Council -

Because I will be unable to come to the Council meeting Tuesday 3/6, I
wanted to send some questions and comments for your budget priorities
discussion now that the Attachments are available:

Overall - with an unexpected budget surplus last fiscal year, and the
Council-approved UUT kicking in later this spring, I would hope that the
Council would first consider the items listed below. Of course, many of
these are not capital budget items, but nearly all should be addressed
as soon as possible in both the current and upcoming operating budgets.

1) Budgeting process.
With the large number of questions raised about budgets and budgeting as
well as the UUT, the Council should immediately seek assistance to
improve the credibility of the city's finances and budgeting process.
The Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) is an example of a body of citizen
volunteers who could examine the finances and make non-binding
recommendations to the Council and city. They should be given latitude
to look at funds, processes, staffing levels, and supporting
infrastructure (e.g., software and other tools) related to city
financial management.

2) Cuts made because of the budget crisis of the past few years.
Some expenditures, such as traffic enforcement, should be reinstituted.
The budget document doesn't make it clear what, if any, of this would be
included in the budget. Given concerns that the UUT might be simply
covering employee wage and benefit increases, consider monitoring the
UUT revenue against expenditures for improved service and for expenses
such as planning and infrastructure improvements that have been too long
deferred.

3) Personnel cuts that cut headcount but didn't necessarily cut
costs due to an increased amount of overtime and contractors. Please
look at the totals and the long-term implications on benefits and
service. This could be another topic for a body like the BAC. There
isn't any information available in this document to help with that sort
of decision.
Related to this is examination of results from the studies regarding how
to recover more costs through fees.

4) Need to create plans for Commercial/Light Industrial areas,
starting with ECR and M-2.
This is a very high priority so the city controls its destiny rather
than making a series of piecemeal changes "just because" someone asked.
A tremendous amount of staff and public time and energy currently are
being expended on such efforts whereas that could be channeled into
creating a plan instead.

5) Your top 3-5 priorities. The Council hasn't narrowed its list of
9 general priorities to the top 3-5 that reasonably could be tackled
first, during both the current and upcoming fiscal years. Unless
identified and funded as priorities, they just won't happen.

Some additional comments are below, by section of the Attachments, for
your consideration. Thank you for this opportunity to communicate to
you.

 Patti Fry, Menlo Park resident

Attachment A

Administrative Services - there isn't enough detail about the projects
and benefits to know what to say. For example:

A1 - Council Chamber Upgrade - while the upgrade of the operator's room
is specified to be $2,000, this project costs $48,250. For what? What
are the benefits, including displaced costs?

A2 - Telephone System Upgrade - The entire project to convert to VoIP
will cost $275,000. Where is the cost/benefit analysis of this project?
It doesn't make sense to spend the first $90,000 unless it's clear this
is a good project.

MISSING - how about improving the city's I/T function so that there is a
good search engine? It is my understanding that budget cuts have
minimized personnel support too, but part of the problem is totally
inadequate software.

Community Development

CD1 - ECR/SCA Plan - I urge you to commit upfront to a Specific Plan
for the ECR corridor. Unless and until this is in place and the GP and
ZO amended as appropriate (yes, with EIR) there will continue to be
unnecessary considerable time and expense devoted by the public, city
staff, and property owners.

CD7 Medical/Dental Office Use - Given the known contemporary interest in
medical office space, it would be irresponsible of the Council to delay
addressing this need - at least along ECR. As suggested in my previous
letter, attention to this is urgent and should be immediate (i.e.,
during the current fiscal year) to provide guidance to all parties.
Guidelines would be helpful in the interim period prior to the Specific
Plan (CD1).

CD2 and CD3 - Housing Element and Senior Housing - these should be
worked on together. The city also should ensure that this effort is not
in isolation of the rest of the General Plan and Zoning Ordinance.
Since the delay of the previous effort on the Housing Element ostensibly
was due to the need for an EIR, is an EIR included in this budget
estimate?

The city also should examine what it means to comply or not with the
RNHA allocation. Citizens of other communities are protesting increased
densities and impacts. What would this mean to the quality of life
treasured in Menlo Park? What happens when Menlo Park runs out of a
critical resource, such as Redwood City now has regarding water?

CD5 -Economic Vitality - the city needs to address economic development
somehow asap. It's not clear what this item involves, but it's much more
important to put a real plan together than to create a new chapter of
the General Plan document. The cheapest way is to AT LEAST authorize a
citizen group to assist the Council and staff with ideas. The prior
Council rejected the Budget Advisory Committee's recommendations to
pursue this and other financial advisory efforts. As above, this should
start THIS fiscal year. Time's a-wasting.

E1 - Street Resurfacing - In recent budget discussions (e.g., Your
City/Your Decision and the mid-year budget review), it was stated that
$2 million/year was required from the General fund to maintain the
current condition. I don't think I'm alone in thinking that the current
condition is unacceptable. Recent Councils have balanced the budget by
not funding infrastructure appropriately. A number of streets have
deteriorated shamefully (e.g., Arbor Road from Middle to the Creek).
What will this budget request buy? What would it cost to improve upon
current conditions?

E3 and E8 - Storm Drain Improvements, Study - Why aren't improvements
budgeted more aggressively if so inadequate? Of course, the fees should
be examined now and regularly!

M5 - Median Lights - Why was the product so bad and/or maintenance so
poor that the lights failed? How is that the city purchased such unique
items that what ought to be a simple repair is a $35,000 replacement
expense?

T10 - Sidewalks on Santa Cruz Ave. - Please consider that sidewalks
would make it much safer for kids to get to school, and for families to
get around town on foot rather than in a car. The volume and speed of
cars on Santa Cruz only worsen.
Received on Mon Mar 5 19:35:48 2007