City Manager’s Report - April 26

Bill Prokop

29 Apr City Manager’s Report - April 26

Posted at 15:31h in Announcements, City News by BillyK

The following is a summary of City Manager Bill Prokop’s Report to City Council last week: Note new information on Boundary Street Redevelopment and 2016-17 Budget Process

CM Comments                                 4/26/2016

 

  1. Budget work session schedule -we welcome the public’s comments and questions at these sessions. Last year we had some people think the budget discussion was going to take place only at the Public Hearing. That is not the case.

May 10th at 5:00 -Police, Fire, Courts, and Planning Departments

May 17th at 5:00 -Public Works and Administrative Departments

May 24th at 5:00 – City Manager overall Budget

June 14th, Public Hearing at Council Meeting 7:00 P.M.

First reading of Budget Ordinance

June 28th, Second reading at Council Meeting 7:00 P.M.

I also want to comment on the fact that we are proposing the need to add a fee to our tax bills this year. None of us want to add cost to the taxpayers, but we do not see any choice without cutting the services that we provide. Our police and fire services have to be expanded to cover the growth of new businesses coming into the City and we are being forced to repair roads, sidewalks, drainage issues, and other problems that are on roads not owned by the City. In addition, the state has again decided not to fully fund the Local Government Fund which it agreed to do several years ago and this year alone that has a value of approximately $125,000 to the City. Our revenue stream is not yet covering our cost for the above reasons.

  1. The Framers Market that was at Pigeon Pt. has requested a change in their location and is planning on moving to the area near Santa Elena museum. This is being supported by Santa Elena and the opening is scheduled for May 3rd.
  2. Boundary Street -The public seems to be misinformed on a few things regarding Boundary Street and issues that arise from the project:

First: The impression is that the City is having a heavy hand with traffic enforcement because it makes money for the City. I would like to show you these charts that explain how traffic fines are divided:

You see the state takes 60% of the fees and this is true on all traffic violations, the City does not keep all the money. Our PD and Court have agreed to keep the fines in most cases at the minimum level of $185.63 vs. the legal limit of $445.00

Second: We are dealing with Federal and State money on this project and we have to follow the laws. Since January 1st 2016 we have issued 123 Speeding in the Work Zone tickets, 101 warning tickets were issued, and we have had 81 traffic collisions. We had our speed trailer on 170 just before Boundary Street for 2 weeks in April and during that time -in one direction we had 265,802 vehicles pass it and 51

% were traveling in excess of 40 mph. It is interesting to note that that is almost 19,000 vehicles in one direction per day. That projects out to over 2,100,000 vehicles have come through here since the 1st of January, in 1 direction, and we gave out a total of 616 tickets for all traffic violations and that equals .0003% not a heavy handed number. In the month of March there were 22 work zone speeding tickets processed in the court. One was issue the full rate of $445.00 and the remaining 21 were fined $185.63. Therefore, the total revenue to the City for the month on those tickets was $1775.00 and for the state was $2568.23! This clearly shows that our program is about SAFETY and not about revenue.

Third: The public for some reason still thinks the project is a City project and is paid by our resident taxpayers. This project is funded through a Federal Tiger Grant, funds from the last county 1 cent sales tax, county impact fee, and the funds from the City TIF fund, and it was approved after years of discussion and planning. The burden is not on the City taxpayer.

Fourth: It will be a 4 lane highway with a median and there will be no traffic circles that continue to have some people concerned.

Fifth: The project is 20% completed and at this point we are expecting it to be done on time and within budget and the project will be an improvement to the county road system and to the entrance to our fine City.

  1. Pigeon Point tree trimming by SCG&E will begin in the middle of May and this is the 5-year cycle of trimming that is done. The neighborhood association has been advised and the City and SCG&E arborists will be overseeing the trimming.
  2. Economic Development and Customer service remain our Key goals and we will be giving you updates on progress during our budget process.
  3. We wish our Mayor well on his vacation and thank each of you for the time you have spent with all our Department Heads to review and get a better understanding of their budget needs. Thank You.
  4. Questions and comments?