Before cuts are made, the City of Pacifica wants to hear your opinion.
Pacifica is facing further major budget cuts and these cuts will affect essential services.
This is your opportunity to let your voice be heard before a plan is developed and insure that your opinion is considered in the plan.
We want to know what is important to you.
Some of the options include:
• Reducing Library hours
• Reducing/eliminating Senior Services
• Contracting with the San Mateo County Sheriff for Law Enforcement
• Additional Tax measures
• Other revenue and service changes
The City’s annual expenses continue to exceed the annual revenues and the difference is being taken out of reserves. The reserves are diminishing and will be depleted in less than five years. This is the case even after $1.5 million in reductions to services were included in the 2011/2012 Budget and $3.5 million in savings in employee costs have been agreed to by City employees.
The City Council has asked the Financing City Services Task Force to examine the options available to the City and prepare a Five Year Financial Plan that will lead to financial stability for the community. It is estimated that at least $3.5 million in service reductions and/or revenue increases are needed over the five year period ($700,000 annually) to achieve financial stability for the City.
This survey is intended to provide some basic information about the options being considered by the Task Force and solicit citizen opinions about these options. The survey responses are anonymous and will be used to provide guidance to the Task Force as it develops the Five Year Financial Plan for recommendation to the City Council.
Please complete the survey before January 20, 2012.
Take the Survey Online. Estimated time to take this survey is appoximately 20-25 minutes.
Survey (printable Adobe Acrobat PDF file for submission via postal or electronic mail)
Supporting Documents:
Background
Task Force Timeline
Budget Reserves Chart
Number of Fulltime Employees Chart
Options Considered but not Included
Posted by Steve Sinai
72 comments:
The notice comes out on the 31st, New Year's Eve. Timely. Non of the attachments tell us anything. The push is on the an enhanced utility users tax. The bait and switch is to "lower" the tax rate but broaden the base to....pretty much everything. Cell phones, fax lines, you name it'll have a tax on it. I estimate my tax goes from $6.50 or so a month to $50 or more. Over $500 a year in increase! Pretty stiff poke. This is all conjecture because there are no numbers associated with any of these suggestions. I couldn't find any on the citys website. I would encourage others to look for analysis that the city has done. Maybe it's out there. How much does each option save us. How many people are adversly impacted by each of the options. Is there an option that, if exercised, solves the problem not only this year but for the foreseeable future?
Once again, the city wants our imput without supplying the necessary data, or time, to evaluate options intelligently. Then again, that may be for a reason. We're ten days from the meeting. Five of those days are holidays or weekend days. No one around at city hall to answer questions. Conveniently convenient.
What little data is available is misleading like the assertion that cuts "equaling" 3.5 million dollars have already been made. That does not mean that 3.5 million dollars have been cut. Like those infomercials that offer enticements if you buy right away like and extra something or other that has a $30 value, the assertion that cuts equaling 3.5 million is just marketing.
The level of misdirection by senior staff concerning a range of issues is become quite disturbing. This upcoming meeting is of interest to me solely on how it will be run. If it is one of those highly moderated, everyone splits into group things that would be unfortunate.
Senior staff needs to hear and feel the dissatisfaction... and the satisfaction to be fair, in an undiluted fashion straight forward unedited open free for all.
I'm going to the meeting out of curiosity. Will it be open or will it be more like the defused overly moderated meetings geared towards coming to the conclusion senior staff want which is obviously to raise taxes in some form or other rather than instigate scaled pay cuts of 1% for every $10,000 earned... for everyone.
It's a dog and pony show. They'll carefully divide the task force up and give each a topic and there you go. You can talk to a live task force member!! City staff has been running this show since day 1 and the outcome has never been in question...it's more taxes whether it's UUT, sales, parcel, whatev. The cuts taken so far are in monopoly money. The real ones will have to be made soon but definitely not until they reach in our wallets again. More taxes and real cuts coming your way Pacifica!
Yeah Pacifica is an infomercial alright. You know, home audience, you can save $50 on something you never would have bought anyway but which is needed to actually use the other $99.99 junk I just sold you. Happy with your junk? Please don't call me when you can't find that $50 I told you I saved you. Oh and don't be surprised to see me refer to these savings in my dog and pony show. Still can't find the money I saved you and you are flatass broke??
Oh home audience what's to become of you if you can't handle your money any better than that?
Council ultimately makes the decisions, and bears the responsibility, for what gets funded. Not senior staff.
Todd Bray is like a broken record... "staff is evil and leads council around by their noses", "harsh regressive pay cuts for public workers", "blah blah blah"
Hopefully, we'll see some fresh (and more realistic) ideas come out of this process.
Yes folks, it's the latest, it's the greatest, it's Ronco's new & improved Budget-Chop-O-Matic. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to show you the greatest City budget accounting scheme, I mean technique, ever concocted... All your departmental budgets chopped to perfection without shedding a single tear. It slices, it dices, it chops, it lops, it minces, it rinses and so much more. Slice a dollar bill so thin it only has one side. Cut one city job into two, four, eight, there really is no limit. And the cost to you, Mr. Taxpayer, just $19.99 (not including shipping, handling, utility tax, parcel assessment, etc.) Order it now while supply lasts. You won't be sorry.
True, council has full responsibility but don't underestimate the big influence senior staff has on them. Huge influence.
Senior staff provide the mgmt advice and government expertise to the psych nurses, social workers, insurance brokers, EPA PR flacks,and door installers we elect to run our city of 40,000. They also run interference and occassionally take the heat. Newly-elected council quickly learn staff's value and how to use them. Staff quickly learns council's value and how to use them. It's a real partnership.
The city's assertion of millions of dollars of cuts agreed to by the workforce would be a lot more credible if we hadn't just got this postcard in the mail.
If they are doing such a good job of managing the budget, why can't they grapple with the 80% of it that consists of staff costs?
That has become typical in city budgets, but the difference here is that Pacifica is a lot poorer than other cities in the county.
"The reserves are diminishing and will be depleted in less than five years."
It's like Groucho Marx is writing these lines. Five years? The city went through more than $6 million in three years, and at last report, had less than $1 million left. One major event, or the continued inability to deal with the unsustainable payroll/pension problem, and we're done, bare-ass nekkid.
I ain't voting for any new city taxes until I see a viable, tangible economic development strategy in place.
Too late for that. The choice we're going to have is either pay more taxes AND also make some real cuts OR go bankrupt. While that's happening maybe some sort of real recovery will happen in CA and we can be part of it. But that is years away and anybody who puts up some bogus econ dev plan for Pacifica is going to be using smoke and mirrors designed for the hungry locals. What do potential "developers" think of a municipal bankruptcy? Fire sale or tainted goods? It just keeps coming back to more taxes and more cuts.
"It just keeps coming back to more taxes and more cuts."
By ruling out economic development, you sound like one of the NIMBYs that got us into this mess in the first place.
Really? It's a question of priorities and dealing with reality not politics and the tired old labels. I'm a property owner who can do the math and doesn't fancy a muni bankruptcy. And let's get real, I didn't rule out economic development because it simply isn't a factor in the city's immediate crisis. It isn't going to happen fast enough to help. Frankly, I won't even believe this city is serious about real economic development until they hire a city manager and senior staff who are skilled in that
area. I think Council might just about be ready to do that. Maybe. And that's when we'll turn the corner.
anon 638 oh if it were only that simple
I agree that economic development won't occur quickly enough to solve the immediate crisis, which is why I used the phrase "viable, tangible economic strategy." That implies a long-term vision. And economic visions like, "our environment is our economy" sure won't cut it.
I don't give money to panhandlers in SF because it rewards them for being bums. Voting to give more tax money to Pacifica without requiring Pacifica to come up with a plan to increase its tax base is no different.
Ultimately, I doubt that I'll vote for any tax increase until either Digre, Vreeland or DeJarnatt leave council. They all ran on a no-growth agenda, they succeeded in that respect, and as a result, we have mininal sales and business tax revenues. They, more than anyone else, are the ones responsible for getting us into this financial mess.
These three have spent their whole time on council coming up with every excuse to stop economic development. They are not capable of suddenly changing their stripes.
I never thought I'd say it, but at this point I'd vote to disband the police department before trusting the city to use any new tax money wisely.
I'll have you know, it's MAYOR DeJarnutt's to you Mr. Sinai!
And I refuse to leave as long as you plebians keep paying me for not showing up.
Could anyone enlighten me on why we spent $50,000 on a Pedro Point trail in the 4th quarter last year while we are debating cutting library hours for our kids!?
Either we're broke or we're not.
Pedro Point is Mr. Vreeland's special area of expertise. Ask him at the next meeting. I'm thinking the answer will be the money came from a special fund that could be used no other way so hey we used it! I say that only because it's been the answer to similar questions. And BS like that explains a lot of the free-floating rage in this country.
The survey narrows to a ranking of 10 predictable budget-cutting choices for those who have yet to complete the process. Probably takes 20 minutes to wade through the descriptive maze and complete the ranking.
My view, the survey is a civic participation buy-in venture. It takes the heat off the city council's "no growth", anti-economic choices over the past 10 years. And, the broader citizen survey also removes criticism from the Finance Task Force. My guess, with or without the survey or the Financial Task Force, the outcome delivered by city council majority will bring few surprises.
Revenue to run a proper city? Fair cost cutting where possible is a secondary plan, whereas structural economic development is the primary plan, which 10 year city council skipped. Remember the childhood story of 3 little pigs. Nothing has changed, except the current 3 city councilmembers accountable for this city economic fiasco never really considered building house #3.
Just took the survey.
I checked contract with Sheriff. Bingo. Done! 2 minutes.
Sure the survey is a gimmick but so what? If you care about this city then this is no time for a silent protest. Do your survey and then follow-up and rattle some cages.
Each question has an alternative comment box that you can use instead of checking off a pre approved push poll answer. I filled in every alternative comment box with a note about scaled reductions by clicking and pasting so that was fast, instead of checking answers. The second to last question requires at least one check, not all ten as asked. the survey doesn't take long.
Lets build more trails they bring in a lot of money!!!
McScrooge: the money used for the trail can only be used for recreation and cannot be used to help kids or the library. Unfortunately may of you have chosen (in various Measures and Propositions) to give money to government that is earmarked for only certain types of projects. Government by Proposition strikes again! and ties up funds when times have changed. And Propositions are all supported financially by special interests! Now doesn't that seem like a way to run a healthy government?
"Frankly, I won't even believe this city is serious about real economic development until they hire a city manager and senior staff who are skilled in that area."
Yes and then we will have to pay for that person or persons. You won't get one of those for the cut rate deal we have now. So if the city hires a city manager for $250,000 the average going rate, then which of you will yell about that. Seems to me no one wins on these blogs - all of you just drive the rest of us into the ground. I say get up and get involved!
Has anyone looked at the cost of employee benefits and retirement...I beleive this expense is in the millions.......if true, couldn't we tweek this to save at least 1/2 a mil???
actually trail $$ comes from Pacifica's Fund 26, Parks and Playfield funding. Rather than spend this taxpayer $$ on Pacifica kids using our ball fields, the funds go to a trail designed to serve regional users. Thousands of Pacifca kids would have benefited from the $$ now being spent on maybe dozens of mostly non-resident hikers.
The money was allocated by Council on Oct 24, 2011. Now two months later we are broke and ball field (and PB&R) funding are being threatened. Can we force council to get this trail $$ back to spend on our own programs and kids to reduce the cuts??
My mommy and daddy said I can't play ball on the fields anymore because of all the gofer holes. I want to play baseball with my friends. Please someone fix our own parks. Why don't the grownups ever listen?
Anon(703), there are existing union contracts including salary, pension, health commitments to be negotiated, and retiree benefits written in stone. "Tweek this to save at least 1/2 a mil"...is that just off the top of your head, or will this city continue to downgrade and reduce its city jobs? Here in the outback, maybe these jobs could even be filled by "volunteers".
Anon (603), from my view the current city manager Steve Rhodes has consistently done more than his job, given what what he has to work with. 10 years of city council majority guidance (now Vreeland, Digre, DeJarnatt) has brought-us here.
Anon (1014), you want our Measure A highway 1 monies to be spent on actual highway 1 improvement, rather than trails and the shuttle? Sounds reasonable.
Pedro Point headlands coastal trail project: 10/24/11, City Council Agenda Supplement, items 5, 6: Item 5 pages 31-33, Item 6 pages 34-35. Bottom line see page 35, monies for that trail come from: Measure A $360,000, California Coastal Conservancy $250,000 (for the county part of the trail), Fund 26 Parks and Playfield $50,000. Total $660,000.
Kathy we may need to follow Vallejo's lead on this one to get out from under these union contracts. Yep, I say vote no on all of the above, file bankruptcy and start over.
We can't afford paying $10K-$16K a year for employee & spouse health care premiums, that's over a million right there. Then look at the 8o employees making 60-190K and cut there too. They don't like it then there are plenty of people ready to take their places.
Why did the council try to hide the wage information? Did they really think no one would bring it up? Are they that out of touch?
anon 159 As if there's going to be a choice. BTW that salary info has been out there for a long time. Public employee salaries are public record. The wages are not too different from other similar-size cities and there's nothing wrong with our employees. The problem is we just can't afford them and the city has been unbelievably inept--apparently this thing snuck up on them over the last 4 years-- at using the collective bargaining process to make the necessary changes. At some point the city manager said he'd be embarassed to go back to the unions. It's a freakin' Greek Tragedy and the city is embarassed. So some of the victims are now scapegoats. What else is new?
When we hire city staff who know how to build a healthy, solvent coastal city through economic development then we will really grow. When that happens it signals that we have a council who knows what must be done for Pacifica and can put the people in place to get it done. If the voters want to change the direction of this city than can do so this November, or not. No criticism of Rhodes. True gentleman and a very good administrator but he just isn't the that kind of city manager we can grow with.
@Anon 335, But Pacifica is not like other cities.We can't afford to pay what Daly City does for cops. We need to scale back these wages and benefits dramatically.
Pacifica police making well over $100K. Do you know FBI agents start at under $50K? This crap is getting ridiculous. Retire at 50? Get free health coverage for your whole family? Getting paid crazy amounts of money?
Over 80 of our city staff were making over $100K. Here's the numbers from 2010:
http://lgcr.sco.ca.gov/CompensationDetail.aspx?entity=City&id=11984161400&year=2010&GetCsu=False
The city say we made cuts to wages and benefits but aren't being specific. We have a right to know this information. Go to the meeting tonight and demand it. And tell them to include wages and benefits in proposed cuts.
Did you also know that all union employees got an Obamacare waiver, this means they don't have to give up all their benies and pay more for healthcare, like the rest of us do. This waiver came from Nancy Pelosi. Look it up.
I looked it up, here it is, 2 minutes video. Explains what you're talking about perfectly.
All you have to do is google Nancy Pelosi and healthcare waivers. From the horses mouth; she says it needs to be this way. Unions, and her friends in San Francisco, received waivers because they are not ready to pay the high price of Obamacare. But, she says, everyone is ready and needs to start paying or else the 300,000 IRS agents Obamacare has hired will come after you.
No Anon (904), its up to you to back-up your comments, however unrelated to this article, to other articles, the spin, or to reality. Assuming you are just getting-in your "quota" of out-of-context, off-the-wall comments, the strategy is described in the "here it is", 2 minute video (1/11, 4:19pm) above. Most of us are weary of this gamesmanship, so get a clue.
New York Times, 12/21/11, has an extensive article about health care reform. BTW, the legislation is titled "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." You call the legislation "Obama Care", okay. Some of us prefer "Obama Care" to one of the early models, Massachusetts "Romney Care". 30 million additional Americans will be coverage under the new legislation. Innovation, better technology and accountability are built-in to the improvement. Group health plans (even those grandfathered until 2014) include physical exams 1x per year, and adult children without other insurance are covered on a parent policy until age 26. There is a legislative history for health care reform in America.
Most of us are weary of you responding to the right-wing nutjobs at all. If you ignore them, they'll go away, so you get a clue.
Is it right wing to think the amount we're paying to these union workers is too much?
I'm a democrat and I think so.
Oops Anon (1:30), you missed the video. 2 minutes only of your time. Right-wing "nut jobs" are on a mission to spread their confusion and ignorance. They don't go away. They have not gone away from the inception of this blog.
Anon (439), you're anonymous. Unidentified. Can't carry your comment to a statement. Can't sign your name to your question. Haven't expanded the thought. Who knows what you really think.
They don't go away because you are constantly stirring them up. Please take a Valium and step away from your keyboard for awhile.
Anon@439 It's not right wing but it is right!! I love how the city points at a basic salary and claims its reasonable while ignoring the obscene bloat created by the OT and cafeteria cash being racked up by many, particularly in the PD and fire depts. That stuff has become so standard in Pacifica that they'll never give it up. Get the county sheriffs in here to manage better and reduce the OT by using a larger pool of employees. And claiming that any money was saved by retiring the planning director and city attorney is ridiculous. The new planning director is paid more than the old one was and we are using contract legal services which are hardly cheap but at least involve no benefits. No question we need both positions but let's be honest and factual about the changes. No details on the advertised $3.5 million in cuts to payroll so what are we talking about? Could it be future contract increases that have been set aside? That would be a no-brainer but it won't address today's crisis. I really don't fault the employees for taking what was so freely given to them year after year. Not at all because it has never been their job to govern and manage this city. We placed our trust in senior staff and council to do that.
Anon (707), "They don't go away because you are constantly stirring them."
Way too logical, (alternatively just dumb). There are online Tea Party training courses to create such whacked chaos. Its like inviting a few nice ants or maybe a friendly rat into your house. Next thing you know they're taking-over. What's needed is Terminix.
FT is the television newscast from Moscow, Russia. Some of you may have seen this newscast. It almost compares with the BBC, really good reporting. From Russia, they worry about the "USA billionaire Tea Party propaganda". When blog commentary doesn't follow the conversation or the article, but simply inserts a repeated unrelated, unsubstantiated message variation under anonymous name, there is reason to be concerned. Just me talking, guess I'll go take a Tylenol.
Anon707 may have a point Kathy. Why not choose not to respond and see what haps? If the blog is suddenly overrun with Tea Partiers, Fascists, or other horrors, you can always leap back into the fray.
Just might be good for your health to glide for a while.
Anon (818), not happening. Off to see "Rob!", channel 5, 8:30 pm.
"I see dead people" says Meeh.
Party on, Kathy!
Kathy, if I've told you once, I've told you three times - by responding, you let the extremist wackos know that somebody takes them seriously. It only encourages them.
Howz about giving our brilliant and beloved readers some credit for being able to filter out the nonsense.
Sage advice.
Steve, by responding to Kathy you only encourage her.
What's that about a Tea Party?
No. It is- Where is the Tea Party?
At Kathy Meeh's house.
Steve 1/12, 1006), Anonymous and others, here's the Tea Party." From other propaganda studies, repetition of a message about 10 times causes a reasonable assumption to set-in. And, BTW, the Nazi takeover 1933-1945 did not happen overnight.
Without some control of this kind of disinformation, from my view you are "carte blanche" condoning the radicalized nonsense, when 1) the mission for that nonsense is 2) to post nonsense comments (1/11, 419).
The assumption, that not responding will "make it go away" is erroneous. There is no follow-up to request for reasonable proof, there is no real responding to inquiry or dialog. There is only radicalized comment posting.
Even allowing this way off-topic inserted "crap", reasonable back-up data should be required. Such challenges are asked and required of others.
Can we get back on topic?
It is not right or left wing to admit we are spending too much on salaries and benefits.
People say "this is the going rate for city employees". Well not anymore. Cities and counties all over the state are making drastic cuts in union wages and benefits.
Others say "we have contracts and it's not easy to change them" This may have been true in the past but not in this economy. The city has the power. They can demand deep cuts. If the unions don't go along the city has the right to impose the cuts.
And still other Elitists say $100,000+ isn't an outrageous amount. Well most people in Pacifica don't make anywhere near that amount.
Kathy, you always give the same justification for your posts, but I don't think you're convincing anyone. You're certainly not convincing me.
Steve, as you know I always try to work with fact and known science, not wishful thinking or fiction.
Should someone YOU refer to as a "wing-nut" and "extremist wacko(s)" (1/12, 10:06pm) be exempt from providing reasonably correction information, or tracking the conversation thread? I observe that most bloggers actually follow the conversation thread, attempt to provide accurate information, and respond with better detail and links when pushed and if not provided prior.
Kathy, thanks for degenerating this discussion via Godwin's Law and also for pulling this "repeat 10 times" study out of your arse while accusing someone of not providing "better detail and links".
No one signed up for you to be their savior, and we're all capable of ignoring the wing nuts. Your activities directly and repeatedly cause the signal to noise ratio on this blog to approach zero.
^ Examples of why liberals can get nothing done ^
CA Running Massive Cash Deficit
"The California state government’s general fund is running a staggering cash deficit of $21 billion on an $88.5 billion budget. The number comes from Controller John Chaing just-released financial statement for December 2011. The bad news came in the face of strong national consumer spending and private-sector employment gains"
http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/01/12/ca-running-massive-cash-deficit/
Where can I sign up to join the Tea Party? This shit is getting scary.
Kathy, please listen to reason and stop the obsessive behavior because you run the risk of becoming what you find objectionable. No one needs your help to weed out extremist postings. Your obsessive
need to do battle with the nutjobs is all about you and nothing more. For your own sake, stop it.
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.
Abraham Lincoln
Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/doubt.html#ixzz1jORRV1xL
Forget the SNR, you suck the air right out of the room.
I don't agree with Kathy but it's interesting that some people want her to be silent.
A sure sign of insecurity.
Hutch
I only posted once, Kathy, under my own name.
Your nonstop, obsessive comments are embarrassing. It reflects on the whole blog.
Oops, I'd posted twice.
Steve (1009), on this thread, with comments under your own name you posted 7 times, whereas I have posted 11 times because comments have been directed at me. Anonymous posted 46 times (Hutch not included, and I tend to agree with his summary).
Anonymous posted comments 46 times, who knows how many comments each. Well there you are, either say nothing, don't stand-up, or hide under anonymous cover. That's what you're encouraging with your "embarrassment". Never mind, at the core of the issue is a defense of correct and fair information, and for that you can be sure I am "obsessive".
I meant that I only posted twice regarding your comments, Kathy.
Your information is not correct and fair. It's cherry-picked to support your opinion, just as those on the far-right cherry-pick links that support their opinion.
You're entitled to express your opinion, but no one is entitled to dominate the blog and make it about themself, which is what you're doing. That's why I wish you'd tone down the need to respond to every nut-case.
As always, Kathy's posts are virtually incomprehensible, but she apparently intends to make up for that in volume.
You and Hutch should take a break and travel to Wisonsin to attack public employees with Governor Scott Walker.
bring me some chedda!
Hear the sound of air being sucked out-of-the blog?
Guess serial harassment isn't such a virtue after all, Anon Troll (11:04am).
So hopefully the council is now "studying" further cuts to wages and benefits.
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