September 30, 2007 Letter to the Editor (Sent but Never printed)
The Riverside Press Enterprise made some comments Saturday, September 29 2007 that I want to address. Does Redlands really need to focus on short term solutions rather than a well thought out year by year intermediate and long term strategy? Is the issue in Redlands standing up to the unions as the newspaper says? If we work on short term budget deficits, does that invalidate simultaneously working on the underlying, long term solutions for cash flow?
The Riverside Press Enterprise says that I have “ignored the short term financial squeeze”. I disagree. I can assure the voters of Redlands that if elected I will use my experience as an owner of four small businesses and experience in small business finance, having reviewed thousands of financial statements over the last 25 years, to work with the City Council to guide and direct the City Manager in areas where we are not using our resources to our best advantage, but the underlying tone of the campaign so far has been to try to unlock some as yet undiscovered bag of money through efficiency analysis that will solve most of our problems through a detailed analysis of every paper clip and pencil in each department of the city. This may save a few hundred thousand dollars and we should always expect efficient financial management, but it will not create the millions of dollars needed to provide infrastructure, capital improvements, and maintenance for our existing resources. Do we really know how much money we need to balance the budget in future years? Do we have an economic model that shows whether, at build out, the City has a revenue surplus or shortfall?
We are facing a statewide crisis, since Proposition 13 was passed, of cities consistently not having enough money to pay for the quality of services that they need to serve their residents. We are facing a year by year strategic planning challenge to find ways to add to our revenue base and control our expenditures. What is the appropriate mix of residential, retail, office, and industrial uses for our community to maximize this revenue?
The entire United States is challenged by the inability of retirement packages and pension programs to have the funding necessary to assure their continued existence at their current levels. The unions know this, the citizens know this, and certainly the City, County, State, and Federal Governments knows this. We don’t need to divide ourselves on these issues. We have to work together to solve these problems for any solution to be effective and long term.
What have I suggested?
1. Effectively and aggressively compete for sales tax dollars and increased property
values through an aggressive an strategic economic development program.
2. Revitalize and maximize the revenue potential of our downtown core and each
business district.
3. Look at creating our own reliable source of revenue for major expenditures through
Community Facilities Districts or Benefit Assessment Districts.
4. I agree with the other candidates who have proposed using a method similar to zero based budgeting and I agree with looking at a two year budget. I also propose a five year infrastructure and public improvements plan.
5. Begin the process of negotiating with the County and the landowners to annex the donut hole to recapture all of the sales tax, business license fees, development impact fees, and property tax increment.
6. Coordinate with the Inland Valley Development Authority to improve infrastructure around the San Bernardino Airport (including Redlands) based in part on monies coming from the “Donut Hole”. We are not a member of the authority nor at the table to share in the benefits.
7. Join the Enterprise Zone which was created for San Bernardino and Loma Linda to bring in job creating and sales tax creating industry .
8. Continue to work with surrounding law enforcement and parole agencies to get crime reduced in the East Valley. Crime prevention is not a local, but regional problem.
Being a part of regional organizations allows us to use the resources of multiple agencies to help solve regional and local problems. Redlands is a “jewel” or maybe even an “oasis” but it certainly is not an “island”. Only by working together with the surrounding communities can we keep that jewel polished and beautiful.
I believe that as a community, we have made some major strategic errors that will effect our revenue sources over the short and long term. Redevelopment monies and projects were underutilized for years because that department was effectively shut down. We didn’t create the revitalization project into the north area of the city before the boom in property taxes so we will receive less money to help revitalize that area of our city. Our inability to work with the developers of the “donut hole” has cost the city millions of dollars in lost revenue from property tax increment, development fees, sales taxes, and business license fees.
We have seen prime real estate along the 210 freeway being developed as distribution centers which employ the smallest number of employees per square foot and generate almost no sales tax revenue to the city, and in addition we have only been charging these facilities $24 per year in business license fees.
We have watched the downtown mall slowly decline and greatly diminish our local businesses ability in the core to thrive and prosper due to lack of pedestrian traffic and marketing dollars
We have seen the lack of money allocated to the maintenance and repair of our streets, sidewalks, and our landscaping slowly deteriorate these valued and essential resources. We need millions of dollars to repair our streets, sidewalks, and landscaping, not a few hundred thousand dollars.
We have allowed the development of retail uses and the kind of tenants coming into our community to be almost entirely controlled by what we get rather than what we want or need. Where is our economic development director or economic development program?
Why is the Krikorian Project stalled? Why is the General Growth Project moving so slowly? If we want higher end retail businesses who is going out to get them? Why is there no hotel in the downtown core? When will we build the storm drain for downtown? Why have we talked about parking solutions for downtown for years and not accomplished any meaningful changes? We need a new police station. Where will the funds come from? What are the capital improvement needs of the fire department? How are we going to fund additional youth sports facilities, a community pool? Where do we get the money to build the Emerald Necklace, the Orange Blossom Trail, and the Santa Ana River Trail and acquire the open space that is essential to balance the urbanization of our city?
How do we convert plans and studies into actual projects?
We have short, intermediate and long term issues that need a City Council that will take strong, decisive action . I know we have begun to work on some, if not many of these issues, but I want to my considerable business and planning experience to help move us toward their completion. We cannot focus on just one of these issues at a time and we cannot just focus on short term cost cutting. We need to address all of these issues, short and long term, with the City Council and city employees working together with the community commissions and task forces.
I’m running for City Council because my wife and I love Redlands. We have chosen to live here because of the quality of life we have found and that we are trying to preserve for ourselves, our children, and our parents and future generations. I have learned a great deal spending the last thirty five years in economic development, real estate, planning, and finance while working in Redlands, Rancho Cucamonga and a number of other cities in the Inland Empire.
The problems we face in Redlands are not primarily short term, many of them are not local but regional, and the unions are made up of real, dedicated employees, many of whom are citizens of our city. They are not the enemy but can be our partner in creating solutions that will work for all of us.
Jeff Sceranka
Redlands City Council Candidate