Participants criticize process for not providing enough
options
Morgan Hill – Residents who have attended the city’s community conversation meetings have a lot of advice for the city council: Taxes should be raised, but not raised. The police force should be augmented and made to do more with less. Administrative staff should be cut and kept at current levels. Prices at the Aquatics Center should be higher and lower. The city should reach out to retail establishments, but not big box stores. Well, some big box stores are OK, but not too many, not like Gilroy.
Indeed, three weeks into the ambitious program only one thing is clear – nothing is clear.
“The conversations are meeting our expectations for engaging people in difficult trade-offs,” said Melissa Dile, assistant to the city manager. “We don’t yet see substantial common ground on where the city should go and how it should get there.”
The Community Conversation program, which city leaders call the first of its kind, is an effort to canvas the community for solutions to the city’s budget deficit, which is close to $1.5 million this year and could be as much as $2.4 million by 2010. The city will likely spend more than $100,000 on the process, including staff time. With $75,000 already spent on a consultant, it’s not yet clear whether the city has bought guidance or confusion.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Councilman Steve Tate said of the council’s task to turn the conversation results into coherent policy. “Everyone’s opinion will be factored in. The basic thing is do we have a chance of passing any kind of measure.”
The council is considering placing one or more tax measures on the November ballot, and the conversations are supposed to shed light on how much residents are willing to pay and which services they’re willing to live without.
At the meetings, residents are asked to choose among three options: no new taxes, with reduced services; a slight tax increase to maintain the status quo; and a larger increase, as much as $425 per family per year, to supplement police, fire and recreation services.
Through eight meetings – the ninth session took place last night – there’s been little in the way of consensus, except most people don’t want to pay more in taxes. Convinced that growth is inevitable, the majority of residents want newcomers to pick up the tab through increased residential development fees. They also want the city to draw more retail outlets to increase the city’s tax base, though many fear that encouraging too much retail growth will turn Morgan Hill into Gilroy.
“I think a lot of people move here because of the small town feel,” said Anita Woodson, who attended a meeting recently, “but I also know building and retail brings in money that supports your infrastructure. I have no problem with bringing in retail as long as its placed appropriately. I don’t want the huge massive development [in Gilroy]. To me that looks almost destructive.”
Other fundraising ideas have been less popular. There has been scant support for a new sales tax, parcel tax, or utility taxes and special assessment districts. According to statistics provided by the city, 49 percent of attendees supported a small tax increase to maintain current services.
“I’m not surprised that the largest percentage is for staying with what we’ve got,” Dile said. “It’s not easy to make big changes.”
But residents have also said they feel the city isn’t giving them enough options and that the choices presented in the community conversation are too black and white. Participants have said they feel manipulated. One common complaint has been that the threat of cuts to the police and fire departments is a scare tactic to encourage support for new taxes.
“The questionnaires and the way the answers were given, it was geared toward what they want us to do and not what we really need to do,” said resident Adelita King, who is also a member of the Morgan Hill Law Enforcement Foundation. “I think it’s good the way they’re reaching out to people, but they weren’t open to different answers and people seeing things in different ways.”
The budget information the city presents in the meetings has been another focus of criticism. Many participants who attended meetings or spoke to the Times believe the city is selectively releasing information.
“Overall, I thought the process was OK, but I was disappointed because there wasn’t enough specific information to build on,” Woodson said. “I think the agenda was very limited, there weren’t very many options and there wasn’t any creativity.”
Dile said it would be impractical to parse the budget at the meetings, which already last about two and a half hours.
“We’re not talking about every single city department because not every department has a deficit,” she said. “If we started from scratch, it would take a very long time.”
And while residents have not been shy sharing their opinions, it’s not clear what good that information will do the city council, who must ultimately decide how to balance the city budget. Only about 130 residents have participated in the process, and for the most part, the groups have not been diverse. City staff had hoped to attract 1,000 people (see sidebar).
“We know it’s not a scientific group,” Dile said. “As we come to the end, we’ll be careful to distinguish that this is not a scientifically valid poll.”
