No State budget today . . .

Despite working late into the night, our elected State leaders remain deadlocked on bridging the $24 billion budget gap, the product of both years of polarized partisan zealotry and the international fiscal crisis.

In Ventura, the City Council adopted a balanced budget back in March, reducing spending by $11 million. We made the hard choices. We are not spending money we don’t have. Barring further deep declines in the economy, we will be able to live within our means for the next two years.

City leaders around the State remain mystified and angry at the continuing resort by State leaders to diverting local revenues to patch the State's budget deficit. San Luis Obispo citizens, for example, three years ago voted a sales tax increase and have responsibly managed their resources to protect their public safety, quality of life and standard of living. Their City Manager, Ken Hampian, yesterday wrote to the Governor:

Governor, as a City Manager, I know that there is great urgency when it comes to the State budget. Here in San Luis Obispo, our City Council recently closed a projected $11.3 million budget gap by doing the hard work of fiscal stewardship – looking people in the eye and making very tough cuts (cuts composed 80% of our gap closing actions), securing “zero year” employee concessions from every bargaining group, raising some revenues, and strategically using our rainy day fund.

While our Council is “non-partisan”, it is composed of Democrats and Republicans and yet these political differences did not stop them from doing what they had to do for the greater good of the community that they represent. When we look toward Sacramento, we see nothing that resembles responsibility stewardship and political compromise for “the greater good.” Instead, we see an endless death spiral of increasingly irresponsible, dogmatic behavior that is driving California (and its communities) off the cliff.

We are a national embarrassment. If we saw a shred of hope from our elected officials in Sacramento, we might suggest triggering Proposition 1A. However, borrowing or seizing local government revenues to close a budget gap that has been festering for years due to a completely dysfunctional system of governance is just bad fiscal policy. Based on the lack of political courage in Sacramento, we really have no reason to believe that the State would fulfill its commitment to pay back Proposition 1A funds plus interest, when it matures in three years. And, of course, we have no evidence that the State can afford to do so, even if it wanted to meet its debt obligations.

California needs an honest budget based on integrity not budget gimmicks, which will only threaten investor confidence. I am respectfully asking you to put an end to gimmicks including borrowing or seizing local revenues.

We live in an incredibly diverse State. So the scale of problems is daunting. But isn't it about time that we get leadership from both parties to do what city leaders from both parties are doing all across California? Now is the time to find a way to bridge the partisan gap and balance competing priorities. It's incredibly difficult work. But it's July 1 and the time for excuses, delays or gimmicks has long since passed.

Just the facts . . . a straight-forward primer on taxes

Councilmember Carl Morehouse never tires of trying to explain the facts of (fiscal) life. He's used poker chips and jars of penny, held up dollar bills and lectured and written extensively to simplify the complicated maze of munipal finance.

It's not that cities want to make things complicated. They were once much simpler. But thirty years of voters and politicians tinkering at the State and local levels to try to keep taxes low and services high have made California budgets very, very confusing. Only a few people really understand how government services are funded -- and they have long since given up on explaining it to the public. Except Councilmember Morehouse.

His latest effort is a remarkable primer available at CAPS-TV. Sitting at a simple table, Morehouse spends 24 minutes breaking down where your taxes go and how they are spent. He starts with the Federal and State taxes and then brings it all home to Ventura. He then succinctly reviews the sources and uses of tax funds -- and along the way deals with a number of controversial issues and widely cited misconceptions.

In a second, related video, Carl takes a dispassionate look at the contrasting perspectives that often shape public debate on the role of government.

Together, they are a great introduction to the realities of local government -- fiscal and philosophical. If more of our public officials at all levels took a step back from the debates of the day to look at the big picture, perhaps we'd have a better informed and more civil discourse!

Check out Carl's videos here. On the same page are some valuable interview shows produced by the Chamber of Commerce on local topics from a business perspective. Check them out as well.

Code enforcement: setting the record straight

On his Facebook account, Councilmember Neal Andrews has posted thoughtful background on Ventura's code enforcement effort, rebutting the scare talk about people losing their homes for failing to get permits to replace a water heater:

A few skillful political agitators are actively promoting the notion that the City is going to force little old grandmothers into homelessness by sending its jack-booted “Nazi code enforcers” out to harass innocent homeowners, who unwittingly and innocently bought or built illegal dwelling units within the City. They say these are really safe and affordable housing units that we need desperately to preserve. They say this is all about the greedy City searching for new sources of money. They say the building and safety codes haven’t been enforced for “a hundred years”, so why now in these troubling economic times, when affordable housing is in short supply, should we suddenly begin to enforce these laws. And, naturally, they always point to the darkest and worst possible reasons.

Here are the facts.

City code enforcement officers have an important public function to perform. They are enforcement officers. The City has a responsibility to enforce laws duly enacted, mostly by the State, to ensure that housing within the City is safe and meets basic construction standards. These are laws, for example, that ensure that your electrical wiring is properly installed, so you won’t be electrocuted or your house will not burn down because of a short-circuit in the system.

Code enforcement officers also have the obligation to enforce codes that protect you from health and sanitation hazards. These are laws, for example, that make certain your plumbing is installed correctly so that the germs in the sewer system cannot find their way back up the sewer pipes into your home and that your pipes bringing your drinking water to your tap don’t contain illegal lead that will retard the brain development of your children.

Code enforcement is obligated to enforce the laws that you and your elected representatives have enacted to preserve the quality of life in our community as well – laws that, for the sake of ensuring reasonable privacy, require a certain distance between your home and the new rental unit that your neighbor wants to build behind his house, or that prevent a garage from being converted to a spare room while a neighbor then parks his cars on the street where your visitors would have been able to park as intended, but now can’t find space, or laws that simply prohibit your neighbor from destroying the property values of your entire neighborhood because they think they should be able to “store” their junk cars or appliances in their front yard.

The scare talk began when the Council voted to shift resources to preventing slum conditions rather than simply responding to complaints, since so often renters are understandly reluctant to complain. In shifting to a "pro-active" enforcement effort, however, it became clear that many rentals, although illegal or substandard, do not pose a health and safety hazard. As a result, next month staff is bringing to the City Council a proposal for a one-year amnesty program to promote voluntary compliance. Everyone recognizes that there are real differences between conditions like a garage recently converted into a living unit for a family and a small guest house built decades ago without recorded permits. Here are some simple answers to questions that have been raised:

Q: When an individual has a home that was constructed many years ago, does the City require them to bring it up to current code when no other work is being done?

A: No. The State and City Building Standards are very clear about this. Only damage repair, voluntary alterations and additions must meet current code requirements.

Q: On an older home, if a property owner comes in for a permit for improvements, will the inspector use that opportunity to "hunt" for other violations such as an unpermitted water heater?

A: Staff reviews the property records to confirm that what is shown on a plan as "existing" has been permitted and approved. When discrepancies are identified, the owner can provide the following information to substantiate their position that the construction legally exists:

• County Assessor inspection records that show the use/structure was on the tax role before the property was annexed
• Executed Real Estate Documents
• Executed Lease Agreements
• MLS Listings
• Signed Affidavit from Prior Property Owner
  

If and owner has installed a water heater (or made other changes) without a permit, they will be required to obtain the permit required by the State of California. The State gives staff zero discretion in this matter. In fact, any inspector (or other City staff person) that knowingly allows work to proceed, or exist, without required permits is both personally and professionally liable.

Housing code enforcement, like traffic law enforcement, is inherently controversial. No one in their right mind would favor eliminating enforcement of such laws, but anyone who has ever gotten a traffic or building code citation has opinions about the "fairness" of enforcement. We continue to work hard to tackle enforcing State and local laws evenly, sensibly and cost-effectively. Not an easy task, but we can all agree, someone has to do it.

Volunteers pitch in giving 42,000 hours

Everyone knows we are in tough times. Now more than ever, we need to build partnerships to meet the needs of our community.

Every day, volunteers step in to help. On Wednesday, the City of Ventura honored the hundreds of local citizens who pitch in -- and last year contributed 42,000 hours of volunteer service to the community. Mayor Weir and Councilmembers Andrews, Morehouse and Summers all participated in paying tribute to Ventura's volunteer spirit.

Some wear uniforms, like our Volunteers in Policing (VIP) who provide a vital personal touch to everything from routine patrol along the beachfront promenade to assisting crime victims. Some keep a regular schedule, like Margie DeYoung, an 89 year old City Hall Ambassador who greets visitors at the front door all day every Tuesday with a smile and help at finding what they need. Some provide specialized services, like Bruce James, a professional photographer who assists the Fire Department with all the new digital tools that can help them do their jobs. Many, many just pitch in wherever and whenever they are needed, from cleaning beaches to organizing Neighborhood Watch.

Their contribution enhances our community at a time when the City Council has balanced our budget by making $11 million in cuts. Their service enriches our community by making a heartfelt commitment to what they do. Their volunteer spirit ennobles our community by demonstrating the unselfish love people have for Ventura.

Of course there are thousands more volunteers who give their time to civic, youth, cultural, environmental, religious and other organizations and causes in our city. All make a contribution to our quality of life and sense of place.

In fact, Ventura is a special place, in great part due to those efforts. Nationally, an authoritative study puts volunteer participation at 29% of adults. Our annual local citizen survey put it at 50% in Ventura.

There are lots of opportunities to not only serve the community, but to gain new skills and personal satisfaction as well. If you'd like to find out more about volunteer opportunities click here.

A quiet hero

We live in a time of rising frustration and anger. People are looking for someone to blame for the grim headlines of jobs lost, homes foreclosed, public budgets cut and taxes being raised.

Too often we overlook the other side of the story. The people who quietly go about their jobs, who go the extra mile to keep costs down and deliver quality results to improve the safety and quality of life of others.

John Schoof was that kind of man. The Wastewater Manager for the City of Santa Barbara lived here in Ventura with his wife Mary Walsh Schoof, Ventura's Deputy City Manager and their son Will, a sophomore at Villanova High.

John died at 48 after a courageous battle with heart disease. On Monday, 400 family, friends and colleagues paid tribute to his short and well-lived life.

John spent 20 years serving the City of Santa Barbara. At work, he was entrusted with sheparding the big projects with a quiet skill and patient assurance that there was no obstacle that couldn’t be overcome. John was project Manager the construction or refurbishment of Santa Barbara’s Granada Garage, Los Banos Pool, Railroad Depot, McKinley Park, and the Waterfront Offices. During his twenty years with the City of Santa Barbara, he supervised Wastewater; Streets; Land development; Real Property; Contract and construction Engineering and Inspection; Waterfront and Airport Engineering; GIS; Capital Improvement Programming; and Environmental Programs.

Recognized with six “Project of the Year” awards from the American Public Works Assn. and the American Society of Civil Engineers, he was honored as Maintenance Superintendent of the Year for Southern California. He was exacting in giving his best to others and kind in inspiring the best in others. His intuition and ability to read people earned him distinction as a beloved Little League Coach and a stand-out leader in his profession.

Both the Ventura and Santa Barbara City Councils adjourned their meetings this week in memory of John Schoof. Here is what Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum had to say about his public service there:

“I want to close tonight’s meeting in memory of John Schoof, who was our engineer in the Public Works Department, who we lost this last week. He was an asset to any public works project. I have never seen a person who was so even tempered—I’d like to think that I am pretty even tempered, but he was truly amazing. He was a real problem-solver and a very, very kind person."

Ray LaHood: A Second Look

When the Cabinet line-up was announced, I wondered why a relatively obscure downstate Illinois Republican Congressman with shallow background in transportation ended up being tapped as Secretary of Transportation. But in a relatively short amount of time (let's remember the Obama administration is barely five months old), Ray LaHood is proving to be an outspoken and highly visible advocate for transportation reform.

National transportation policy used to revolve around highway spending and aviation policy. But there is a new sheriff in town:

"What we’ve talked about is getting to a concept that we call livable communities, where people don’t have to get in a car every day. You can use light rail, you can use buses, you can use walking paths, you can use your bike."

The quote comes from an irreverent interview in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday. He stresses repair of America's crumbling transportation infrastructure -- and making new investments, including high speed rail.

He also stresses his role in the larger Obama team. One of the most promising hallmarks of the new administration is the vocal commitment to better coordination between the disparate Federal departments and agencies.

To paraphrase Obama's most memorable lines from his 2004 convention keynote address: rebuilding the economy is not confined to the Treasury Department, confronting climate change is not confined to the EPA and reducing dependence on foreign oil is not confined to the Department of Energy -- they are all challenges for the United States of America. Every one of them involves a key role for the Department of Transportation. And it appears we have a Secretary who understands this.

How bad is it in retail?

Nationwide, there is a 16.2 percent in vacancy rate, up 43% from just a year ago. Construction of new retail has fallen by half and rents are down 5 percent from last year. Although the wave of bankruptcies that were feared after retail's dismal Christmas season hasn't occurred, there is talk of "zombie" chains kept alive by the cash flow from money-losing sales. Our team at the giant International Council of Shopping Centers trade show in Las Vegas had no trouble making appointments -- attendance was cut in half by the recession.

It's not just that consumer spending is down because of rising joblessness. Consumers are saddled with debt that they must work to retire now that home equity has disappeared as a source of financing debt. And more and more shoppers are hitting the web, looking for bargains. This may mean a long-term shrinkage in "brick and mortar" sales -- and the stores that provide them.

America's long shopping binge fueled a remarkable boom in store construction. According to the New York Times, "In 1986, the United States had about 15 square feet of retail space per person in shopping centers. That was already a world-leading figure, but by 2003 it had increased by a third, to 20 square feet. The next countries on the list are Canada (13 square feet per person) and Australia (6.5 square feet); the highest figure in Europe is in Sweden, with 3 square feet per person."

A couple of years ago, the Riverpark Shopping Center looked like a formidable new entrant in the crowded Ventura County marketplace. The developers had signed up one of the hottest retailers in Whole Foods, plus a new multiplex and REI, the outdoor sporting goods chain. But there has been no major tenants signings announced since -- and construction has noticeably slowed on the shopping center.

On this side of the river, the Pacific View Mall is weathering the storm with tenant resignings, but has not been able to close the deal with tenants to redo the vacant buildings at the north end of the mall behind the new Target. Retailers across the nation are insisting on bargain leases -- leaving shopping center owners with the harsh choice of accepting unfavorable terms or leaving stores vacant.

Of course, this has a big impact on local governments. Citizens in many communities have happily supported retail expansions -- and even tolerated big subsidies to developers and retailers to provide sales tax revenue to support local services. But now, as auto malls and shopping centers struggle, the reliance on the revenue they provide is proving to be unsustainable.

Many hope the downturn's slowing portends a turn-around by the end of the year. But robust consumer sales and new retail developments are years away. The largest mall owner in the nation is in bankruptcy and Wall Street financing has virtually disappeared.

That poses a number of challenges locally, not only in funding vital public safety and community services, but also in providing local jobs and economic activity. It will leave vacant stores and empty streets in many parts of local towns. It will discourage the kind of mixed-use projects that seemed so promising in bringing back vitality to neglected areas. And it will pose tough choices to local City Councils as they struggle to maintain the stores they have -- and are pressed to subsidize any new ones they want to attract.