduction in crime to hard work and dedication of our officers, staff and volunteers, and the involvement of the citizens of Manteca. Programs like Neighborhood Watch and observant members of the community who are quick to recognize suspicious activity and notify the Police have helped us to locate and arrest criminals. So far this year the Police Department has responded to 17,721 calls for service, handled 3,089 criminal investigations and 351 traffic collisions, arrested 1,863 suspects, served 803 warrants, issued 5,821 traffic citations, and recovered $682,968 in stolen property.

Community Development
The following is a summary of some of the activities under way in the Community Development
Department:
· Staff has completed the plan check for the new B.R. Funsten Industrial Warehouse Building and is awaiting minor corrections to be made by the contractor in advance of issuing a Building Permit for construction to begin. The project is currently several weeks ahead of schedule and staff hopes to have construction completed in late November.

· The first set of plans for construction of the new luxury outlets at the Promenade shopping center were received last week, and staff has already initiated the review process. Additional plans are expected over the next two weeks. The project will include a total buildout of 250,000 square feet of newly constructed, luxury outlet use, with a projected opening date in February 2010.

· Red Robin Restaurant was awarded a building permit for construction at the Promenade center, with a projected opening date of February 2010.

· Staff will be presenting the Housing Element to the City Council for adoption on September 1, and subsequently submit to the State Department of Housing and Community Development for its review and approval.

· Work on the new One-Stop Permit Center is substantially complete, and staff is scheduling an open house on August 27 at 10 a.m.

Parks and Recreation
BLD Second Quarter Revenues: A copy of the second quarter revenues received at Big League Dreams (BLD) has been submitted to the City and is attached for review. According to the report, revenues were up 22.1% over the first quarter of 2009, and attendance was up 15.7%.

Parks/Golf/Park Planning:
Volunteers from the Crossroads Grace Community Church recently donated several hours of work cleaning and pruning a section of the Tidewater Bikeway. This is an ongoing volunteer program of the church’s, where the members volunteer their time to help out in their community – and we are grateful for their time.

The Northgate Park restrooms have been a recent target of vandalism. Maintenance crews had to remove graffiti three times in less than a week. Labor and materials to remove the graffiti were approximately $175.

Bianchi Ranch LMD – A few areas with juniper groundcover plants along Atherton Drive had to be removed, due to a heavy infestation of Bermuda and Nutsedge Grass. The area will be re-planted once the infestation has been thoroughly treated. This was a more cost-effective approach than having to remove the weeds by hand each week.

City Manager
BMX Park: Staff is continuing to work with the Anderson 209 group and the City’s Municipal Pooling Authority to complete the BMX Park. Staff has prepared a staff report for the August 18 City Council agenda. Supplemental information, including options to completing the park in a timely manner, may be presented at that meeting.

UCP Work Crews: Staff met with representatives of United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of San Joaquin County to discuss its Work Crew program. UCP has contracted with the City of Lodi since 2000, paying its members to help beautify downtown Lodi. Through this program, UCP members are paid minimum wage to perform whatever tasks are deemed necessary by the City. UCP covers all workers’ compensation costs, so the program costs less than the City’s own part-time program. As Manteca staff finalizes the 2009-10 budget, we will be evaluating options to reduce costs to provide City services, and this program may be one the City may want to utilize.

Reopening of Labor Contracts: Staff is officially notifying the various labor groups of the City’s desire to reopen contract negotiations to help address the City’s budget deficit. All employees have already taken a 3.8% salary reduction, effective July 1, though additional cuts are needed in order to reduce or avoid layoffs.

CalPERS, League of Cities weigh in on Pension Issues

Here's the latest extremely informative post from Calpensions.com:

The CalPERS chief actuary says pension costs are “unsustainable,” and the giant public employee pension system plans to meet with stakeholders to discuss the issue.
So, are the critics right: Do overly generous pensions threaten to eat up too much of state and local government budgets?

An historic stock market crash wiped out a quarter of the CalPERS investment fund last fiscal year. Some experts are forecasting limited investment earnings in the years ahead, making it difficult to replace the losses.

Now “sustainability,” a term used in environmental discussions, has become a common label for a big question about public employee pensions: Will the current level of benefits be affordable in the future?

The question of pension sustainability emerged as a hot topic during a seminar in Sacramento last week sponsored by the Public Retirement Journal.

Ron Seeling, the CalPERS chief actuary, described the process used to “smooth” the rate increases that will be imposed on the 1,500 local government agencies in CalPERS in 2011 in the wake of the stock market crash.

Instead of a rate increase of 4 to 20 percent of pay, the smoothing will reduce the rate hike to a more manageable 0.5 to 2 percent of pay.

“I don’t want to sugarcoat anything,” Seeling said as he neared the end of his comments. “We are facing decades without significant turnarounds in assets, decades of — what I, my personal words, nobody else’s — unsustainable pension costs of between 25 percent of pay for a miscellaneous plan and 40 to 50 percent of pay for a safety plan (police and firefighters) … unsustainable pension costs. We’ve got to find some other solutions.”

Anne Stausboll, the CalPERS chief executive officer, told the seminar that the CalPERS board talked about the “cost and sustainability of pension benefits” the previous week and decided that the system should take a “proactive role” on the issue.

“They asked us to formulate a way to convene our stakeholders — employers, labor, legislators and other stakeholders in our system — to convene everybody and start having a constructive dialogue on sustainability of pension benefits,” Stausboll said.

Dwight Stenbakken of the League of California Cities told the seminar that pension benefits are “just unsustainable” in their current form and difficult to defend politically.

“I think it’s incumbent upon labor and management to get together and solve this problem before it gets on the ballot,” he said.

Public pension advocates worry about a drive to replace the “defined benefit” plan, a guaranteed monthly check for life, with the “defined contribution” 401(k)-style individual investment plan increasingly common in the private sector.

Four years ago Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger briefly backed an initiative proposed by former Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Northridge, that would have switched all new state and local government hires to a 401(k)-style plan.

But Richman has since called a switch to a 401(k)-style plan “politically” unfeasible. He and the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility have talked about extending retirement ages and capping pension payments at two-thirds of final pay.(See Calpensions 26 Jan 09: “Pension intiative via internet”)

Last June Schwarzenegger, calling current benefits “unsustainable,“ proposed that pensions for new state hires be rolled back to the formulas used before CalPERS-sponsored legislation, SB 400, enacted a major benefit increase in 1999. (See Calpensions 30 Jun 09: “Arnold: cut retirement benefits for new hires”)

The governor dropped an attempt to make his “two-tier” pension reform proposal part of state budget negotiations. But he added pension reform to the list of issues he plans to pursue with legislative leaders later this year.

Schwarzenegger’s plan is similar to a proposal made four years ago by a League of Cities task force, which also referred to “dramatic benefit enhancements” made in the late 1990s.
The legislation, SB 400, only increased benefits for state workers. But the same higher benefits are now widespread among local government pension systems.

“The excuse that I’ve always heard is, “We don’t want to adopt these retirement formulas, but I have to because our neighbors adopted it and we have to be competitive in the labor market,” said the League of Cities’ Stenbakken.

He said eliminating all options and returning to pre-SB 400 retirement formulas for new hires would eliminate the competition between local governments that has increased pension benefits.

“I think this is one of the major mistakes we made with the PERS system,” said Stenbakken. “STRS, the State Teachers Retirement System, doesn’t have this problem. If you’re a teacher in Eureka or you’re a teacher in Los Angeles Unified, you get the same pension.”

In California, attempts to cut pension benefits are usually two-tier plans, cutting benefits only for new hires. Pensions bargained under labor contracts are said to be protected by court decisions, which allow cuts only if something of equal value is provided.

“In terms of dealing with pension cost currently, I only know of two ways to do it,” said Stenbakken. “That’s lay people off or reduce salaries.”

A retirement actuary, John Bartel, told the seminar that two-tier plans do not save much money, even after several decades. He said costs from the untouchable high-benefit first tier, a vested right protected by contract law, continue to grow.

“Unless that vested right issue changes, and I’m not expecting it will, that second tier is not going to save money,” he said.

Bartel said his clients tell him that the main motivation for switching to a two-tier plan tends to be “political in nature,” rather than an expectation of significant savings.

“It’s because a board member or a council member can stand up and say, “We think there’s a lot of bleeding here and we need to stop that bleeding, and we are going to do it on that basis,’” he said. “That’s what I’m hearing from my clients.”

Labor union officials told the seminar they worry that statewide pension reform legislation might bypass local collective bargaining. They said the Richman group’s list of 5,000 pensioners that receive $100,000 or more a year is less than 1 percent of total public employee pensions.

“I actually think it is sustainable,” said Terry Brennand of the Service Employees International Union. He said the basic problem is investment losses, not high benefit levels.

“What is sustainable?“ said Lou Paulson of the California Professional Firefighters. He said proposals to extend the retirement age for firefighters from 50 to 55 would result in more injuries with advancing age, driving up workers’ compensation costs.

Reporter Ed Mendel covered the Capitol in Sacramento for nearly three decades, most recently for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Time for a Local Currency?

Tired of seeing all of your dollars leave town? Convinced that your retail expenditures only support someone on Wall Street or at Wal Mart headquarters? There are a number of communities interested in making sure that your expenditures stay in the local economy. They've done that by creating their own local currency.

Believe it or not, it isn't against the law create your own currency. A national currency was established around 100 years ago as a convenience--but it also made every region of the country more vulnerable to the ups and downs of the national economy.

An article in the Los Angeles Times (click here) today talks about the growing trend of communities creating their own currency. Here's an excerpt from the article.

"Right now there's a lot of interest because of the economy, but a lot of these efforts come about to rebuild social capital," said Ed Collom, a sociology professor at the University of Southern Maine who studies local currencies. "There's been concern about lack of trust, neighbors not knowing each other. They see this as a way of neighbors helping each other.

"In Detroit, for example, the Cheer was created not due to the city's chronic financial woes but because bar owner Jerry Belanger wanted to encourage patrons to support new local businesses. He issued notes good at neighborhood merchants, backed by a cash reserve at his bar. The idea caught on fast, and other taverns agreed to help back the currency. There are now $3,000 worth of Detroit Cheers in circulation after about four months."It's like a wink or a secret handshake," Belanger said. "People want to demonstrate they care about the community."

In Mesa, Ariz., a city of 450,000 east of Phoenix, the motive has been purely financial. The city has no property tax and relies almost exclusively on its sales tax for revenue. Receipts plummeted 12.5% in the last quarter of 2008. Johann Zietsman, director of the city's Arts Center, noticed that only 30% to 40% of seats were selling as people tightened their belts.

Thus Mesa Bucks were born. Shoppers who spend money at stores in the city limits can bring their receipts to the Arts Center and receive a percentage of the sales tax they paid as Bucks. Right now the currency can only be spent at the Arts Center and city museums, but officials are talking with two malls about distributing them and believe some local merchants will accept Bucks.

I'll be watching this trend more closely. It may be a project for our local businesses to consider as the economy continues to suffer.

Development Fee Dispute

Historically, Kern County has been one of the lowest cost housing fee areas in the state. Their congressional representatives had been incredibly successful in obtaining federal funding for many of their road projects. This greatly reduced the need to require builders to contribute towards transportation improvements. With a shift in power in congress, the federal pipeline has dried up, and now Kern County is faced with finding ways to fund their transportation impacts.

The conflict noted below is likely a precursor to disputes that will erupt throughout the Valley as cities, counties and homebuilders determine who will pay the bill for future road improvements. Here in San Joaquin County, I've been working with the rest of the City Managers and the County Administrator to find a more reasonable solution than significantly higher fees. Growth in the county for both residential and commercial construction will collapse if we don't find more cost effective ways to address our transportation needs.

We've let traffic engineers dictate development standards over the past half-century. We need to review our methods of analyzing traffic and our tolerable service levels. We spend tens of millions of dollars to ensure that traffic is doesn't get congested for less than an hour a day. During the development boom, we just took the worse case analysis and pushed the burden onto the development projects. We just focused on building more roads and/or widening more lanes and/or adding more traffic signals instead of looking at economical methods for modifying traffic patterns.

It will be interesting to see how the dispute below works out. I would hope that the parties could focus on a mutually beneficial solution instead of protracted litigation.


Conflict Over Traffic Impact Fees Could Prompt Unprecedented Freeze on Development in Kern Couhnty

The following look at developer fees in Kern County and the City of Bakersfield was researched and written for CaliforniaCityNews by John Frith, a Sacramento-based writer who previously served as chief spokesman for the California Building Industry Association.

The Bakersfield City Council next Wednesday (Aug. 19) is expected to consider actions it could take in response to a lawsuit filed by the local homebuilders association over traffic impact fees – possibly including an apparently unprecedented freeze on processing general plan amendments, zone changes and other steps in the development process.

Homebuilder sources said they had never heard of a California city taking such a drastic step in response to litigation over the ever-controversial process of determining fees charged to builders and developers -– fees that the builders say average about $50,000 per new home statewide.
City Manager Alan Tandy said that contrary to a report in the Bakersfield Californian last week, his office hasn’t yet imposed such a freeze and has not made a final decision on what steps he will recommend to the council. Beyond that, he said he had no comment on specific recommendations he might make to the Council, but confirmed that he expected the Council would indeed consider the issue.

At issue is a decision by the city and the Kern County Board of Supervisors to raise regional traffic impact fees from about $7,000 per home to almost $13,000. The county’s new fee schedule is already in place and the city’s will go into effect on September 7.
Tandy said the fee increase is necessary because traffic mitigation is essential given the proliferation of CEQA lawsuits in the area.

“Our concern is that the community has been subject to increased environmental challenges from a variety of sources, which creates legal problems to processing and approving environmental documents with the premise that traffic mitigation is sufficient,” he said. “It may be that if the HBA was successful in its litigation that we wouldn’t be able to certify that we’ve been able to mitigate traffic impacts.”

While Tandy wouldn’t confirm or deny that a freeze on processing development applications was under consideration, he did acknowledge that the city is concerned about the lawsuit, filed last Tuesday against the city and the county, and is reviewing “the legal issues and alternatives.”
Bob Decker, the executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Kern County, said city officials had warned builders that they might freeze development requests if the HBA went ahead with its suit, but said the main issue from the builders’ perspective is the methodology involved in setting the fee.

“We believe that a fair amount of the fee increase is there to address existing traffic inefficiencies, which is not allowed by law,” Decker said. The so-called “nexus” provisions of state law allow cities and counties to only assess fees to mitigate the impact of new development on infrastructure and services, not to address problems that existed previously.
He also charges that the cost estimates are inflated in today’s market and should be lowered to reflect the cost of building today, not the cost averaged over the past several years.
While development fees in Kern County are lower than many other parts of the state – he said the increased traffic fee would bring the total fee burden to just under $30,000 per home – Decker also said that raising fees in today’s market would make it even more difficult for struggling builders.

“The city says that we’ve put them at jeopardy by filing the suit. We would say that they put the development community at jeopardy when they raised the fee. That’s the issue,” he said.
While a freeze could reduce city revenues from developer fees, Decker noted the impact would be much smaller today than it would have been during the area’s housing boom.

“They probably wouldn’t threaten to shut down (general plan amendments) if they had thousands of applications pending,” he said.

But while a freeze would affect a couple of major development proposals in the pipeline, Decker pointed out that builders have thousands of entitled lots in the region that they will rely on to meet future needs if the freeze actually goes into effect.

Michael “Mick” Pattinson, a Southern California homebuilder who is leading efforts to push back against what builders consider inappropriate and excessive fees, said he thought the city’s response to the HBA lawsuit was short-sighted.

“For a city to charge higher fees and if challenged shut down operations is an outrage,” Pattinson declared. “Cities should recognize the times we live in. Now is the time to slash fees and get construction going. There’s no justification for raising fees when housing is in the worst shape of our lifetimes.”

But Tandy sees the picture differently.

“We went through the boom period, and lots of folks decided to jump into the environmental challenge mode. Now we have fewer documents to be processed, but that doesn’t mean these folks have gone away,” he said.

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

You can access the full version of "The Week in Review" by clicking on the link on the right side of this page.

Police
School Bussing Concern: On Thursday, July 30, 2009 staff received an email regarding a citizen’s concern over the reduction in school busses for the up-coming school year. The Citizen lives in the Veritas School area near Atherton Drive and Sparrow Hawk. Some of the walking paths for students in this area have no sidewalks requiring the children to walk on unpaved shoulders or in the street. She was requesting the assistance of the City in providing safe methods for children to get to school.

On Monday August 3, 2009 the Police Department received a notice from the Manteca Unified School District advising us of new “No-bus zones” established around Manteca, Sierra, and East Union High Schools and Lincoln, Stella Brockman, Walter Woodward, Veritas, and Joshua Cowell elementary schools. This program eliminated all bussing within 1.25 miles around each school. The notice advised us of the likelihood of a significant increase in pedestrian and vehicle traffic around these schools as more students would be walking to and from campus.

At the City Council Meeting of August 4, 2009, Council directed staff to research the possibility of altering or developing City Bus routes to help facilitate the student’s transportation to school. Beginning Monday August 14, 2009, the City bus system will begin a 30-day trial program that will provide bus service for both elementary and high school students in the Veritas School area. This program will be reassessed at the end of the trial period to determine the feasibility of continuing or expanding the service. A full report on this program will be provided to Council at the August 18, 2009 Council Meeting.

Public Works
BMX Park: This week, Public Works staff worked with Parks staff to complete the plan for the BMX starting gate. The plan was complete and signed today, and is now just awaiting formal approval from the ABA (American Bicycling Association) and the MPA (Municipal Pooling Authority) which had to approve the plan for insurance purposes. Both agencies have reviewed the new plan and will provide formal approval early next week. Once the plan is approved by the two agencies it will be provided to the Anderson209 group for construction by their volunteer team.

Hwy 120/99 Landscaping: Staff continues to work with SJCOG to secure additional funding for the Hwy 99/120 Interchange Landscape Project. The current plan being explored would utilize ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funds designated for state use on transportation enhancement projects. The funds originally approved were allocated for installing landscaping at both the 120 West and 120 East interchanges on Highway 99 and the project was intended to be managed by Caltrans and constructed by the CCC (California Conservation Corp). However, the Federal Highway administrators would not allow the sole sourcing of the work to the CCC, which was required under current state law for Caltrans project. So the current proposal is for SJCOG and the City to take over the project, thus relieving the funds of the CCC requirement, and to competitively bid the work. If successful, the end result would be landscaping for both interchanges. Note however that the landscaping proposed for the 120 West interchange would be less intensive than that proposed for the 120 East (Yosemite Ave) interchange. Currently the total project cost is in excess of one million dollars. Federal funds would provide for installation of all landscape and cover the construction management costs incurred by the City as well. City Measure K funds are budgeted for the installation of the irrigation system at the 120/East interchange. This portion of the project is the subject of the current bid which was extended at the last council meeting.

Fire Department
Significant Incidents:
· Vehicle Accident – Highway 99/Alpine Avenue, August 4
While visiting a neighborhood block party on Ashwood Court on August 4, Engine Company 241 heard other engine companies being dispatched to a vehicle accident on southbound Highway 99, with the vehicle going into the backyard of a residence. The dispatch listed a general location along the highway that wasn’t specific to one area. Hearing this, Engine Company 241, decided to move over a couple of streets and check the Alpine Avenue area, which backs up to Highway 99. Turning onto Alpine Avenue, they immediately noticed bystanders and a huge section of fence removed from one of the backyards. They immediately began emergency rescue operations. Engine Company 243 arrived on scene at the same time from the highway side of the accident. The driver, who was driving southbound on Highway 99, lost control of his vehicle and went through the backyard of two residences on Alpine Avenue, hitting the fence so violently that the fence shattered, sending lumber everywhere. One of these pieces of fence lumber was projected through the glass patio door of one of the homes, barely missing a 1-year-old girl who was standing next to it. In fact, the lumber pierced and shattered one pane of the glass patio door while she was standing behind the other pane. Thankfully, she was not injured. The driver of the vehicle, however, did sustain injuries and was transported to the hospital.

· Multiple Grass Fires
- South Airport Way/Crom Street, August 2
Firefighters arrived on scene to find a small grass fire across the levee of an open field. The fire was quickly extinguished, and firefighters overhauled the area.

- Highway 99 north of Lathrop Road, August 3
Firefighters assisted Lathrop-Manteca Fire District with a grass fire along the west side of Highway 99, just north of Lathrop Road. The fire was quickly brought under control and units released.

- Highway 120 @ South Union Road, August 4
Firefighters arrived on scene to find the grass along the southwest side of the South Union Road overpass on fire. Once the fire was extinguished, firefighters checked both sides of the overpass to make sure there was no further fire spread before releasing the incident.

- Trailwood Avenue, August 4
Firefighters arrived on scene to find burned grass clippings in the park. Witnesses stated that juveniles were igniting grass clippings on the basketball court. The Police Department was called to the scene to investigate.

City Manager
PBID Steering Committee: The PBID (Property-Based Business Improvement District) Steering Committee met on August 5 to discuss a survey that was sent to business and property owners in a preliminarily defined downtown area. Of approximately 600 surveys that were sent, only 29 were returned to the consultant. The Steering Committee discussed the contents of the survey in length, and proposed a number of changes that would help to clarify the purpose and function of a PBID. The consultant will now revise the survey, which will be hand delivered by members of the Steering Committee to the various business and property owners. No commitment is being solicited at this time – rather, the consultant and the committee are attempting to gather opinions about what might be included in a potential PBID.

New Telephone System: The City’s new telephone system is up and running, and only general department numbers have remained intact. Callers who don’t know the new telephone number for a specific employee are prompted to a directory, where they can enter the first few letters of the employee’s name and be connected to the new line. The new system will save the City money after the first year, and is much more efficient than the old one. Staff is seeking the public’s patience during this transitional time.

Pension Reform Update

I'll be meeting with all of the San Joaquin County City Managers along with the County Administrator next week to further discuss the San Diego pension reform measure (click here).

Calpension had a lengthy article this week about the pension reform going on at the City of San Diego and Orange County--which as two of the cities with rockiest pension issues--are the first to introduce major pension reform. Here's a major excerpt from the article:

Prius pensions: San Diego and Orange go hybrid
By Ed Mendel

The city of San Diego and Orange County, both with a history of well-publicized budget troubles, have adopted similar cost-cutting pension reforms — a hybrid plan combining a monthly check with an individual investment account.

The hybrid gives the employer a more stable and predictable pension cost. And in the San Diego and Orange plans, there are savings because new hires receive a less generous retirement plan.
For the employee, there is the security of a guaranteed, though smaller, monthly pension check on retirement. And at work, there is more take-home pay and a retirement investment account that can move with the worker in a job change.

Unions representing general employees (not police and firefighters) agreed to the hybrid plans adopted in recent weeks as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others argue that some public employee retirement plans have become “unsustainable.”

At a time when recession-ridden state and local governments are making deep budget cuts, they face mandatory increases in contributions to pension systems, whose investment funds were devastated by the stock market crash last fall.

Critics also contend that powerful public employee unions have negotiated overly generous retirement packages, particularly in comparison to the 401(k) individual investment accounts now common in the private sector.

The hybrid is a compromise in the longstanding battle between advocates of the guaranteed monthly pension check (“defined benefit” in pension lingo) and the 401(k) investment account (“defined contribution”). (See Calpensions 15 Jun 09: “Retirement’s future: pension vs. 401(k)”)

The hybrid agreement in San Diego came after Mayor Jerry Sanders threatened to put the measure on the ballot. Voters are believed to be in a punitive mood after a pension scandal caused the self-dubbed “America’s Finest City” to be labeled “Enron by the Sea” in the national media.

More seriously, the city laid off employees, cut a number of services and was unable to sell bonds for several years.

State and federal charges, still pending, were brought against eight former pension officials in 2005 and 2006 as the unfunded liability in the city pension fund ballooned to $1.7 billion.
Officials cut two deals with union officials over the years that increased benefits while reducing contributions to the pension fund. The pension officials who approved the last deal were among the city workers receiving the increased retirement benefits.

The San Diego hybrid plan for new hires is a small first step expected to eventually save $22.5 million a year. But that could be several decades from now, depending on turnover in the workforce.

San Diego already had a kind of hybrid plan. But the defined contribution portion was a supplement that replaced Social Security. Now the defined contribution is formally part of a hybrid plan.

Some think the agreement with three non-safety unions sets the stage for future contract negotiations that will try to increase the percentage of the plan that is a defined contribution.

Meanwhile, the city’s retirement contribution for a new hire was cut nearly in half, dropping from 15.92 percent of payroll to 8.75 percent. The benefit for a 30-year employee retiring at 65 would drop from 119 percent of final pay to 84 percent.

A more ambitious hybrid plan in Orange County, which declared bankruptcy in 1994 after losing $1.7 billion on risky securities, could yield significant savings in the first few years.

Both new hires and current employees would be given the option of choosing the existing defined benefit plan or a new hybrid that combines a smaller defined benefit payment with a 401(k)-style individual investment plan.

One estimate is that the hybrid plan could save $10 million in the first year. Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby has a more conservative estimate of savings: $1.4 million a year if 10 percent opt in, $3.5 million if 25 percent sign up.

The existing defined benefit for a 30-year employee retiring at 55 is a generous 2.7 percent of final pay for each year worked. The hybrid defined benefit formula would pay 1.62 percent at 65, plus the amount in the investment account.

Officials think the hybrid option will be attractive to employees wanting an increase in take-home pay, Norby estimates 7 percent, or planning to move on to other jobs.
To apply to current state workers, not just new hires, the hybrid plans needs legislation, SB 752, which has been introduced by Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, chairman of the Senate retirement committee.

“It is a breakthrough program that both the workers, the Orange County Employees Association, and the county of Orange have agreed to,” Correa said in the Los Angeles Times. “It’s one (plan) that I think could serve as a role model for the rest of the state.”
The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System adopted a hybrid plan that won praise, before the stock market crash last fall, for helping to erase a $17 billion unfunded liability.

“Oregon did the nation’s most dramatic pension overhaul in 2003,” said an article in USA Today in June of last year. “It did what most states consider impossible: slash benefits promised to existing workers.”

Pension benefits are protected by contract law and usually regarded as untouchable. In a widely watched city of Vallejo lawsuit, a federal judge has ruled that labor contracts can be overturned in bankruptcy.

But no action has been taken yet. The judge has ordered mediation in an attempt to reach a settlement between the city and firefighter and electrical worker unions, avoiding the need to overturn the contracts.

Some of the pension cuts in Oregon, unsuccessfully challenged by lawsuits, included changing an alternative retirement plan that guaranteed retirees an 8 percent return on investments, plus any earnings above that amount.

Actuarial tables were changed to reflect longer life spans, reducing some benefits, and an aggressive drive was launched to recoup “overpayments” to a large number of retirees.

Oregon pushed the pension reforms when state general fund revenue dropped 25 percent in an economic downturn. Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a former labor lawyer, insisted on retaining a strong defined benefit in the hybrid plan.

“I like the certainty,” Kulongoski told Plansponsor magazine two years ago. “It is better for employees. A defined contribution plan is not as secure, as far as what the retirement income will be.”

CRA Conference

Yesterday, I attended the California Redevelopment Association (CRA) Legal Issues conference in Sacramento. Normally, the conference focuses on the latest legal rulings and their impact on redevelopment activities (i.e. eminent domain, relocation, development agreements, CEQA, etc).

This year, legal rulings were out and the state budget was the subject of the day. As most of you know, redevelopment agencies had a great day in court earlier this year, blocking the theft of $350 million in revenue by the state of California. Unfortunately, we weren't able to bask in the glow of our victory very long. This year, the state worked with the Attorney General's office to craft what they hope is a litigation proof theft of our funds. They also changed the dollar amount. While they promise to only steal $350 million next year, they decided to take $1.7 billion in the current fiscal year. The City of Manteca's share of the theft amounts to $6.7 million.

Not only will this theft eliminate 164,000 family wage jobs over the next year, it will likely bankrupt a number of redevelopment agencies and force other agencies to completely suspend operations for several years. Luckily, here in Manteca we've got a healthy reserve of RDA funds, so we should be able to survive--but job generating infrastructure projects won't be able to constructed during these hard economic times.

This legislation that implemented this year's taking was deviously crafted to minimize its chances for being overruled in court. On the other hand, like most 11th hour legislation, it is full of confusing and contradicting language. In addition, CRA's legal team strongly believes it is every bit as illegal as the legislation crafted last time.

The legislation creates yet another confusing fund for the County apportion for distribution of property taxes. The money shifted from each redevelopment area is supposed to be paid directly to benefit students living in redevelopment areas or redevelopment-assisted housing. Anyone who actually reads the statue that supposedly implements this shift will tell you that it is completely incomprehensible. It is likely that every County will interpret the legislation differently and there will be lots of winners and losers depending on the County.

I won't bore you will all of the details, but CRA's legal team will be compiling "horror stories" from every redevelopment agency in the state to demonstrate the arbitrary and capricious method that has been devised in this transparent attempt to circumvent the law. Our redevelopment tax increment is protected by statute, and every attempt they make to take our funds should be rejected in court, no matter how they attempt to slice or dice the law.

CRA should be filing the lawsuit in the next month or so, and hopefully we'll have a ruling well in advance of May 10th, when we are required to make the payment. In the meantime, it will have a chilling effect on economic development in California, which will further impact state revenues. I'll use this blog to provide updates on the status of the litigation.

Council Follow Up

At last night's City Council meeting, several items of note were approved by the City Council.

First of all, the Council took action to reduce their salaries by ten percent. While state law sets their salaries at $500 per month, nothing precludes the City Council from refusing to take all or a part of their salaries. Obviously, Council members are not doing this job for the money--given the countless hours they spend serving the community--they are earning far less than minumum wage for their efforts. However, the Council felt that it was important to earn even less to demonstrate that they are sympathetic to the fact that Manteca city employees (and most Manteca residents) are taking in less pay due to the downturn in the economy.

The Council also approved an expanded landscape maintenance district (LMD) for the Tesoro neighborhood. This subdivision was originally approved prior to the change in city policy that now requires all neighborhood maintenance costs to be borne by the neighborhood. If the city had implemented this requirement back in 1990s when it first put in LMD's for maintenance of street medians, the city wouldn't have needed to reduce the staffing for parks maintenance during these tough budget times. In any case, when the developer asked for some changes to its Development Agreement, they agreed to put the park into the LMD. This will save the general fund over $100,000 per year--more than enough to save the job of a parks maintenance worker.

The Council also approved a $72,000 contract to update the city's zoning ordinance. The city's current zoning code is woefully out of date and doesn't provide the flexibility staff and the development community desire to respond to ever-changing market conditions. Zoning updates typically cost two to three times the approved amount. However, in order to keep costs down, staff has done significant background work on the ordinance to keep outside costs at a minumum. While in the best of all worlds it would be great if staff could do all of this in-house, zoning documents are very complicated, techincal documents. They are a only a handful of planners in the state with the appropriate expertise to put together a document that is both user friendly and legally defensible.

I'll blog more in the future about all the benefits a well written zoning ordinance can bring to our community.

City Council Headliners

Non-Consent Calendar items on tonight's Council agenda:
-A hearing to consider an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance related to community directional signs on public streets (Zoning Text Amendment No. ZTA-09-0901.
-A hearing to consider annexing territory into Tesoro Landscape Maintenance District No. 06-1.
-The Council will consider a voluntary 10% reduction in pay by all members.

Consent Calendar items of interest:
-Approve an agreement with PMC to assist in preparing a Zoning Ordinance Update.
-Approve an agreement extending the period to award the contract with Watkin & Bortolussi, Inc. for the State Route 99/120 Interchange Landscaping Project.
-Waive the final reading and adopt Ordinance No. 1445 establishing a Development Fee Deferral Program.

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/

State budget hangover

Most of the politicians and pundits took the week off after the passing of the sham of a state budget. Sunday, the Sacramento Bee was back in the business of focusing lots of energy on the budget. They supplied an op-ed piece, a Dan Walters column and a straight news story. For good measure, they also put together a searchable database which was a compiliation of the hits taken by area cities.

Here are some excerpts from the articles. We'll start with Dan Walters' column:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger assumes the recession will hit bottom late this year with a slow recovery next year. "This is a very uncertain period," Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger's budget chief, said in Fresno last week.

"We think an economic recovery starts in the fourth quarter. If not, we'll be back in a budget crisis."

This recession is not only unusually deep, but unusually wide.

When the housing industry meltdown, centered in California, transmogrified into a full-blown global banking crisis, it affected every segment of the economy, unlike past recessions.
Thus, California has not only seen unemployment skyrocket to levels not seen since the Great Depression – 11.6 percent most recently – but there's been a massive loss of consumer confidence, which has clobbered retail sales. New car sales, for instance, are half of what they were just a few years ago.

"The recovery … depends on the strength and speed of the federal stimulus package and the pace of worldwide economic recovery," said Steve Levy of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy. "There are no indications that private sector activity will turn up soon in the absence of aggressive stimulus efforts or worldwide growth."

Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics noted that income taxpayers will be carrying over stock market losses to offset any income gains, and retail sales will be re-benchmarked downward as wary consumers – loaded with debt – divert income, when possible, into debt repayment and savings. Ominously, 10 percent of California's home mortgages are delinquent or worse.

Even were the recession to bottom out statistically in a few months, employment and consumer spending, economists agree, are destined to remain stalled for at least another year. And that probably will mean continuing budget woes for state and local governments, especially the former, whose revenues come primarily from income and sales taxes.

The state Department of Finance is projecting an initial deficit of $7 billion to $8 billion for the 2010-11 fiscal year that begins in 11 months. Even as it continues to struggle with the current year's budget, the department soon will begin drafting its 2010-11 version for the governor to unveil in January.

Click here for the entire Dan Walters column.

Here's the Op-ed piece from SEIU:
As the largest state employee union, SEIU Local 1000 has always advocated for a state government that is effective and efficient while providing quality public services.
But "government efficiency" should not become a code word for frantically decimating services to California residents and throwing money at well- connected private contractors. In the name of increased efficiency, The Bee's editorial accepts as fact the governor's dubious assumptions about privatization, furloughs and the services we provide.
Since January 2008, we have offered plans – largely ignored by the governor – to save hundreds of millions of dollars by reorganizing the state lottery, collecting taxes more efficiently and cutting waste in the state's $34.7 billion contracting process.

Click here for the entire editorial.

There was really no new ground in the news article:
Local governments coping with the shift of billions of dollars to the state of California are eyeing ways to do what consumers have done for years.
They're considering ways to borrow. In the Sacramento region, the state budget's toll on cities and counties is $125 million, a new Bee database shows. That's more than the general fund for the city of Roseville.

Click here for entire article and click here for the searchable database.

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

Here are some of the highlights from this week's "The Week in Review" (TWIR). You can access the full version (and previous editions) by clicking on the link on the right side of this page.

Community Development
B.R. Funsten: Grading has begun on the expansion of B.R. Funsten, located at South Main and Industrial Park Drive. B.R. Funsten, a wholesale flooring distributor, is expanding its 108,000 square-foot facility by an additional 86,000 square feet to the warehouse and another 6,500 square feet of office space. The expansion is the result of the consolidation of some of B.R. Funsten’s other facilities – choosing to stay and expand in Manteca instead of relocating. B.R. Funsten hopes to complete the expansion by December 1.

RDA Façade Improvement Program: Business owners Crystal Downs and Pam Trombatore have submitted applications to participate in the Agency’s Façade Improvement Maintenance Program for the exterior renovations and improvements they made to their adjacent buildings on North Main Street. They will be receiving $22,794 (249 N. Main) and $19,500 (259 N. Main) for total maintenance assistance of $42,294 for the two properties, by agreeing to 10-year maintenance covenants with the Agency. They spent approximately $64,157 on the exterior of the two buildings; thus the assistance in this case comes out to approximately 66%.

Parks and Rec
Swing for Youth Golf Tournament: On July 24, the Friends of Manteca Parks and Recreation Foundation held the 7th Annual Swing for Youth Golf Tournament. This year’s event was a tremendous success. We attracted more than 90 golfers, which was our highest turnout to date. It is anticipated that the Foundation raised more than $6,500. The Foundation in turn will donate a significant portion of these funds to the Recreation Department so we can enhance our Youth and Teen Scholarship funding. Foundation members are Kirk Dahl, Frank Guinta, Linda Abeldt, Carl Jacobson, Jim Brown, Bob Wallace and Sandra Givens. These folks did a great job and are to be commended to their commitment to the community.

Public Works
Energy Demand Curtailment Event: During the 100-plus-degree temperatures last week, PG&E issued a bulletin to various commercial and industrial customers, requesting they reduce energy usage to take pressure off of the Statewide electric grid. This practice of shedding electrical load during peak energy demand periods is known as demand response. Demand response is a beneficial activity, in that it can help minimize or eliminate brownouts and blackouts. Demand response also has beneficial impacts on energy costs and air quality, in that it reduces the need for utility companies to turn on peak energy generation facilities, which are often more costly to run and contribute the most to air pollution. As planned, WQCF staff turned off the aeration facilities from 3 to 6 p.m., which had the effect of making 325 kilowatts of power available to the grid. The WQCF’s efforts, along with the energy curtailment efforts of numerous other agencies and businesses, helped protect communities from blackouts, and helped the environment by providing a clean alternative to fossil fuel-burning peaking power plants.

City Manager
BMX Park: Staff met with Jon Anderson from Anderson209 on July 30 to discuss the status of the BMX park. The Mayor has requested an update at the August 4 Council meeting. Anderson209 submitted the site plan for the track on July 24. That site plan included some minor revisions to a previously approved plan. The new plan is being reviewed by City staff, the City’s Municipal Pooling Authority and the American Bicycle Association (ABA). Staff is working with Anderson209 on a Maintenance Agreement, which will define the level of maintenance Anderson209 will be providing for the track, and the required liability insurance levels needed for the private maintenance.

New Telephone System: Beginning at 5 p.m. on August 3, the old non-departmental City telephone numbers will be shutting off. Old “main” department numbers will be forwarded automatically to the new numbers. Individual non-departmental employee numbers will not be automatically forwarded. Calls placed to those old numbers will go to a message stating the following:

“Thank you for calling the City of Manteca. The number you have dialed has been changed or no longer exists. To reach an employee by name, press 9. To reach the City's main number, press zero.”

Once the new telephone directories are published, the new “456” numbers will be listed, and the old numbers will be dropped.