We asked for it
Last month, Mayor Carl Morehouse headlined a "State of the City" lunch sponsored by the Ventura Chamber of Commerce. He outlined the City's budget realities and asked for input (see "What Price Art" posting below.)
In addition to suggesting their own budget priorities, attendees were encouraged to make their own comments. Boy, did we get an earful! While many were supportive of Ventura's direction, there were also plenty of complaints:
"Get a grip on over-blown public employee benefits which out pace those in private sector. Treat the city like a business, not as a bottomless pit."
"Contract our City Fire and Police services to County."
"Our city officials keep telling us how difficult it is to budget, given our limited resources, yet the city stifles growth, wants to close down Victoria to prevent Wal-Mart, stands in the way of development and does not utilize our natural resources to increase revenue."
"We need to get rid of the bureaucracy preventing good projects from being developed, like Anastazi Dev’s project on Harbor/Seaward."
"There seems to be overabundance of bike lanes and bike lanes not used."
Of course, we asked for these comments and Chambers of Commerce are seldom overjoyed with their local city governments. By nature, businesspeople tend to be more hostile to regulation and more supportive of new development than voters. But many in the audience were also residents and I think we'd get a lot of similar feedback no matter what the audience.
So let me share some thoughts on each of these comments, recognizing as Mark Twain observed: "It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races."
Employee benefits: Yes, public sector pensions and benefits are generally more generous than the private sector, in some cases much more generous. There is no question that the private sector has trimmed pension and benefit costs and I understand the expectation that we will follow suit. Yet we are in a competitive labor market. Our most generous pension plan, for example, is for police officers. Given the stresses of that line of work, Ventura still has a hard time attracting top quality recruits (over the past five years, we've lost 30 officers who've transferred to other departments, often for higher compensation.) Our Police Department could, of course, settle for less. But we've found that if you do, there are offsetting costs: higher worker's comp claims, higher exposure to lawsuits and lesser performance.
Which brings us to the suggestion that we contract with the County for Fire and Police. We actively explored doing that for Fire, although I'm not sure how popular that would be with the community. We found it would cost a minimum of 25% more a year -- at least $4 million more. Why? County Fire spends much more per capita than we do. They deploy four firefighters for every three we do. Their crews average half the amount of calls. They invest much more heavily in new stations and equipment. So rather than a bargain, going to the County means paying premium prices.
And what about Walmart? Next to religion, few topics in America are more likely to evoke emotion instead of reasoned discussion. Ventura, by the way, has not turned away Walmart. It is absolutely true that we are asking Walmart to divert from its standard one-story box with a sea of parking in front. Our 2005 General Plan forbids that kind of development from continuing to add traffic to Victoria Avenue. But Walmart has signed a lease to take over the existing K-Mart store and can move in whenever they submit an application to change the signage. Of course, we are encouraging them to build a new store -- like the ones they've built in seven other California communities -- that fits better into its surroundings.
And what about the famous Ventura planning bureaucracy? Yes, it takes quite a while to building housing projects in town. And that's frustrating -- unless, of course, you happen to be one of the numerous vocal neighbors who object to a particular development. Then you have the opposite view -- that developers control City Hall and development is running rampant. If we all agreed on what is historic, if we all agreed on what heights were reasonable, if we all agreed on whether affordable housing belongs in my neighborhood or should be built instead in yours -- then things would go smoother and quicker. We are working hard to establish plans that clear up our rules and processes. You can be part of helping reach consensus. Check out our Smart Growth page on the City's website:
http://www.cityofventura.net/cd
Finally, what about those bike lanes? Are they just a silly waste of space? Or are they routes to a healthier way of living that makes getting around on bikes safer and more convenient? Too soon to tell. But the rising costs of gas and increasing rates of obesity suggest that our almost total reliance on cars has its problems also. I think the jury is still out, but they are a relatively inexpensive experiment.
I doubt whether the anonymous folks making their comments will see mine -- or would be convinced. But I hope everyone understands that it is easy to sit back and complain than to roll up your sleeves and work to improve things. Democracy is not perfect. But if we reflect on what a great city we live in and how many things we can be proud of in our town, maybe we wouldn't be so quick to seize on the shortcomings.
In addition to suggesting their own budget priorities, attendees were encouraged to make their own comments. Boy, did we get an earful! While many were supportive of Ventura's direction, there were also plenty of complaints:
"Get a grip on over-blown public employee benefits which out pace those in private sector. Treat the city like a business, not as a bottomless pit."
"Contract our City Fire and Police services to County."
"Our city officials keep telling us how difficult it is to budget, given our limited resources, yet the city stifles growth, wants to close down Victoria to prevent Wal-Mart, stands in the way of development and does not utilize our natural resources to increase revenue."
"We need to get rid of the bureaucracy preventing good projects from being developed, like Anastazi Dev’s project on Harbor/Seaward."
"There seems to be overabundance of bike lanes and bike lanes not used."
Of course, we asked for these comments and Chambers of Commerce are seldom overjoyed with their local city governments. By nature, businesspeople tend to be more hostile to regulation and more supportive of new development than voters. But many in the audience were also residents and I think we'd get a lot of similar feedback no matter what the audience.
So let me share some thoughts on each of these comments, recognizing as Mark Twain observed: "It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races."
Employee benefits: Yes, public sector pensions and benefits are generally more generous than the private sector, in some cases much more generous. There is no question that the private sector has trimmed pension and benefit costs and I understand the expectation that we will follow suit. Yet we are in a competitive labor market. Our most generous pension plan, for example, is for police officers. Given the stresses of that line of work, Ventura still has a hard time attracting top quality recruits (over the past five years, we've lost 30 officers who've transferred to other departments, often for higher compensation.) Our Police Department could, of course, settle for less. But we've found that if you do, there are offsetting costs: higher worker's comp claims, higher exposure to lawsuits and lesser performance.
Which brings us to the suggestion that we contract with the County for Fire and Police. We actively explored doing that for Fire, although I'm not sure how popular that would be with the community. We found it would cost a minimum of 25% more a year -- at least $4 million more. Why? County Fire spends much more per capita than we do. They deploy four firefighters for every three we do. Their crews average half the amount of calls. They invest much more heavily in new stations and equipment. So rather than a bargain, going to the County means paying premium prices.
And what about Walmart? Next to religion, few topics in America are more likely to evoke emotion instead of reasoned discussion. Ventura, by the way, has not turned away Walmart. It is absolutely true that we are asking Walmart to divert from its standard one-story box with a sea of parking in front. Our 2005 General Plan forbids that kind of development from continuing to add traffic to Victoria Avenue. But Walmart has signed a lease to take over the existing K-Mart store and can move in whenever they submit an application to change the signage. Of course, we are encouraging them to build a new store -- like the ones they've built in seven other California communities -- that fits better into its surroundings.
And what about the famous Ventura planning bureaucracy? Yes, it takes quite a while to building housing projects in town. And that's frustrating -- unless, of course, you happen to be one of the numerous vocal neighbors who object to a particular development. Then you have the opposite view -- that developers control City Hall and development is running rampant. If we all agreed on what is historic, if we all agreed on what heights were reasonable, if we all agreed on whether affordable housing belongs in my neighborhood or should be built instead in yours -- then things would go smoother and quicker. We are working hard to establish plans that clear up our rules and processes. You can be part of helping reach consensus. Check out our Smart Growth page on the City's website:
http://www.cityofventura.net/cd
Finally, what about those bike lanes? Are they just a silly waste of space? Or are they routes to a healthier way of living that makes getting around on bikes safer and more convenient? Too soon to tell. But the rising costs of gas and increasing rates of obesity suggest that our almost total reliance on cars has its problems also. I think the jury is still out, but they are a relatively inexpensive experiment.
I doubt whether the anonymous folks making their comments will see mine -- or would be convinced. But I hope everyone understands that it is easy to sit back and complain than to roll up your sleeves and work to improve things. Democracy is not perfect. But if we reflect on what a great city we live in and how many things we can be proud of in our town, maybe we wouldn't be so quick to seize on the shortcomings.
posted by Rick Cole at
5:10 PM
5 Comments:
Some motorists seem to think that bike lanes are superfluous -- until, of course, they get stuck behind me on sections of Victoria or Main where there are no bike lanes.
As a cyclist, I use a tiny fraction of our shared resources, whether of environment or infrastructure.
Isn't it worth a bit of paint and a few feet of pavement to keep me safe and out of your way, and to have one less car adding to traffic congestion, pollution, and wear on our roads?
Walk, wheel, pedal or motor. We all need to get where we're going. Share the road!
Contract with the County? Never!!
You suggest the County wants things its way when supplying fire services - ie the no. of guys per crew, the over-priced new fire houses, etc. - to heck with what the county fire administrators want. Ventura can call its own shots on how it wants fire issues addressed if it decides on utilizing County staff etc. - I mean its the taxpayer of Ventura who's paying for it and Taj Mahal fire stations are not necessary. Your argument against using County is not well thought out.
All the various police cdepts around the country and state use the same argument as you do - that we will lose good people to other cities who pay more. There are plentty of young people who want to go into law enforcement, and being a cop in Ventura is not exactly the same as Gang Enforcement in South Central LA and teh quality of life is much better. Use that argument.
1. Walmart - Walmart has created some very "New Urban" istic stores in the Katrina aftermath down south [ I guess they must have stoops at the front door ] . The existing KMart on Victoria looks worse than a Salvation Army store inside. Give the ant-WalMart stuff a rest or they will, I guarantee you, build a spite store right across the Ventura city border and the city won't get a cent of revenue - they've done it plenty of times. They're doing it to the New Urban/Stepford-like community of Hercules up north - it's a real crack-up to watch the New Urbanists up there freaking out about it.
2. Planning Dept. - The planning dept. has been the cause of a lot of unnecessary delay in Ventura-they too often assume the role of arbiter of design in this city and they are not - they are planners - they have led multiple developers down the primrose path in the wrong direction - period.. they are improving. Sometimes they are over-opinionated rather than objective, but they are getting better.
Code Enforcement has done nothing to enforce the way back flow devices [ those devices made of metal pipe shaped like an inverted "U" coming out of the ground all over town in various sizes ] are supposed to be installed per code - they are supposed to be painted green, surrounded with a cage paintd green and planting to make them less ugly. Doesn't happen - they are painted all kinds of multiple colors, have no cages, have no planting and are very non-aesthetically pleasing, for all you 'art city' aficionados.
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