Only the Names have been changed

Out here in the foreclosure belt, many blame the securitization of real estate for the boom-bust cycle we are now enduring. Securitization of loans allowed for a huge influx of cash into mortgages and huge group of middle men who profited from the sale of loans--and laughed all the way to the bank even if the loan later went into default.

While securitization was touted as something new and different, a recent article in the New York Times (click here) points out that securitization was first created in the 1920s--and may have played a major role in the financial collapse of 1929 that led to the Great Depression.

Here are some gems from the article:

“Easily obtainable financing via public capital markets corresponded with an urban construction boom,” reported William N. Goetzmann and Frank Newman in a paper just released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, titled “Securitization in the 1920s.”

“Regulation and centralization were glaringly absent,” they add. “Ultimately the size, scope and complexity of the 1920s real estate market undermined its merits, causing a crash not unlike the one underpinning our current financial crisis.”

Yet the lessons of that boom and bust have largely been ignored. Everyone remembers the 1920s and the stock market crash of 1929, but there has been little data collected on what happened to real estate securities or even on how large a market it was. It turns out that real estate securities constituted a major market, and began to falter before stocks did.

“The breakdown in their valuation, through the mechanism of the collateral cycle, may have led to the subsequent stock market crash of 1929-30,” they wrote.

The writer goes on to conclude:

That fact should raise questions about whether the securitization machine should be patched up and back in business to operate without government guarantees.

Perhaps, instead, we should find a way to get banks and other long-term investors, like insurance companies, to make — and keep — most of the real estate loans that are needed in society...

It was, instead, the same old speculative enthusiasm, even if it was wearing fancy new clothes. Investors who had seen real estate prices rise thought that trend could not end. Wall Street sharpies thought they had found a way to make lots of money while not bearing the ultimate risk if the game suddenly ended.

As it turned out, the sharpies were wrong. They too got swept up in the carnage — just as their predecessors had in the 1930s.

Great words to ponder as we look to our leaders to regulate future financial programs.

Highlights from "The Week in Review" (TWIR)

You can access the entire TWIR and previous editions by clicking on the link on the right side of this page.

Fire
Emergency Incidents: We had a total of 84 incidents this week, which included 4 that were fire related: 1-Vehicle Fire, 2-Outdoor Fires and 1-Rubbish/Trash Fire. The remaining calls this week were: EMS-45, Vehicle Accidents-7, Service Calls-12 and Other Emergencies-16.

Fire Prevention: This week’s Fire Prevention Activities included: Business Inspections-44, New Construction Inspections-5, Plan Checks-8, Certification of Occupanies-2, Business License Inspections-2 and Fire System Checks-8.

Police
Shooting: On January 27 at 7:47 p.m., Patrol officers were dispatched to the area of the 1200 Block of Parkview Street for a report of shots fired. Dispatch received multiple 9-1-1 calls regarding shots being heard. Officers located three spent shotgun shells in the street in front of 1288 Parkview St. Police received additional information that, after the shots were fired, two subjects were seen running into the residence on Scott Place. The wadding from the shotgun shells was found not far from the back fence of the identified residence. Officers could not locate anything that had been hit from the rounds fired. The subjects contacted at the Scott Place address denied being involved in any altercation or confrontation. They did not seem to be eager to assist law enforcement and denied knowing what had occurred. The only suspect information provided was that a subject with a shotgun was seen getting into a black Kia four-door car after the sound of shots was heard. The Kia had no hubcaps and was very dirty, as if it had been driven through a field. The subject with the shotgun was described as an Hispanic male, unknown age, 5’11”, 220 pounds with a white T-shirt and blue jeans. There were two other subjects who also got into the Kia, but no description could be provided, other than they were also Hispanic males.

Public Works
Solid Waste Truck Fire: The Solid Waste Division had a garbage truck fire Tuesday morning, January 26 – the first in several years. There was no damage to the truck and no employees were injured. The driver was collecting residential garbage in an automated truck in the vicinity of Powers and Pine when another City employee noticed smoke coming from the rear of the truck. The truck was driven to an empty dirt lot northeast of The Strike Zone and the load was dumped. The Fire Department responded and extinguished the fire. Staff cannot be absolutely certain of the cause of the fire, but there had to be some smoldering trash in a can that was collected, probably fireplace ashes. These fires used to be much more common, but fortunately, are now very rare. This event was used as an opportunity to review with staff the proper procedures for handling such a fire. Residents are reminded that fireplace ashes and charcoal must not be placed in garbage containers until they are cold and out. We were fortunate to catch this fire early. If we had not, we could have lost a truck worth over $200,000.

Parks and Recreation
Parks’ Storm Response: High winds and a lot of rain can be a dangerous combination as it relates to trees. As the ground becomes saturated with water, the stability of the trees is compromised. The high winds and heavy rains that we recently experienced caused numerous tree problems throughout the City. Maintenance staff responded to 12 trees that blew over, including four at the golf course, and also responded to another 30 calls throughout the City for downed limbs. Administrative staff responded to dozens of other calls on general tree concerns, both public and private. Maintenance staff worked closely together to clear all obstructions and cleanup. Even the best-maintained trees can be a target in severe storm conditions. However, if the canopy of the tree is maintained to allow air to blow through it, the chances of the tree suffering damage are reduced dramatically.

Community Development
Building Safety Activities: The City’s Building Safety Division conducted a total of 296 inspections during this past week. The division issued 23 building permits, which included 1 Commercial Demolition, 1 Handicap Accessibility, 1 Hood and Duct, 1 Miscellaneous Electrical, 2 Miscellaneous Mechanical, 8 Miscellaneous Plumbing, 2 Patio, 1 Residential Addition, 1 Residential Remodel, 2 Swimming Pools, 1 Vanilla Shell in Spreckels Park and 2 Commercial Remodels. JoAnn’s Fabrics in Stadium Center is working on opening within the former Circuit City location, and WalMart is conducting a major interior remodel. A total of 8 new project applications were submitted for plan check services, which included 2 Fire Alarms, 1 Garage Conversion to a Sales Office, 1 Pool Master, 1 Patio, 1 Residential Fire Repair, 1 Residential Remodel and 1 Swimming Pool.

Community Based Government - Minnesota Style

As we begin implementing Community Based Government, I thought it would be instructive to provide links to the many cities that have been doing this for decades. While diminishing government revenues are a somewhat new concept in California, many rust belt cities experienced this phenomenon several decades ago when many of their manufacturing concerns headed south and overseas.

While the majority of the neighborhood revitalization programs are along the eastern seaboard, there are a smattering of great programs that were implemented in the upper midwest.

Minneapolis initiated their Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) back in the late 1980s. '

The program now has an extensive web presence at http://www.nrp.org/

The site does a great job of providing the history of the program and describes the many programs currently in place. The website is also includes many resource pages that can be used by their local neighborhood groups. Here is their overview the program:

NRP Primer

THE NRP CONCEPT
The Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) makes the city's residential areas better places to live, work, learn and play. NRP is an investment program based on truly empowering residents by bringing them into the priority-setting process of the city. It is based on the belief that the empowerment of residents and the mobilization of untapped resources, energy and creativity can make our collective desire for a better future a reality.

Neighborhood based priority setting, planning, and implementation are NRP's core. Residents and other neighborhood stakeholders create Neighborhood Action Plans (NAPs) that describe the neighborhood they want in the future and the goals, objectives and specific strategies that will help accomplish their vision. NRP completes the empowerment process by providing funding to each neighborhood to help implement their approved NAP.

Neighborhoods implement their NRP plans by working with government and others. Through NRP, residents have learned to work with City, County, Parks, Library and School staff, and to use these experts' knowledge and resources to help improve their neighborhood. Developing new partnerships and renewing old ones helps produce creative solutions. The partnerships created are as varied as the people and interests involved in neighborhoods.

All 84 Minneapolis neighborhoods are involved in NRP. Thousands of Minneapolis residents have used the NRP planning process to identify and help meet their neighborhood's housing, safety, economic development, recreation, health, social service, environment and transportation needs. They build a foundation for their future by organizing residents, gathering information, prioritizing needs, brainstorming solutions and implementing the NAP they develop. From increasing the amount of affordable housing to improving the environment, building community centers to creating new jobs and providing services to seniors, Minneapolis residents are the creators and catalysts of change - change aimed at reestablishing a sense of common purpose in their community.

Deja Vu All Over Again

The City of Salinas has a General Fund budget very similar to ours -- i.e. very low revenue per capita. I thought I'd share the following article from their local newspaper. It looks like they are taking many of the same measures that we did (including an identically sized budget committe) -- except they are doing at a painful year later than us!

Here's the story (click here for link):

Comparing the city to a patient who is "flatlining" in an intensive care unit, Mayor Dennis Donohue on Monday outlined the causes of Salinas' financial crisis and the coming steps to revive it.

In his State of the Budget address at the City Hall Rotunda, the mayor said the city is identifying $9.6 million in cuts to services, staff and salaries to balance its next budget.

For the past decade, Donohue said, Salinas has been "resuscitated under Code Blue time and again," beginning with the financial crisis that led to the City Council's decision, before Measure V came along, to close libraries.

"[T]he city as patient is flatlining in the budget, and it is unlikely even the EMT's can get there in time to save the patient for yet another life," Donohue said.

But even as he predicted another shortfall next year and decried the city's repeated returns to crisis-management mode, Donohue said the patient would not die and promised to help transform government "so that we don't have to call Code Blue every year."

The first step, he said, comes Feb. 2 with the appointment of a blue ribbon budget review committee to recommend cuts and revenue enhancements to the council. The committee will be comprised of up to 15 members from various sources, including city staff; the independent budget review committee; the planning and permit task force; the Measure V oversight committee; neighborhood groups; and members of the public, including participants in the Saving Salinas forum at TheCalifornian.com.

The committee will give a final report May 6.

On March 2, the city's first layoff notices will go out after a council review of its budget-balancing plan. The notices will be tentative until closer to the July 1 start of the fiscal year. The current plan calls for about 68 layoffs across departments. The city plans to approach its unions for new concessions on top of the $12 million negotiated in the past two years.

Donohue defended the 2007 pay raises to police, fire and other employees that were identified as a "possible cause" of the city's structural deficit in a report last week from the nine-member independent budget-review committee.

"We couldn't get enough officers, or those we got left town really fast, and we were constantly chasing our tail and raising our overtime and training costs," he said. "We attract locally, but we lose to the Bay Area. The council made a decision ... that we will be competitive to the tri-county area. That's reasonable.

"You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. The low end of the salary spectrum really is not going to get you to a significant place .... Even if you got some additional concessions, we do not break the groundhog cycle with salary concessions," he said, referring to the movie "Groundhog Day," in which a man relives an unpleasant day over and over.

In 2007, the council approved raises of 12 percent for Salinas firefighters and 25 percent for police officers and management, spread out over two to two-and-a-half years; and 18 percent for 350 other employees.

What would end the city's cyclical financial crises? Donohue identified the "root cause" as insufficient revenue, comparing the $485 in per capita revenue for Salinas to $552 in Seaside; $581 in Watsonville; $634 in Gilroy; and $1,832 in Monterey.

"Our tax base continues to shrink, but the demand for services continues to grow," he said. "If you want a different outcome on the gang issue, we're going to have to make a major investment."

He declined to say whether that investment should take the shape of a tax increase.
"We will need to engage in a full-scale community engagement process [on the investment], even the equivalent of our own Salinas constitutional convention," Donohue said

Aquatics Center

In the depths of the recession and with a wounded budget, it is sometimes hard to think about the future. Conversely, since you don't have the resources to start projects today, it is a great time to start planning for the future.

The City of Tracy is currently in the process of putting together a plan for an aquatics center (click here for story and here). This is one of the amenities that many communities put at the top of their priority list when resources are available.

For those of you who haven't been to a modern aquatics center, they aren't just another swimming pool. They are a lot more like a water park than they are a high school pool. Most of the projects incorporate a traditional pool, but it is the other features that draw the crowds and help pay for the standard pool. Your traditional pool doesn't pay for itself, but the lazy rivers and water slides help make up the difference.

While the City of Manteca isn't currently looking at this type of project, we certainly should take a hard look before Tracy steals our thunder. If you'd like to learn a bit more about these aquatic centers, I've attached the feasibility study that Tracy commissioned for their pool.



Tracy%2520Swim%2520Center%2520Study-%2520Revised%252010-8-09.pdf

Welcome to J.M. Equipment!

As you may know, the vacant Sexton Chevrolet dealership is quickly filling up with a top flight user--who is not only the perfect user for the location, but a user who will fill the gap in sales tax revenues that was lost when Sexton closed.

Many players both inside and outside of City Hall worked very hard to make this business relocation and expansion a reality. It is proof positive that Manteca means business!

Here is a story in today's Modesto Bee about our latest corporate partner:


J.M. Equipment leaving Modesto, Stockton shops
Firm will consolidate in Manetca
By J.N. Sbranti
mailto:Sbrantijnsbranti@modbee.com

For 74 years, Modesto has been the J.M. Equipment Co.'s corporate headquarters and oldest store. That's about to change. The company is closing its Modesto and Stockton shops, merging its staff and moving to Manteca.

The move will affect 80 workers, including about 55 in Modesto.

"We're going to try to hang on to all our employees, but we know it's going to be tough for everyone now working in Modesto (to commute to Manteca)," said David Baiocchi, one of the company's co-owners. "We're going to work with scheduling to help everyone we can."

Baiocchi and five partners, all of whom had been J.M. Equipment employees, bought the company in 1999. The deal included a 10-year lease for the Modesto and Stockton stores. Since that decadelong obligation ended, the company has been trying to leave.

"If you were on Ninth Street, you would want out, too. It's a pretty bad neighborhood," Baiocchi said of the 3.7-acre facility at 819 S. Ninth St. in Modesto. "There was a shooting next door to us a few weeks ago. It was a random act of violence."

It wasn't always a rough neighborhood.

Jack Moore founded the company in 1936 as an Allis-Chalmers tractor dealer. It was conveniently located with Highway 99 and rail access. The site was so popular during World War II that it was used to build Jeeps, Baiocchi said.

Over the decades, the company opened locations in Stockton, West Sacramento, Fresno and Patterson.

The chain sells and services agricultural and material handling equipment throughout the Central Valley. That includes farm and hay equipment, feed boxes, forklifts and nut harvesting machinery.

"We have 60 vans on the road," Baiocchi said, "because we go to our customers to service the equipment."

He said employees can service anything within a one-hour drive of a store.

"Having stores within 30 minutes of each other in Modesto and Stockton didn't make sense," Baiocchi said. "We needed to consolidate."

So the company jumped when the perfect spot at a bargain price became available.
Manteca's Sexton Chevrolet closed in June, and GMAC took possession of the 7-acre site in November in lieu of foreclosure.

"GMAC was desperate to sell it," said Baiocchi, noting that it would have cost his company far more to build something smaller elsewhere.

The company paid $3.5 million for the property, including its 32,000-square-foot building, at 321 Spreckels Ave.

The deal closed Dec. 29.

"The parts and service departments and the showroom are already there," said Baiocchi, noting that the dealership was built just eight years ago. "All we've got to do is clean up and paint."

The company plans a grand opening for April in Manteca, but it has not announced specific dates for closing the Modesto and Stockton stores.

In addition to the Manteca shop, J.M. Equipment will establish spots in Turlock, Stockton and Lodi where customers can drop off parts for serv- icing.

That is supposed to help the company improve efficiency and lower costs, while providing customer convenience.

J.M. Equipment's Patterson store, at 16507 Highway 33, will have its service capabilities enhanced. A full shop and field service department will open there this spring.

The Modesto and Stockton properties are owned by George Betker of Oakdale. Betker said he will try to find new companies to buy, lease or rent the open space.

"Industrial property isn't the hottest thing on the market," Betker acknowledged. The Modesto property includes about 36,644 square feet in seven buildings.

Bee staff writer J.N. Sbranti can be reached at jsbranti@modbee.com or 578-2196.

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/featured/story/1023021.html#ixzz0dlvEj9ZF

Council Workshop

City Council Planning Workshop: The workshop held on Monday, January 25, provided a much-needed opportunity for staff, the City Council and the public to discuss key items affecting the City. There was much discussion about the budget situations for both the City and the State. Staff was also able to share with Council specifics about new development occurring in the community, and new plans for infrastructure financing to accommodate additional development. Staff hopes to have these meetings with Council each year.

We'll be blogging in more detail in the future about many of the subjects covered at the workshop.

Doing More with Less

One of the fundamental reasons for implementing Community Based Government is to find ways to maximize the skills of every employee to ensure that we are doing what can to do more with less. One of our staff members, Will Smith, passed on a perfect example of Community Based Government in Phoenix:


Phoenix police, waste firm patrol communities
by Sadie Jo Smokey and Michael Ferraresi - Jan. 16, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

The rumble and braking of a large green garbage truck. The hollow metallic clank of an empty garbage bin hitting the ground. Rhythmic, familiar sounds in neighborhoods across the city, so much so that they're often ignored.

That's what Phoenix police are counting on as dozens of truck drivers work anonymously while collecting garbage and watching the alleys, streets and businesses - a function many Block Watch and neighborhood patrol groups already provide to officers.

The new partnership is part of a national neighborhood program called Waste Watch. It's an alliance of Phoenix police and Waste Management employees who support public safety by reporting fires, broken windows, abandoned cars, suspicious people or criminal activity.

Phoenix is the first city in the state to participate. Waste Management, which primarily serves commercial clients, plans to expand the program statewide.

Meyer Turken, chairman of the McDowell Corridor Community Alliance in Maryvale, applauds the partnership, "especially due to the fact that the waste business is highly competitive and cost sensitive."

The concept is not new to drivers, said Melissa Quillard of Waste Management of Arizona. Many drive the same 150-mile route for years and often report crime or other suspicious activity. This partnership gives the newly trained 80 drivers a more efficient way to communicate with police. The drivers, who must pass a criminal background check, are trained on what to look out for, as well as the proper way to handle different situations.

"Just a few weeks ago, one of our drivers spotted a house fire while on route and immediately notified the authorities and woke up the people living inside," Quillard said.
Police officers said vigilant trash collectors will help patrol officers in ways similar to Phoenix citizen neighborhood patrols.

The Waste Watch program has trained about 4,000 drivers across the U.S. and Canada.
As many as 300 could be trained in the coming year, said Phoenix police Officer Jill Fowler, who oversees the city's neighborhood patrol training through the Police Department's Community Relations Bureau. Garbage workers will be trained how to relay details of suspicious activity to dispatchers so patrol officers can effectively respond.

Fowler said she envisions expanding the program to other Valley cities and providing similar training to companies like Valley Metro or UPS in light of economic strains on Valley police.

Highlights from "The Week in Review" (TWIR)

You can access the entire TWIR by clicking on the link on the right side of this page.

Police
Road Rage: At 6:44 p.m. on January 16, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) asked Manteca Police to respond to a report of a fight/stabbing on Highway 120 at Highway 99. The first officer on scene found a subject down with a head wound and receiving preliminary first aid from bystanders. He was only semi-conscious and said he didn’t remember anything. Witnesses indicated a Mustang had fled the scene. Shortly after, the Mustang showed up at Doctor’s Hospital. The driver had a slash wound to his arm and a puncture wound to his chest area. After coordination with CHP and the County Sheriff’s Office, CHP took over the investigation since it had occurred on a State highway. The initial investigation indicates two cars with solo occupants were involved in a road rage incident while driving eastbound on Highway 120. Eventually, they pulled over and a fight broke out. During the fight, one subject stabbed the other subject. The individual with the stab wounds ended up at Doctor’s Hospital. The subject who appears to have done the stabbing was the one initially found semi-conscious on the ground. He was transported to Kaiser Hospital.

Coffee with the Chief: Please join the Chief of Police for coffee and conversation this Saturday, January 23, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Johnny’s Restaurant, 610 E. Yosemite Ave.

Fire
Retirement Open House: The Fire Department will be hosting an Open House next Thursday, January 28, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., to recognize Randy Sutton upon his retirement from the City. Randy has worn many hats over the years, presently holding the dual titles of Fire Marshal and Assistant Fire Chief. Please stop by Station #242 (1154 S. Union Road) to wish him well.

Burn Days: Each year, we receive several inquiries regarding permissible burn days for wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. Burn Days for our area are regulated by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. They post Burn Day information daily on their website. Or if you prefer, you can call their pre-recorded message that announces Burn Day status. The District’s website address is: http://www.valleyair.org/aginfo/WoodBurnPage.htm. Phone is (800) 281-7003 for San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties.

Emergency Incidents: We had a total of 99 incidents this week, which included 3 that were fire related: 1-Chimney Fire, 1-Cooking Fire and 1-Outside/Trash Fire. The remaining calls this week were: EMS-62, Vehicle Accidents-9, Service Calls-12 and Other Emergencies-13.

Weather-Related Emergencies: The inclement weather that hit San Joaquin County on Wednesday morning, January 20, wreaked havoc on our roadsides. Firefighters responded to several vehicle accidents, three of which occurred within one hour during the morning commute, delaying traffic on both freeways:
- Highway 120 at Southbound Highway 99
- Northbound Highway 99 north of Austin Road
- Northbound Highway 99 at the eastbound Highway 120 Interchange
In addition, firefighters responded to several reports of power lines down throughout the City.

Fire Prevention: This week’s Fire Prevention Activities included: Business Inspections-38, New Construction Inspections-2, Plan Checks-10, Certification of Occupanies-1, Business License Inspections-4 and Fire System Checks-10.

Public Works
Wild Weather in Manteca: This week’s weather kept City crews busy. Wednesday, January 20, in particular was an extremely wet and wild day for Manteca. Wind gusts between 8:00 a.m. and noon provided the most excitement, and were consistently higher than 50 miles per hour.

The wind led to the only notable event of the day, which was the closing of Main Street for several hours due to the threat of flying debris. The rain station at City Hall recorded 0.92 inches of rain in the 24-hour period from midnight to midnight. Most of the precipitation came during the morning hours between 6:00 and 10:00, with another burst between 11:00 a.m. and noon. Rain continued at a much lower rate throughout the afternoon. Fortunately, despite the constant morning rain, the City did not experience any notable flooding. This is because regardless of the appearance, this storm was not a significant event in terms of duration or intensity. The highest intensity measured during the storm was 0.40 inches per hour at 9:00 a.m., but this intensity was not sustained for long. For comparison purposes, note that City drainage facilities, such as the inlets and pipes, are designed to handle an intensity of nearly an inch per hour for 30 minutes. So in rough terms, this peak was only half of what would be required before we would expect any localized flooding.

Flood protection and storm water collection in the City are handled through a collection of inlets, pipes, pumps and basins. All of these components are required to function in order to preventing flooding in Manteca. The basins are the most visible and typically serve a dual use as neighborhood parks. These dual-use parks are critical to preventing flooding from any significant rain events. However, a big part of these park basins are the pump stations that remove the water from the basins. These pumps are programmed to operate as soon as there is sufficient water in the collection system. For smaller storms, the pumps typically will remove the water from the collection system before it flows into the basin. Only when the inflow exceeds the capacity of the pumps is any water actually “stored” in the basin. Even then, the basins are usually pumped out within a short period of time. For this week’s storm, many basins still had water five hours after the storm had passed. All of the water pumped from the collection system and the basins is discharged into pipes that carry the water to the French Camp Outlet Canal, which runs along the west side of town. When there is water in the basins, the public and especially children are advised to stay out of the basins for safety reasons and to prevent damage to the turf and plants.

Community Development
Building Safety Activities: The City’s Building Safety Division conducted a total of 217 inspections during during this past week. The Division issued 31 building permits, which included 17 Single-Family Dwellings, 1 Hood and Duct, 1 Miscellaneous Electrical, 1 Miscellaneous Plumbing, 3 Photovoltaic, 2 Residential Fire Repair, 4 Residential Remodels and 2 Commercial Remodels – one of which is the new Dress Barn going into Stadium Center. A total of 13 new project applications were submitted for plan check services, which included 1 Single-Family Dwelling, 4 Changes to Existing Plans, 1 Commercial Remodel, 1 Fire Alarm, 1 Hood and Duct, 3 Residential Masters, 1 Patio and 1 Sign.

City Manager
MUSD/City Joint User of Facilities: Staff and I met with staff from the Manteca Unified School District to discuss some recent changes to the MUSD’s fees charged for the use of its facilities. The City and MUSD enjoy a reciprocal use agreement, whereby both City and MUSD facilities are used for recreational activities that benefit both sets of constituents – often the same people. Because the MUSD is faced with budget difficulties like the City, the Board adopted a new set of fees last November. The meeting this week was held to clarify how those new fees would be applied to the City when the City uses MUSD facilities for its recreation programs. The City will still continue to be able to use MUSD facilities without being charged for the use of the facilities. However, at such time as the City needs to use an MUSD facility when the District is closed for holiday breaks, furloughs, or summer, the City will still be charged for any additional costs associated with having to open those facilities, or for any utilities that may need to be turned on at those facilities, at a time when they would have otherwise been closed. This is not expected to adversely affect the City’s recreation programs.

CEQA - Why?

I've received a number of inquiries as to why we are revisiting the McKinley Avenue expressway. We set a preliminarly boundary years ago and citizens don't understand why we are holding meetings again. In addition, there are questions as to why we are required to analyze this and analyze our update to our plan for future street widenings and street extensions.

Staff put together the following summary in an attempt to answer some of these questions:

ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
FOR THE
CITY OF MANTECA'S
GENERAL PLAN CIRCULATION ELEMENT UPDATE


The City of Manteca is in the process of updating its Public Facilities Implementation Plan (PFIP). The Transportation Section of this plan includes a road network to service all known proposed development projects. Some of these projects are outside of the General Plan Circulation Element. This disparity of study areas between the General Plan and the PFIP establishes the need to update the General Plan Circulation Element. Additionally, the levels of service (LOS) used for the transportation network are also proposed to be amended at this time.

An update of the PFIP and/or the General Plan Circulation Element requires that the environmental studies that support them also be updated. In fact, the California State Guidelines for the implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) specifically list general plan amendments among the examples of “projects” within the meaning of CEQA (14 CCR §15378). All “projects” must comply with CEQA (14 CCR §15002 (i)). If the updates result in significant environmental impacts, then CEQA requires that the City prepare an Environmental Impact Report that examines the potential impacts, recommends mitigation measures to reduce those impacts, and evaluates alternatives that might reduce those impacts while still accomplishing the primary goals of the update (14 CCR §§15002(k), 15126.4 and15126.6)..

The alignment of McKinley Avenue, between State Route 120 and State Route 99 is a good example of the work necessary to meet the environmental process requirement to look at alternatives. Very little input was sought or received when the alignment was shown in the 2003 General Plan Update. Essentially, there was a basic understanding of the need for an eventual roadway; however, not enough specifics were known about how the area would develop. Fast forward to 2009, and far more information is available about how and where the land is developing, hence the need to proceed with a greater level of analysis and detail as to the specific alignment and configuration of McKinley Avenue.

As it relates to the study of McKinley Avenue, public notices were posted and printed in the local paper (Manteca Bulletin) for the 2003 General Plan Update. Though it met the legal notification requirement, very few affected landowners were even aware of this process taking place and, therefore, did not participate in it. In contrast, direct mailings have been used to notify landowners of the public workshops for the McKinley Avenue Specific Street Plan. The result has been well-attended meetings by affected landowners and other interested parties, where there has been much discussion and exchange of ideas on the merits or demerits of the various alignments depicted. Though both methods of notifying the public meet the legal requirements for their purpose, the Specific Street Plan notification process has proven to produce more citizen-participation in the governmental decision-making process that affects them. By extension, a more solid environmental analysis is made possible because it has taken the extra steps necessary to truly analyze alternatives.

Tracy Police Avoids Layoffs

From the Tracy Press:

Officers give up scheduled raise to save jobs
by TP staff
Jan 18, 2010

The Tracy police officers’ union voted to forego a raise this summer to save several jobs and to change their retirement plan for new employees to save the city money.

The change to the police officers contract comes after a couple of months of talks between union heads and city administrators, who had announced their intention to lay off six officers, two sergeants, and one captain.Those cuts are no longer necessary though.

Officers were scheduled to get a 5-percent pay hike in July on top of the 5-percent raise they received last summer, a wage increase that appeared to cause ripples of discontent as other city workers were laid off and forced to take unpaid days off.

A majority of the 85-member union also voted to cut retirement benefits for new officers that are hired. Instead of being able to retire with up to 90-percent of their salary at age 50, new officers will be able to retire with up to 90 percent of their salary at age 55, the same retirement package that Tracy firefighters have.

The union also agreed to extend their contract through fiscal year 2011-12 with no extra benefits.

City managers are trying to save money in the face of a projected $9 million budget deficit. Tracy pays 100 percent of the retirement costs for all its workers, which costs the city about $9 million a year. It also pays $1,200 per month per employee for health insurance, an annual $6.2 million cost, and gives each full-time employee a minimum of 37 paid days off a year, including sick leave.

The changes to the police officers’ contract “balances the recognized public safety concerns while being sensitive to the City’s fiscal situation and the community’s economic hardships,” said Sgt. Alex Neicu in a press release on behalf of the union.City administrators seemed pleased as well.“I think it’s a win-win for everyone,” said Finance Director Zane Johnston. “The raise was huge, because that’s a lot of money.”

Employee Ratios

The Sacramento Bee had an interesting editorial last Sunday addressing the historical ratio of state workers per 1000 residents (click here). The editorial noted that over the past 50 years, the number of state workers has consistently been at a level of about 9 workers per 1000 residents. They seemed to defend the current staffing ratio as reasonable.

First of all, the fact that the state has nearly twice as many workers per captia as local government is appalling. Given that the state has delegated the majority of its responsibilities to state and county government, I'm still trying to determine how they justify 358,000 workers. In fact, given the state's skill in shifting its responsiblity to the rest of us, they should have far fewer workers per resident than they had 50 years ago. In addition, I would argue that many of the agencies are now automated--i.e. -- very few of us actually go into DMV to re-register our car--we do it online without any human helping us out.

Hopefully, as resources get tighter and tighter at the state level, there will finally be a day of reckoning when the majority of jobs are eliminated that are duplicative of responsibilities already delegated to other levels of government.

The Bureaucracy Strikes Again

There has been a lot of debate as to whether or not the federal stimulus package passed last year has actually contributed to job creation. After reading dozens of article, there is no doubt that the funds that went back to states for education did help reduce the number of teacher layoffs--or at least put them off for a year.

On the other hand, there has been a dearth of "bricks and mortar" type projects due to the feds insisting on adding their own layer of red tape to every construction project that they have touched across the country. Locally, the Atherton Gap closure project will be delayed by at least 6 months due to the additional red tape and the state's inability to handle all of the addtional red tape imposed by our friends in Washington D.C. All of the additional paperwork is completely duplicative to processes already required by our state government. Thus, while the government is insisting that these projects be fast-tracked in order to help the economy--the same legislation that insisted on speed also imposed an additional layer of duplicative review.

One of the many ridiculous requirements that come with "federalizing" a project is historic review. The feds require projects as insignificant as replacing an air conditioner to go through the state's Office of Historic Preservation to make sure that historic resources are not at risk in the subject project. Those of us that have dealt with federal programs over the years have seen this requirement stall and often kill great projects. The Office of Historic Preservation is not only slow, but incredibly subjective when it comes to determining what is historic.

A recent in the Sacramento Bee (click here) has exposed the Office's role in helping to gum up the process of getting projects approved and getting people back to work. The article notes:

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to emphasize job creation as his top priority in his State of the State address, his watchdog for federal stimulus dollars says a tiny state office is delaying hundreds of projects that could employ out-of-work Californians.

Laura Chick, state inspector general for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, said Monday that the California Office of Historic Preservation has a two-month backlog in approving federal stimulus projects, some as small as installing a heating and air conditioning unit.
Chick said state-mandated furloughs have contributed to the backlog, and she suggested that the state should allow historians to delay taking furloughs.

She also said the Schwarzenegger administration could shift other state workers as needed to the Office of Historic Preservation to reduce the backlog.

"There are human beings standing on the street, waiting for an employer to say, 'OK, I need you to work, I'm ready to pay you,' " Chick said. "If there's a bunch of paper sitting on somebody's desk, and the review could be 15 days instead of 60 days, that's 45 days of holding up jobs from being created."

Under federal law, the office must review federally funded construction projects to ensure they do not adversely affect historic sites.

Chick estimated that hundreds of projects are awaiting review by the Office of Historic Preservation, many of which she suggested would have no significant consequences on historic properties.

Those of us who work at the local level are finding that the furloughs are becoming the excuse for state agencies not getting back to us in a timely manner. Frankly, most the agencies using this excuse were just as slow prior to the furloughs. After this article appeared in the Bee, a follow up blog was post about a week ago:

The Office of Historic Preservation is quickly clearing an application backlog that delayed billions of dollars in federally-funded stimulus projects, according to California Recovery Task Force Director Cynthia Bryant .

Capitol Bureau colleague Kevin Yamamura last week reported on the backlog of hundreds of applications made worse by furloughs at the OHP. The office has to sign off on federally funded construction projects to ensure the projects don't mess up historic sites. Delayed reviews had stalled billions of federal stimulus dollars. Click here for that story.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave the office 30 days to clean things up and sent over extra employees to help. Bryant said in this press release that six projects were left to review that will be finished this week.

Highlights from "The Week in Review" (TWIR)

You can access the entire TWIR by clicking on the link on the right side of this page.

Fire
Emergency Incidents: We had a total of 80 incidents this week, which included 5 that were fire related: 2-Structure Fires, 1-Cooking Fire, and 2-Outside/
Trash Fires. The remaining calls this week were: EMS-54, Vehicle Accidents-6, Service Calls-7 and Other Emergencies-8.

Fire Prevention: This week’s Fire Prevention activities included: Business Inspections-46, New Construction Inspections-5, Plan Checks-6, Certification of Occupanies-1, Business License Inspections-2, and Fire System Checks-8.

Engine companies visited local schools this past week as part of the Fire Awareness in the Schools “FAITS” curriculum. This month’s sections focused on life-safety techniques for second graders.

Police
Robbery: On January 8 at 7:23 a.m., a robbery occurred at the Pacific Motel, 453 Moffat Blvd. The victim was alone in the room, asleep, when the suspect entered. The suspect had a hammer and struck the victim on the back and arms. The suspect took the victim’s wallet and fled. The victim sustained scrapes and bruises, but refused medical treatment. The suspect was not located.

Robbery Arrest: A strong-arm robbery occurred on the Tidewater bike path just north of Center Street at 1:00 p.m. on January 8. Four suspects approached the victim and told him to give over his guitar and wallet. The victim refused and was punched in the side of the head. He fell to the ground and was kicked by the suspects. Taken from the victim were his guitar and case, wallet, MP-3 player and a memory stick. Officers responded to the area. Detectives located four subjects, including two of the suspects, at Sequoia and Virginia. When officers approached them, all of the suspects ran. Detectives took one of the suspects to the ground at the scene and the others fled on foot. They were later apprehended, and all of the stolen property was recovered. The victim sustained a cut lip and refused medical treatment. The following suspects were arrested: Clarence Odell Jorme Cortez, 18, of Mountain House, and a male juvenile resident of Manteca. They were arrested for Robbery, Conspiracy, Resisting Arrest, and Participating in a Gang Crime.

Stabbing: On January 11 at 5:30 p.m., Patrol officers were dispatched to Shasta Park at 955 E. Edison Ave. for a report of a fight involving approximately 30 subjects. Dispatch then gave additional information that a possible stabbing had just occurred at that location. Upon arrival, Patrol units were unable to find any victims or any subjects who were involved in the incident. While units were still checking the area, Dispatch advised that a stabbing victim had just arrived at Doctor’s Hospital in Manteca. Kenneth Jones arrived at the hospital with a stab wound to the side of his torso. Jones said he arrived at Shasta Park with several other subjects to watch two females who were planning to fight each other. According to Jones, the crowd grew to nearly 80 people. During the gathering, Jones’ friend was jumped by several unknown male subjects. Jones attempted to help his friend when he felt a sharp pain on the side of his torso. Jones said someone stabbed him from behind and he did not see who stabbed him. As soon as the stabbing occurred, the crowd quickly dispersed.

School Stabbing: On January 14 at approximately 7:30 a.m., a fight broke out in one of the halls at Manteca High School. The School Resource Officer radioed to Dispatch, saying an ambulance was needed for a victim of a stabbing. The 15-year-old female victim was stabbed in the upper right arm, with a cut about 8 inches long. She was transported to Doctor’s Hospital in Manteca in stable condition. A 15-year-old female suspect is in custody; however, the weapon was dropped and not found. It is believed someone picked up the knife or blade. Apparently the victim and suspect have disliked each other for a very long time, and there have been fights between them in the past. This time, words were spoken, punches were made, and the end result was the victim being stabbed. The suspect was charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon and transported to Juvenile Hall.

Community Development
Building Safety Activities: The City’s Building Safety Division conducted a total of 370 inspections during this past week. The Division issued 41 building permits, which included 1 Single-Family Dwelling, 5 Changes to Existing Plans, 1 Commercial Coach, 2 Commercial Remodels, 1 Fire Alarm, 2 Fire Sprinklers, 1 Miscellaneous Electrical, 3 Miscellaneous Mechanical, 2 Miscellaneous Plumbing, 10 Photovoltaic, 3 Power Poles, 1 Residential Demolition, 1 Residential Fire Repair, 2 Residential Remodels, 4 Roofs, 1 Sign and 1 Storage Rack. A total of 10 new project applications were submitted for plan check services, which included 1 Commercial Remodel, 1 Fire Alarm, 1 Hood and Duct, 1 Residential Master, 1 Residential Remodel, 1 Storage Rack, 2 Swimming Pools, 1 Commercial HVAC and 1 Vanilla Tenant Infill out at Promenade.

Public Works
Payment for WQCF Peak Energy Savings: The practice of shedding electrical loads during peak energy demand periods – known as demand response – is a beneficial activity to the public. This practice helps to 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. This past summer, PG&E issued two separate energy curtailment bulletins to its various commercial and industrial customers, including the City of Manteca, requesting they reduce energy usage to take pressure off of the Statewide electric grid. WQCF (Wastewater Quality Control Facility) staff responded to both bulletins by successfully curtailing 1,287 kWh (kilowatt-hours) of peak energy use. In return for these efforts, the City recently received payment in the amount of $8,169.38 from PG&E’s peak energy curtailment program. The WQCF’s efforts, along with 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.

Manteca’s Solid Waste Rates Fare Well Against Others: The Tracy Press reported this week that the City of Tracy's garbage collection operations lost approximately $1.1 million last fiscal year. The article explained that the deficit was due to decreases in revenue from recycling, residential customers and commercial collection. Manteca has experienced similar decreases in revenue, but has been able to reduce costs to offset the loss of revenue. It is interesting to compare the two operations. The City of Tracy charges $4 more per month for comparable residential service than Manteca, and commercial rates are also significantly higher. Tracy’s total Solid Waste budget is reported at $17 million, compared to $8.8 million for Manteca. Tracy’s Finance Director said there is really nothing that Tracy can do to reduce their costs, because the garbage operation is contracted out to private companies and the contract costs cannot be adjusted. This is in sharp contrast to Manteca, where the City employees who manage and execute our solid waste operations have cut costs through operational efficiencies and negotiated compensation adjustments. Manteca’s Solid Waste employees should be commended for continuing to provide better service at a lower price than all our neighboring cities who contract out this service.

More on the State Budget

First for the semi-good news, apparently the state is being realistic in its future budget assumptions. Here is a report from the League of Cities fiscal expert, Michael Coleman:

Down deep in the text and tables of the Governor’s proposed budget released Friday are some revenue estimates and forecasts, some of which also apply to key city revenues. Although the growth patterns of local sales taxes and property taxes depend greatly on the particular economic situation within a jurisdiction, the statewide trends are noteworthy. The State Department of Finance (DOF) is estimating that the assessed value (AV) of taxable real property will decrease 2.9 percent from the FY2008-09 to the current FY2009-10 fiscal year.

DOF forecasts that AV will fall further by another 2.2 percent from FY2009-10 to FY20010-11. As for sales tax revenues, the Governor’s proposal estimates that final taxable sales figures will show a decrease of 12.8 percent for the FY2008-09 over the prior year and a further decrease of 7.5 percent in the current FY2009-10 year. Sensing the beginning of a turnaround, DOF projects a modest increase of 6.3 percent in statewide taxable sales for FY2010-11.

The real question is whether or not the legislature sticks to these numbers when they are trying to complete the budget on the eve of this fall's election.

The grim and insidious part of the budget is chronicled in today's Sac Bee (click here). While this sleight of hand didn't work last year, looks like the Governor is going to give it another shot. Here's how the Bee describes it:

California drivers could save a dollar and change each visit to the gas pump under a tax swap proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In an effort to free up money to balance the state budget, the governor wants to reduce the sales tax motorists pay on gas purchases while increasing the gas excise tax, also paid at the pump.

Administration officials say the switch would help California close a $19.9 billion budget gap by nullifying laws that reserve most of the gas-pump sales tax for transit agencies.

That would free up anywhere from a few hundred million dollars to more than a billion dollars for the state general fund. The total amount is disputed by the administration and transit officials.

State finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said the plan has the added benefit of saving motorists nearly $1 billion at the pump in the coming year.

"That's one of the pleasant aspects," Palmer said.

Longer-term, however, the governor's plan calls for increasing the gas excise tax annually for the next 10 years from its current 18 cents to 34 cents per gallon by 2020.

Transit officials, meanwhile, are livid. They're calling it a "bait and switch" move to avoid making good on voter-approved funding for local bus service and rail service.

School advocates also are troubled. The tax swap would allow the Legislature to reduce funding to public schools this year by $800 million, the Legislative Analyst's Office noted.

That represents a 1.6 percent reduction of Proposition 98-mandated school funding.

While the proposal doesn't have a huge impact locally, who knows--this bait and switch could end up impacting more of our road funds as well. More importantly, it is symbolic of the many games being played by the state to attempt to survive another budget cycle with gimmicks instead of hard decisions.

Response to Bulletin regarding redundant studies

Tuesday's Bulletin had an article entitled: "Redundant farm conversion studies adding to the cost of housing projects." (Click here for link)

The premise of the article is that the City requires developers to fund unnecessary farmland conversion studies when the impacts have already been identified and addressed with a litigated settlement that resulted in developers paying an agricultural mitigation fee. The article also references the San Joaquin County Multi-Species Habitat Conservation and Open Space Plan (SJMSCP) fee. The SJMSCP fee is not an agricultural mitigation fee; it is for the preservation of wildlife habitat, which in some cases includes land areas that are farmed.

While it is true that the fees exist and are used as partial mitigation for the loss of agricultural land and preservation of habitat, the article fails to mention that the fees are merely payment for impacts and have nothing to do with the State's requirement to review and analyze the project specific impacts.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), requires the City to identify and analyze all environmental impacts of a development project. Only a small portion of the environmental impact report (EIR) is dedicated to analysis of the loss of agricultural land and wildlife habitat. Relying on payment of an impact fee without identifying the unique impacts of the development would be not satisfy the requirements of CEQA.

Frankly, the article overstates the time and cost of the agricultural study. These studies are only small portion of the overall EIR.

The cost of preparing an environmental document that meets the State's requirements, identifies the impacts, and allows mitigation of these impacts (not completely, but to the greatest extent feasible (in this case payment of a fee)), is far less than the true cost of fully mitigating the impacts. The fact that these studies can identify payment of an agricultural mitigation fee of $2,213.17 per acre is far less than the cost of buying the development rights of an equal amount of agricultural land. The same goes for development rights of wildlife habitat.

Overall, the EIR gives the City and the Developer the security that the development has met the State's requirements and protects the City and Developer from lawsuits brought by farmland and wildlife habitat activists. The fee itself does nothing to protect the developer--the CEQA analysis is of paramount importance.

As noted above, the mitigation fee is often not enough to offset the impacts identified in the EIR. With an EIR, the City can approve projects that do not fully mitigate impacts by adopting "statements of overriding considerations". In other words, approving projects that the City finds to be of greater value to the community than fully mitigating the impacts identified in the EIR. EIR's are often seen as a negative, but in reality, they are the tool that allow us to build projects whose negative impacts are offset by a positive benefit to the community. Most development in the Central Valley would be eliminated if not for an EIR's ability override the negative consequences of a project.

The bottom line is that the agricultural and habitat studies are a small portion of an overall environmental impact report (EIR) that the City is required by State law to prepare for a project. The requirement to analyze a project and its impact are not optional, and the impact fees are the mitigation not the study.

NOTES:

The City participates in two separate programs in which fees are required. The first program is an agricultural land mitigation program and the second is a habitat and open space mitigation program.

The Ag mitigation fee is currently set at $2,213.17. This fee is the direct result of litigation by environmental groups. Per the agreement Manteca passes this fee to the Central Valley Farmland Trust, http://www.valleyfarmland.org/ .

The Habitat fee (San Joaquin County Multi-Species Habitat Conservation and Open Space Plan) was not the result of litigation, but rather a grass root program designed to protect the 90 or so state and federally protected species and their habitat within San Joaquin County.

- All projects in Manteca are subject to this plan, not only projects greater than 350 acres. All participating Cities in the County were mapped in 2001 and all properties were categorized either urban, ag, multi-use/open space, grassland, or vernal pool. The urban category has no fee.

- This program and the fees associated with it are voluntary. If a developer chooses to "opt-out" of the plan, they would need to deal with the State fish and game and federal agencies regarding protection of the 90+ species and habitat in this county. The program is designed to streamline the biological requirements for projects that choose to participate.

State Budget Blues

I wasn't going to talk about the Governor's budget proposal, but I finally decided it was important at least note that it isn't really even worth analyzing. The final state budget will not even remotely resemble the document submitted last week.

As most of you have read by now, the 2010-2011 budget is banking on $7 billion from the federal government. The Governor went out of his way to basically demand these dollars from our federal officials. This has not gone over well with either of our U.S. Senators or any of our key reps in the House. Here's an excerpt from an article in the Los Angeles Times (click here):

"California's budget crisis was created in Sacramento, not Washington," Sen. Dianne Feinstein shot back. "These problems are not going away until there is wholesale reform of the state's budget process. . . .

Pointing fingers is not constructive."Sen. Barbara Boxer called a teleconference with reporters to rebut Schwarzenegger's assertion that California gets back only 78 cents for every dollar it sends Washington in taxes. That figure is several years old, she contended; Washington currently sends back $1.45.

She accused the governor of "threatening people" with his "trigger" plan.

In fact, his lack of decorum may have guaranteed that we don't get ANY addtional funds from the feds.

Other parts of the plan are just as fantastic. As Dan Walters noted in the Sacramento Bee (click here):

Arnold Schwarzenegger achieved fame and fortune by starring in celluloid fantasies, so it may be fitting that his final state budget proposal would be so disconnected from economic and political reality.

With the state still facing huge deficits, the governor bases his 2010-11 budget on such fanciful elements as persuading the federal government to cough up an extra $7 billion, asking voters to reverse themselves and shift money from protected pots for mental health and children's programs, overhauling transportation financing, and persuading state employee unions to accept pay cuts and increases in workers' pension and health care costs.

For those of us who live in the real world, we realize that he can't unilaterally cut employee compensation plans and is unlikely to find more "efficiences" in other programs. At some point, the legislature is going to be faced with making hard choices, but probably not in an election year. The legislature will likely go through one last round of number cooking to make it look like they've balanced the budget, attempt to take what little is left to take from local government and leave it to the next legislature to clean up their mess.

That is when it is going to get really ugly. The best we can do at the local level is do what we can to protect our local revenues, and hope that the state doesn't take the rest of us down with it.

Budget Woes

Now that we are at the midpoint of the fiscal year, many cities are beginning to revisit the revenue projections made last spring. Many cities grossly underestimated the impact the great recession would have on sales tax revenues--they naively believed that we'd already seen the worst of the recession's impact in 09-10.

Here in Manteca, we knew better and waited until late summer to make our budget projections--and knew that huge cuts in employee compensation were needed to make the budget work. The following articles chronicle the tale of two cities (both very sales tax dependent) that decided to avoid the hard choices in the budget and hope for the best.

In Escondido, they now are looking at cutting ten percent out of the remainder of this year's budget--not an easy task. As many as 100 layoffs could be required. Click here for the entire article.

In Santa Rosa, they did cut about 20 percent of their budget going into this year, but now need to cut another $10 million (10 percent) to make it through the year. They've got a list of 98 items that they are looking to cut. Click here for the entire article and a link to the staff report outlining the 98 cuts.

While most of the articles focus on a city's General Fund, in Tracy the solid waste account is now in the red. As most of you know, Manteca reduced compensation for non-General Fund accounts as well since the recession impacts enterprise revenues as well. The article notes:

Kevin Tobeck, the public works director, said the problem his department faces is threefold. Few houses have been built in the past few years, so there has been no construction debris to discard. Tracy is also home to a swarm of empty, foreclosed houses, where no garbage is collected so no bills are sent out, he said.“We went from lots of building to virtually none,” he said.

Click here for the enitre article.

Positive View on the Future

Joel Kotkin is one of the more objective commentators in the country when it comes to the economy. He was way ahead of his time in predicting the tech bubble bursting and is quite disappointed that we've continue to neglect our manufacturing sector--which is still the key to a healthy economy in the long term.

Thus, I was really surprised when he wrote a hopeful piece for Forbes.com the other day about the strength of our economy in the long run. Entitled "Don't Give Up on the U.S." (click here for story), he outlined our competitive advantages as follows:

1. The U.S. is the only advanced country in the world with viable demographics. By 2030, all our major rivals, save India, will be declining, with ever-larger numbers of retirees and a shrinking labor force. By 2050 Germany, Japan and South Korea could approach having twice as many people over 65 per capita as the U.S. By then, the U.S. will have 400 million people, which may be more than the entire EU and three times the population of our former archrival Russia.

2. In terms of energy resources, the U.S., combined with Canada, is the second richest region in the world after the Middle East. The country possesses vast resources of natural gas, about 90 years' worth, as well as strong areas for wind power. Given America's past profligacy, the country could derive considerable savings with even modest conservation efforts.

3. America remains the world's agricultural superpower, with the most arable land on the planet. With another 3 billion people expected on the planet by 2050, the U.S. should enjoy a continuing boom in food exports.

4. Military power matters now and in the future. We are not living in a Star Trek future of earthly harmony. The U.S. leads in military technology and, yes, our martial spirit remains a positive factor, despite the portrayals from Hollywood. For all its missteps, the U.S. military has achieved its strictly war-fighting missions--in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a host of smaller conflicts--over the past 20 years. Meanwhile, Europe and Japan have taken themselves out of the military game, and it will be decades before China will be ready for a head-to-head challenge.

5. There is no large country that comes close to the U.S. as an entrepreneurial hotbed (Taiwan, Israel and Hong Kong come close but are far smaller). The recent Legatum Prosperity Index showed the U.S. remains by far the largest generator of new ideas and companies on the planet.

He goes on to note that China and India's future are more cloudy than many realize and discusses the key things we need to do right to make sure that we remain an economic superpower. The bottom line is that he makes me feel a lot better about our future and the world that our children will run in the distant future. It is well worth reading the entire article.

Highlights from "The Week in Review" (TWIR)

You can access the entire TWIR by clicking on the link on the right side of this page.

Police
DUI Checkpoints: On December 19 and January 2, the Traffic Division conducted DUI and driver’s license checkpoints in the 700 block of East Yosemite Avenue, and the 800 block of North Main Street. The following is a summary of the checkpoints’ activities:

867 vehicles through the checkpoints
832 vehicles screened
4 field sobriety tests given
15 vehicles impounded for suspended licenses
1 DUI arrest

Holiday Gang/Robbery Sweep: On December 16 and 17, the Manteca Police Department participated in a Countywide gang and robbery sweep. The goal of the operation was to quell potential holiday season robberies. All of the State, County, and local law enforcement agencies participated. The two-day operation included saturation patrols, parole and probation searches, and undercover operations in all the cities in the county. Over the two-day period, officers made 96 arrests and seized 6 guns and a significant amount of drugs, most of which was in the possession of parolees. Several residential burglaries will likely be solved as a result of evidence found during searches. The operation was extremely successful.

Marijuana Grow: On December 27, an officer reported hearing several gun shots in the area of Park and Oregon streets. Further investigation led officers to 518 Willow St. The officers discovered the house contained a large marijuana grow. Detectives responded and a search warrant was served on the house. The house had three bedrooms, and each was converted to grow marijuana. There was an extensive electrical wiring system makeover with electricity being stolen. Holes were cut in the floor and a very modern ventilation system was installed. Everything was on timers. Due to the modifications, Code Enforcement Officer Baird was contacted and condemned the house. Also, PG&E showed up and cut power to the house. Approximately 90 plants were being grown and the marijuana was of good quality. The street value after cultivation is estimated at $20,000. The lone suspect living at the house, Oscar Omar Acosta-Beltranwas, transported to the Manteca Police Department and booked for Cultivating Marijuana, Possession of False Immigration Documents, and Illegal Entry.

Assault: On December 31 at approximately 10:30 p.m., officers responded to Union Station, 502 N. Union Road, regarding a cold battery. Officers located the victim, Miguel Gonzalez, leaning against a wall in front of the store. Gonzalez had a cut above his right eye. Gonzalez advised he and some friends drove to Union Station to purchase beer. As they pulled into the parking lot, an unknown subject was standing in the parking stall and wouldn’t move so they could park their car. Two of the victims stepped out of the car. As they passed the subject they said, “Hey! What’s up?” The suspect took offense and a physical altercation took place in front of the store. During the fight, one of the suspects shouted “Norte.” At one point, Gonzalez had one of the suspects down, when another suspect came from behind and hit Gonzalez in the head with an unknown object. Gonzalez was knocked unconscious and fell to the ground. As he lay unconscious, the suspects ran up and kicked and stomped Gonzalez in the head. The suspects were seen running to a waiting vehicle and fled the scene northbound on North Union Road. Gonzalez was transported to Doctor’s Hospital in Manteca. Gonzalez had several skull fractures and blood on the brain. He was rushed to Doctor’s Hospital in Modesto to meet with a neurosurgeon.

Shooting Arrest: On January 2, officers responded to a minor disturbance at 476 Mission Ridge Dr. Just after arriving, the first officers heard a gunshot from somewhere on the southwest side of the court. As other officers arrived, two additional shots were fired. They set up a perimeter and attempted to ascertain where the shots were coming from. Neighbors advised the shots possibly came from 392 Marsala Court. A male subject walked out of 392 Marsala and was detained by officers. He said his friend, David Foster, the solo occupant of the residence, had fired his shotgun out in the backyard. After officers located a cell phone number for Foster, he came out and was detained. No victims or damage was located. A loaded 12-gauge shotgun was found in plain view on the kitchen table and was taken for evidence. David Foster was booked for Discharging a Firearm in Gross Negligence.

Purse Snatch: At approximately 7:15 p.m. on January 3, officers responded to a reported purse snatch. The victim was loading groceries into her vehicle at Raley’s, when a suspect ran past and grabbed her purse out of the shopping cart. The victim was not injured. The suspect got into an occupied vehicle and fled. A witness followed the suspect vehicle to Wal-Mart, where officers found the vehicle just leaving the parking lot. Officers conducted a high-risk stop of the suspect vehicle and detained the two suspects. The victim’s purse’s contents were located in the suspect vehicle. A department canine conducted an article search and found the victim’s purse and wallet along the roadway where the suspects had thrown them out of the car. The suspects both gave full confessions and were booked. All stolen property was released to the victim. Because the driver had a suspended driver’s license, the car was impounded for 30 days. Arrested were Michael Scrivens, 26, of Lodi, and a juvenile, 16, of Stockton. They were booked for Grand Theft and Conspiracy.

Meth Sales Arrest: On January 5, members of the Street Crimes Unit went to 129 Goodale Lane to conduct a probation search. While conducting the search, one of the Detectives was outside the house. He saw Randall Frese walking toward the house. The Detective knew Frese and knew he is also on probation with a search-and-seizure condition. As the Detective began walking toward Frese, he turned around and fled. Detectives gave chase. Frese began jumping fences with Detectives in pursuit. Just as they were catching Frese, he threw a ball of something onto the roof of 611 W Yosemite Ave. Frese was caught and detained. The substance on the roof was recovered and found to be 3.8 grams gross of methamphetamine. Frese was charged with Possessing a Controlled Substance, Possessing a Controlled Substance with the Intent to Sell, Transportation of a Controlled Substance and Resisting Arrest.

Fire
Cost Recovery Update: The City received its first cost recovery check this week for fire services provided on non-resident vehicle accidents. The check was for $792 and covered two vehicle accidents.

Emergency Incidents: We had a total of 100 incidents this week, which included 11 that were fire related: 5-Structure Fires, 1-Cooking Fire, 1-Vehicle Fire and 4-Outside/Trash Fires. Dollar loss was estimated at $65,000. The remaining calls this week were: EMS-62, Vehicle Accidents-5, Service Calls-8 and Other Emergencies-14.

Public Works
Recycling Program: Thanks to the efforts of the citizens of Manteca in recycling of bottles and cans, and to the Governor deciding to let the cities and counties keep the redemption money from those bottles and cans this year, the City of Manteca will be receiving a check for over $36,000 to help us in our efforts to continue recycling and to promote recycling throughout 2010. The City has received this money in the past, but there was much doubt about receiving it this year, considering the State’s economy.

Parks and Recreation
Park Maintenance: City maintenance operations were closed from December 24 through January 3, due to a combination of the winter holidays and unpaid furlough days. All parks were mowed prior to closing, and part-time staff was scheduled to open and close park restrooms and remove litter.

Park Vandalism: An increase of vandalism in parks is a fairly common occurrence when schools take a break during the holiday periods. Several parks were vandalized this past holiday season – some more than others. Much of the graffiti was removed by part-time staff, after restrooms were opened and cleaned. The following is a list of areas that were vandalized:
· Lincoln Park – The urinal in the restroom was destroyed. Labor and materials to replace the urinal: $400.

· Woodward and Tesoro Parks – Both parks had vehicles driving onto the turf areas and driving in circles, resulting in damaged turf. Labor and materials to repair the turf: $275.

· Roberts Park – Several areas, including the slide, were covered with feces. Labor and materials to clean and sanitize the affected areas: $140.

· Shasta Park – A playground dedication monument that was recently installed was damaged by vandals. Labor and material costs for repairs are unknown at this time. Repairs will require the replacement of a portion of the stone facade.

· Yosemite Park – Picnic tables were tagged heavily with gang graffiti. Staff reported the graffiti to the Police Department’s Gang Unit and then removed the graffiti. Labor and material costs: $100.

· Tidewater Bike Path – A section of the path, approximately 50 yards in length, was tagged with graffiti. Pressure washing would not remove the graffiti, so staff applied a coat of asphalt sealer over the affected area. Labor and material costs: $170.

· Northgate Park – This park was hit heavily by vandals. Fencing in several areas was damaged, as were several tables used as booths for scorekeepers. Repairs will be made by park maintenance staff. Vandals also broke into electrical control panels for field lighting and removed the copper wiring from the panels to the light poles on all fields. Light fixtures on the concession building were also removed and copper wire taken. Parks staff is working in cooperation with Building Maintenance staff to make preparations for repairs. No cost estimate is available at this time; however, it is anticipated the cost of all repairs will be quite expensive.

Aquatics Program: It may be cold outside, but this is the time the Recreation staff starts planning for the upcoming Aquatics Season. This includes working very closely with the volunteers of the Manteca Dolphins. as well as recruitment, training for new guards and re-certification of returning guards and swim instructors. In addition to managing the pool operations in Lincoln Park, the aquatics program staff also provides lessons to more than 1,700 participants. This count is an unduplicated count. If you add the numbers of participants served, who took multiple open and private swim lessons, this number will approach 2,500 lessons provided.

Community Development
Year-end Permit Information: In 2009, the City issued a total of 1,578 building permits. These permits were new residential construction, home improvements, commercial and industrial work. These numbers are consistent with building activity in 2008, when 1,591 permits were issued. Despite the economic downturn during the last year, the level of building/construction work has remained steady, and also corresponds to our high level of building inspections that were performed on a weekly basis in 2009.

New Commercial Development:
Dress Barn has executed a lease for retail space at Stadium Center, and will be moving from its current location in Tracy. Dress Barn anticipates opening its new Manteca store in March.

Work continued non-stop during the Christmas/New Year’s period at the Promenade Shopping Center. The new development includes space for new luxury outlet retail space, as well as space for restaurants and fast-food concessions. Staff expects to be able to confirm future outlet retailers, as well as the names of restaurants, beginning in 30 days. In the meantime, Red Robin is setting interior finish for its restaurant, and the Hampton Inn and Suites is also working on finish trim at this time.

B.R. Funsten is expected to obtain final inspections on Phase 2 of its project at South Main Street and Industrial Park Drive.

Building Safety Activities: The City’s Building Safety Division conducted a total of 202 inspections during this past week. The Building Safety Inspectors also conducted 125 inspections over the unpaid furloughs. This was key in keeping high-priority projects, as well as the local residential subdivisions, moving forward. The Division issued 40 building permits, which included 27 Single-Family Dwellings, 1 Miscellaneous for Government Building, 4 Miscellaneous Electrical, 2 Miscellaneous Mechanical, 1 Miscellaneous Plumbing, 1 Residential Demolition and 3 Roofs. A total of 4 new project applications were submitted for plan check services, which included 1 Custom Single-Family Dwelling, 2 Changes to Existing Plans and 1 Commercial Remodel.

Legislative Analyst's Office Reviews Proposed Pension Reform Ballot Measures

From Wednesday's Sacramento Bee:

January 6, 2010
Legislative Analyst assesses initiatives proposing to cut benefits

The Legislative Analyst's Office has completed its analyses of three proposed initiatives for the 2010 ballot that take straight aim at cutting health and pension benefits for new state and public sector workers.

The LAO and Department of Finance prepare a detailed fiscal analysis of each proposed initiative and submit them to the Attorney General as part of the initiative process.
Read the three fiscal impact reports by clicking here, and here and here.

The theme is similar across all three reports, though each of the proposed initiatives are different in their own details.

The LAO says that "minor" short term savings could be achieved by adopting the proposed benefit reductions. The savings would be more substantial in the longer-term, it suggests.

Yet the analyses carry a major-league caveat.

The LAO notes that to offset the decline of retirement benefits offered to new employees, "some governments likely would increase other forms of compensation for some employees in order to remain competitive in the labor market."

As Bee colleague Kevin Yamamura reported this week, California is projected to have unfunded pension liabilities of more than $100 billion through 2014-15.

Yamamura also reported that the governor has met with backers of one of the proposed initiatives analyzed above and is considering supporting the measure, which would reduce benefits for public sector workers who begin new jobs in Juy 2011 or later.

More on Community Based Government

As a follow up to Sunday's article, Dennis Wyatt wrote a column yesterday describing a future in which Community Based Government has taken hold in Manteca (click here).

While I encourage you to read the entire article, I especially hope you'll read his concluding statements:

Does this mean the residents are doing the city’s work? Yes and no. Even in good times Manteca lacks the manpower to make sure all storm drains are clear. By working together flooding issues that include people walking and driving through standing water could be addressed before they happen.

Community-based government has a lot of potential. It could make it possible to open a youth/community center in Southside Park to address the influence of gangs. The city would provide the structure plus equipment and the community the manpower through volunteers.

Given the fact 80 percent of government’s cost is manpower and the fact such solutions serve neighborhoods that those involved have a large stake in, about the only way Manteca can improve the services it provides is by engaging the people that the neighborhoods belong to in the first place.

Community-based government is a step in the right direction.

The core group of staff members who are putting together our plan of action are making great progress--I expect to have a detailed plan of action by February--and a significant change in the way the City does business will become apparent shortly thereafter.

Stay tuned!

By the way, this article from Lincoln, California is a perfect example of the power of proactive city workers (click here).

Latest on the Pension Reform Front

The latest on the pension reform from comes from the City of Los Angeles. Here's a couple of excerpts from today's LA Times (click here for entire article):

Alarmed over the spiraling cost of retirement benefits, Los Angeles' top budget officials have begun laying the groundwork for a June 8 city ballot measure that would dramatically scale back the pension benefits given to newly hired city employees.

The plan sets the stage for a showdown between the city's elected officials and the labor unions that, in many cases, helped put them in office...

Budget officials expect taxpayers' share of city pension costs to grow from $653 million this year to nearly $1.3 billion over the next four years for every agency but the Department of Water and Power, which has a separate retirement system. In other words, one of every four dollars collected by the general fund, which pays for basic services such as police, parks and libraries, would go toward retirement benefits by 2013.If benefits are not scaled back, the city will need to make "significant reductions" in the workforce and city services, the memo states. "The sooner we make changes, the sooner we can restore our long-term fiscal health."

Just like the pension reform ideas being floated here in San Joaquin County, modifying the benefits for future employees will have virtually no impact on the huge pensions costs coming the next few years. However, it will begin to slow the growth of pension costs.

If we as public employees don't begin to address this issue, there will be statewide ballot measures to impose a solution upon us--and that solution will definitely address current employee benefits as well.

Labor Impasse in Lompoc

Here in Manteca, we have the good fortune of not having any expiring labor contracts during these uncertain economic times. Most of the cities currently renewing contracts are in contentious negotiations, as it is difficult to put together new agreements when the economy is still struggling and the state continues to consider more takeaways of local government revenues.

Here's the latest from Lompoc, which is wrapping labor contracts with all of their bargaining groups:

More than a year of negotiations has ended in an impasse between the city of Lompoc and its police officers.

As a result, during the City Council meeting tonight, city staff will recommend imposing several changes upon employees of the police department, including a 5 percent pay cut and reductions in health-care benefits.

“All those terms and conditions are exactly the same as agreed to by the Teamsters, the firefighters, and every other employee of the city,” Human Resources Director William Yanonis said.

The fruitless negotiations between the city and the police association had included 12 formal meetings, eight contract rejections, and a round of mediation with state officials, said Yanonis. He said the specifics about the negotiation impasse would first be reported to the City Council during a closed session meeting today, before his public report during the public meeting. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.

Click here for the entire article.

As I've noted many times, Manteca's issues are everybody's issues these days. While it is easier to blame our budget problems on local decisions and local conditions, this is a worldwide recession which has been particularly brutal to just about every government agency in this country and beyond. We have to make decisions at the local level as to how we adjust, but we can do very little at the local level to change our economic circumstances--we just have to change how we do business to deal with our economic realities.

There continues to be a number of cities that believe they can tax themselves out of this budget crisis. Santa Rosa is the latest city to float revenue enhancements as a way to fix their budget (click here for article). I've yet to find a city that has been able to convince their City Council to even ask the electorate for more money right now. I'm sure they will find out that their local businesses and residents are already stretched too thin, and a tax increase would not be welcome--we are just going to be expected to tighten our belt, just like everybody else.

In case you missed it...

Community Based Government was the featured front page story in Sunday's Manteca Bulletin. I thought I would reprint it here to make sure everyone was aware of Dennis' story on the subject:

Rethinking how city serves Manteca
Community-based government being explored

By Dennis Wyatt
Managing Editor
dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com209-249-3532
POSTED Jan. 3, 2010 1:49 a.m.

De-centralized government could be the next big thing in Manteca.

Manteca is getting ready to re-invent the way it does business by borrowing a page from San Jose’s successful game plan that has en powered neighborhood level solutions to problems instead of everything funneling through a central bureaucracy.

The goal is to have people take control of neighborhoods, reduce government spending, and speed up staff response to problems.

“The community needs to decide what government should do and what they can do for themsleves,” noted City Manager Steve Pinkerton.

It is an outgrowth of the rapid reversal of municipal fortunes that saw Manteca slash general fund spending by $14 million this fiscal year in response to significant declines in property and sales tax revenue. Not only have most city employees taken two consecutive years of pay cuts but the city has eliminated over 50 positions by leaving them vacant and consolidating responsibilities with other jobs.

Pinkerton pointed out that over the years people have come to expect more and more of government and doing less on their own as an individual or a neighborhood. Having government take care of everything in a neighborhood can be slow and costly. It can also get the neighborhood solutions that they really don’t want.

San Jose has developed community-based government solutions by dividing the city into 14 zones as the South Bay community approached a million residents.

During a recent visit Pinkerton – along with Manteca police Public Affairs Officer Rex Osborn who has been tapped to help implement the program in Manteca – saw a prime example of how the concept works in San Jose to improve neighborhoods quicker and with much less money.
One involved littering in a neighborhood from children walking from school.

It was a quality of life issue for neighbors. In the old way of doing things, the city would have spent $300 to $500 on a large decorative concrete trash receptacle. In this instance, neighbors working with the city suggested simply buying a $20 trash can and a chain to secure it.
Initially it was put in front of the school but it wasn’t effective.

“They figured out real quick that it would take kids two to three minutes to eat their after school snacks,” Pinkerton said.

So the neighborhood – in working with a city employee assigned to that area – moved the can to another location essentially three minutes away by walking. The littering was drastically reduced.

And instead of the city incurring the cost of having someone go out and change the trash bags, a resident in the neighborhood volunteered to do it and was given a supply of Caltrans issued trash bags. He periodically switches out the bag and puts it with his household garbage for the city to pick up.

“What neighborhoods really want addressed may not be what government thinks they want addressed,” Pinkerton said.

The city manager said San Jose found out that when they tried to help with neighborhood problems on a City Hall level they’d come up with expensive projects that weren’t exactly dealing with what really was causing neighborhood concern.

And by eliminating the need to approve a project at the top, the solutions are more often than not substantially cheaper.

San Jose has gotten to the point that they have neighborhood community centers run entirely by volunteers who work with city workers assigned to the particular area.

One of the biggest road blocks, for example, to establishing a community center in Southside Park in Manteca to make further inroads against the influence of gangs is staffing costs.

Before the community-based government approach will be rolled out to engage residents, Pinkerton said the first goal is to change the culture at City hall.

Currently, for example, if a municipal worker such as a police officer or a parks worker sees an issue with something that is not in their job description they will report it to their supervisor.

They in turn relay it to the appropriate department and it goes from there.

“What we want to get to the point if a police officer sees a sprinkler head that is off and spraying water into the street they can directly call the city worker responsible for that area and the fix can get done now instead of later,” Pinkerton explained as one example of how it would work.
Instead of telling municipal employees that are what will happen, small groups of workers have been getting together for brainstorming how such a system could work and what would need to be done to accomplish the goal.

Pinkerton said employees are enthused about the team approach and decentralizing aspects of government operations to allow them flexibility to address problems. The city’s front-line workers have already suggested various ways of splitting Manteca up to make such a system work.

Once the employees are on board and have implemented their part of the system, the next step will be to reach out to neighborhoods.

At that point the city hopes to identify what people are willing to do in their neighborhoods through community meetings.

Pinkerton said they may be willing to help with litter pick up in parks or even with some landscaping tasks.

He noted it could be simply something on the order of what the Crossroads Grace Community Church is now doing after planting nearly 300 trees along the Moffat Boulevard leg of the Tidewater. They are monitoring the trees periodically and alerting the city when there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, e-mail dwyatt@manetcabulletin.com

Manteca crime dropping

Thursday's Manteca Bulletin had a nice article on our ever shrinking crime rate. Click here to read the entire article. Kudos to the staff and our community for this great accomplishment.

Happy New Year - Let's start with Positive News

Here's a "positive" report from the LA Times to start out the new year:

More bad news is on the way for commercial real estate, but it won't be bad enough to bring down the economy, a leading property analyst said today.

Bob Bach, the chief economist at brokerage Grubb & Ellis, refuted an assertion made often last year by other analysts that pending commercial-property bankruptcies could throttle recovery and push the country back into recession.

"Many have called commercial real estate ‘the next shoe to drop,’ but that’s really an exaggeration,” Bach said. “It implies that commercial real estate could wreak damage on the financial system equivalent to the subprime residential mortgage losses, which is highly unlikely because the value of outstanding commercial mortgages is a fraction of the value of outstanding residential mortgages."

Nevertheless, Bach said, losses will mount over the next several years for commercial-property owners and their lenders.

"If banks aren’t lending because they’re coping with losses in their real estate portfolios," Bach said, "this could impede the economic recovery.”

He predicted commercial real estate's decline in value will slow this year and begin to turn around in early 2011.

-- Roger Vincent