College: Control spending, improve public safety Former Morgan
Hill city manager Art College is running for mayor because he wants
to
”
make a difference,
”
chiefly in the areas of public safety and management of the
city’s finances.
College: Control spending, improve public safety
Former Morgan Hill director of finance and assistant city manager Art College is running for mayor because he wants to “make a difference,” chiefly in the areas of public safety and management of the city’s finances.
“I think I have the best skills, background and knowledge to make some basic changes in the way the community is being run,” College, 66, said in a recent interview.
He said despite the recent recession and cuts to this year’s city budget – including the layoffs of 10 employees – the current city council is still “spending money like drunken sailors.”
“We need to come back to
reality and live within our means,” College said.
But his first priority, he said, is public safety which is lacking in resources compared to what the local department used to have. In recent years, he noted, the city has lost several officers and other resources including a police dog. If he were elected mayor, he would work to find the resources to fund police to an “adequate level.”
“We still have crime, gangs, and meth labs in Morgan Hill,” College said. “We need to clean up this community and let the bad guys know they are not welcome.”
College has a number of complaints about the city’s recent spending habits, and noted the Redevelopment Agency started off nobly – but has become a “slush fund” used by the city council and RDA to fund projects unrelated to its original purpose of eliminating blight in the city limits.
The city currently projects spending out of its general fund reserve for the next several years to balance the budget, and College said that’s not sustainable. He said the city has followed the same path that the federal government, state and other cities and counties have taken in recent years, and those jurisdictions are in “dire straits.”
“We need to change direction, and change direction now,” College said.
On the issue of personnel costs – one of the city’s biggest expenses every year – College said there will be some “hard decisions” to make in coming years, especially when the reduction of some of those costs might require renegotiating with the three unions that represent most city employees. He said the solution should strike a balance between savings to the taxpayers and doing what’s right for the employees.
Other employee-related costs include retirement benefits. When the city adopted its current retirement contribution formulas, the national life expectancy rate was lower, he said. Now people are living longer, and College said he would adjust its retirement budget accordingly – perhaps with a two-tier system that contributes a lower amount to new hires.
Possible budget cuts that College would consider are the elimination of vacant positions, a hiring freeze, and reallocating some jobs or other assignments to other city positions – “so we’re doing more with less.” Some expenses should be “reprioritized,” he said.
“Right now we’re trying to do too much in light of the fact that people are losing homes, jobs and retirement,” College said.
He also thinks the city spends too much RDA funding on contractors, consultants and attorneys from outside the city. Local money should be used on local vendors, he said.
Another priority on College’s platform is flood control in downtown Morgan Hill – a chronic problem that will require more than $120 million in local, state and federal funds to solve. He said the current council has not pushed hard enough for funding from the federal government to complete the project.
He added that the flood problem costs residents and businesses too much in insurance premiums and resolving it would “be beneficial to significant numbers of people.”
As for why he is running for mayor instead of one of the council seats up for grabs, College said it’s because the mayor can have a more direct impact on the “relationship between the citizens and city hall” – which he said should be more open. For example, the mayor determines who among the public gets to speak at council meetings, and sets the agenda for those meetings which he said include too many items that are passed on the “consent calendar” without discussion.
Tate claims leadership experience as key to race
Mayor Steve Tate wants to continue serving as mayor because he thinks the city is on the right path and he wants to keep it going that way.
Tate’s current term, his first as mayor, will expire at the end of this year. Before 2006, he served as a city council member for two terms, and Tate touts a total of 19 years in service to the city including on the city’s planning commission and general plan update committee.
“My leadership has been very important to what has happened” in the city while he has been involved, said Tate, 66. “I think I’ve done a good job and I’d like to keep doing it.”
The city has enhanced its relationship with the school district, and generally “improved the quality of life” for residents with the completion of recreation facilities and other infrastructure improvements since he has been mayor, he said.
Tate said a key aspect of city business he wants to continue is the completion of downtown redevelopment, which will bring new construction projects with new residents and businesses to Monterey Road in the next four years.
While he acknowledged that the recent recession “set us back a little” on these Redevelopment Agency-funded projects, he noted it is important they continue because the agency is “economically developing” Morgan Hill.
Tate also wants to stay on the dais to see through the completion of the Tennant Avenue interchange and the upcoming extension of Butterfield Boulevard – also RDA-funded projects.
His influence has also been key in pursuing regional approaches with other communities for fire services, police services such as the SWAT unit, and outreach on a possible paper and plastic grocery bag ban, Tate said.
The mayor’s leadership will be key, Tate added, when two new council members (whoever wins the election for those seats in November) join the dais, helping them get up to speed on the issues and “at the same time incorporating their ideas.”
Continuing to work with local businesses and reach out to them, including with a program for council members to take tours of local industrial facilities that just started, will also be looked forward to by Tate if he is re-elected.
While the current financial crisis will continue to be a challenge for the mayor and council for the next four years, Tate is pleased that the city has a “sustainable budget strategy” in place that will balance the city’s budget in five years, weaning itself from the need for reserve funds.
The key differentiation between the mayor and other council members – all five of whom have an equal vote – is “the gavel,” Tate said. Plus, he said the city’s mayor does “ceremonial duties.”
“You are the face of the community,” he said. “You have to earn the leadership role, and I think I’ve done that.”
Tate also cited his endorsements from local politicians Dennis Kennedy, Assemblyman Bill Monning, Congressman Jerry McNerney, and council members Greg Sellers and Larry Carr, as well as a number of special interest groups such as the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club and the South County Democratic Club.
Lee: Council should listen to the people
Win or lose Nov. 2, Morgan Hill councilwoman Marby Lee will lose her current seat to her bid for the city’s mayor seat.
It’s an indication of how important it is to her to make some of the changes she and residents she has spoken to in the last four years hope to make.
Summarized by her campaign platform “transparency, efficiency, fiscal responsibility,” those changes include fostering more public participation, reducing wasteful spending and making better use of RDA funds.
Lee, 44, is often the lone voice of dissent on the dais. Moving out of her council seat to make way for two potentially like-minded candidates could give the city the elected majority to carry out the changes she envisions.
When talking to constituents, not only during the campaign but in the last four years, Lee said one of the chief concerns is they don’t feel like the council respects their points of view.
“People are telling me they don’t feel like they’re being listened to,” Lee said. “They feel the outcome (of council decisions) is predetermined.”
Lee would consider hosting informal coffee-shop conversations with residents if elected as mayor, she said.
She added the Mayor Steve Tate, with nearly 20 years serving the city, has become “ingrained into the system.” She said her experience owning and operating her own business – producing and selling handmade jewelry – gives her a more “independent” perspective that won’t automatically accept staff recommendations.
Being mayor will be more time-consuming than her council seat has been, Lee acknowledged, and she is willing to put her business on hold for four years. If elected, Lee said she will remember “we are working for the residents.”
On more policy-related issues, Lee said one way she would reduce waste is by implementing paperless meeting agendas – which would reduce the need for staff time and cut down on environmental waste.
To be more transparent, Lee as mayor – the council member who drafts the agendas – would release those agendas to the public at least one week prior to meetings in order to give council members and the public more time to absorb them.
She called the difficult issue of city labor costs a “conundrum” because when compared to the private sector, those costs have been sustained at a higher rate for a lengthier period of time. But also compared to the private sector, city employees are generally receive more compensation. And she supports a two-tier retirement system.
Lee thinks a more “fiscally responsible” use of RDA funds would be to help local businesses.
“RDA money should not be used to build monument signs (for example),” she said. “Some businesses are having trouble. Why not use more money for loans to businesses? Why not encourage economic development that way?”
