Greetings City Council Members,

Thank you for this informative update. I am very pleased to see the high
level of activity exhibited by our newly elected council members.

Your email asked for comments on the UUT tax and the budget surplus. My
opinion is that the tax should be immediately reduced, if not eliminated
altogether, given that its passage was supported by the erroneous forecast
of a budget deficit. If the city budget is in deficit in future years,
then the UUT tax (or similar tax measures) should be placed on the ballot
at that time; given that we are currently running a surplus, there was no
reason for a new tax proposal and it would be wrong to collect these taxes
given the surplus. Bay Area life is expensive enough without unnecessary
taxes.

Thanks for the update! Keep up the good work!

David & Monica Tompkins
714 Live Oak Ave.

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Your City / Your Turn
> Issue
> 2007-1
>
>
>
> 1. Menlo Park announced a $3.7M surplus (vs a
> deficit forecast) for fiscal year ended June 06
>
> 2. Our city manager has resigned. Search for
> replacement has begun.
>
> 3. Upcoming Measure T meetings will be held to help
> set park and
> recreation priorities
>
> I’ve been urged by many residents to start a new
> email newsletter as a way of sharing information and
> improving communication. I plan to highlight timely
> topics that I believe will be of interest to anyone
> in the extended Menlo Park community. This first
> issue is a little long, but generally, I’ll try to
> keep them brief and to-the-point. In each issue, I
> will also be asking for your opinion or perhaps some
> action. In fact, I’ll call the email newsletter,
> “Your City / Your Turn” – it’s your turn to be heard
> AND involved.
>
> If you find these emails interesting, please don’t
> hesitate to forward them on to anyone you think
> might be interested. On the other hand, if you
> don’t want to receive this email simply click on the
> “unsubscribe” link below. I’ve taken steps to
> ensure that you WILL be dropped from the list and
> not inadvertently added back in later.
>
> 1. Our city has released its financial report for
> its fiscal year that ended June 30, 2006.
> Highlights included an unexpected budget surplus of
> $3.7M (vs a forecasted deficit), a modest increase
> in sales tax revenues, and a continued healthy
> balance sheet statement. The results, $4.5M better
> than the forecast, is good news, of course, but it
> doesn’t necessarily mean our forward looking budgets
> aren’t still a challenge. In fact, our city staff
> is still forecasting a $1.9M deficit for the fiscal
> year ending June 2007. We expect to have an update
> from staff in early February on the estimated
> July-Dec 2006 results.
>
> The reason given by staff for the still-forecasted
> deficit is the concern that most of the surplus last
> year may have been due to non-recurring items.
> Most notably, the 2006 results benefited from some
> accounting anomalies and the fact that several city
> jobs went unfilled for much of the year. With most
> city positions now filled, a $2M increased capital
> investment expense, and several uncertain revenue
> streams and expenses, it is appropriate to be
> cautious in planning for the future.
>
> That being said, I’m personally very disappointed
> that our city staff was not able to provide more
> visibility into the finances of our city at an
> earlier date. Just two months ago, we all were
> asked to vote on a new Utility User Tax (as well as
> other matters). The UUT passed by just 67 votes.
> While I have no doubt that the revenue from this tax
> can be well-spent on needed programs, it’s
> disappointing to consider that when we voted, we
> clearly didn’t have the benefit of knowledge of the
> encouraging 2006 results, despite the fact that the
> 2006 fiscal year had ended four months before the
> election.
>
> My question to you: with the newly released budget
> information, should we immediately reconsider the
> topic of the starting UUT rate? If no immediate
> change is made, the tax will go into effect at the
> maximum rate in April, and the first opportunity for
> a decrease won’t happen until July. Please let me
> (or any council member) know your thoughts.
>
> 2. Our city manager, David Boesch, has announced his
> resignation. He has accepted a new position as
> assistant manager for San Mateo County. We’ll miss
> him greatly, but I’ll point out that we’ll still
> benefit from his skills and knowledge of Menlo Park
> as he continues to serve us from his new, broader
> county role. We have begun the process of finding a
> replacement. Audrey Seymour, our current assistant
> city manager, has been named the Acting City
> Manager. The city manager essentially runs our city
> of approximately 30,000 residents, 232 employees,
> and oversees a General Fund budget of approximately
> $30M/year with additional restricted funds and
> operations bringing the total budget over $50M/year.
> The city manager is to our city what a president or
> CEO generally is to a business. Your city council
> wants your inputs and help with the process of
> filling this critical position. If you have
> suggestions or questions on the job description,
> search process, or even any candidates, please let
> us know.
>
> 3. There are three important community meetings
> coming up this week and next where our Parks and
> Recreation Commission will be asking for input on
> prioritizing the next phase of Measure T
> improvements for our city’s parks and recreation
> facilities. The first meeting is tonight (Wed) at
> 6pm at Burgess. Please join us if you can.
> Alternatively, send your comments or suggestions to
> any Parks & Recreation commissioner (email addresses
> on city website). The attached link has the meeting
> details.
>
> Measure
> T Priority Setting Meetings
> (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=64cex8bab.0.zwrkx8bab.landl8bab.1301&ts=S0216&p=http%3A%2F%2Fservice.govdelivery.com%2Fdocs%2FCAMENLO%2FCAMENLO_170%2FCAMENLO_170_20070125_en.pdf)
>
> As always, I encourage you to visit our city’s
> website Menlo
> Park home page
> (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=64cex8bab.0.9wrkx8bab.landl8bab.1301&ts=S0216&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.menlopark.org)
> for all the details on
> any item above.
> Thanks,
>
> John Boyle, Menlo Park City Council Member
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> email: johncboyle@gmail.com
>
>
>
>
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> Your City / Your Turn | c/o John Boyle | 541 Fanita Way | Menlo Park | CA
> | 94025
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Received on Thu Jan 18 01:49:34 2007