 City BeatMay 9, 2012What?! No question on the Versailles Treaty?I fear for the safety of thousands of TV sets in northwest Fresno. A filmed debate among three City Council District 2 candidates will soon be televised. Any District 2 viewer with a functioning cerebral cortex will grab his shotgun about halfway through the show and blow the squawk box to smithereens. It's a sure thing. Continue reading "What?! No question on the Versailles Treaty?" » April 26, 2012City Council asks: Do we really need a reserve?Anyone with a spare lifetime might head to Fresno City Hall this afternoon and take in the City Council's debate on possible charter amendments. The council is scheduled today to tackle the first 11 potential amendments that came out of the Charter Review Committee's six-month study. Council members began debate on Item No. 1 at 11 this morning. At 11:47, Council President Clint Olivier told everyone to break for lunch. The council still wasn't close to voting on Item No. 1. But the debate is actually quite interesting. Item No. 1 in essence asks: Should Fresno embed nearly unbreakable mandates on general fund reserve levels in the city constitution? There appears to be at least four votes against putting such a mandate on the ballot for voter review. The opposition on the dais runs this way: The council already approved Lee Brand's reserve management act that tackles the same issue; putting a reserve policy in the charter could have terrible unintended consequences; it's unwise to hamstring this and future councils when it comes to an issue as fluid as money management; the city is broke and it costs considerable money to put something on the ballot, so let's wait. Brand appears to be the only council member fighting hard for Item No. 1. His argument goes like this: Sure, it's oppressive and maddening to have mandatory general fund reserve benchmarks in a charter that's frightfully hard to change -- but that difficulty and the city's near-bankruptcy proves my point; only spendaholics would be afraid of Item No. 1; the city didn't watch its pennies and now has seen 25% of its workforce eliminated, its credit ratings plummet to near junk-bond levels, its projected deficit within five years to top $65 million and its council members from the dais raising the specter of either impairing union contracts or impairing core services; the city refused to watch its pennies and now top City Hall officials are studying how to spell "DECLARATION OF FISCAL EMERGENCY." The debate resumes at 1:30 p.m. Should be interesting. April 16, 2012A meeting to remember at Exhibit HallThe city of Fresno is insolvent. That means only two things can happen in the next few months. The city gets its finances in order. Or the city prepares to file for bankruptcy. That's the message that came through loud and clear during a two-hour meeting Thursday evening at downtown's New Exhibit Hall. City Manager Mark Scott was the host. Scott didn't use the word "insolvency." He didn't need to. Scott and Budget Czar Renena Smith explained in detail how the city has more bills than money. That's insolvency. City officials have warned of the city's financial woes since 2009. But Thursday's warning at the Convention Center was different for three reasons. First, there was another person on the stage with Scott and Smith. He was Thomas Gardner, a financial consultant from Southern California hired by City Hall. Gardner's resume includes a stint trying to straighten out Orange County's money woes. In the world of municipal finance, Orange County is scarier than even Stockton. Second, Gardner talked at length about how City Hall came to have more than $20 million in negative fund balances. It was a complex lecture. Bottom line: City Hall has been dipping into restricted reserves to pay its bills. Failure to replenish those reserves will anger the law. Third, the meeting was taped and put on the city's Web site for public review. The audience included reps from city unions. Mayor Ashley Swearengin sat in the front row. Make no mistake - City Hall is jumping through the necessary legal hoops to issue a declaration of fiscal emergency. And that is a key step toward what bankruptcy lawyers call a "BK" filing. Unless, of course, Scott is successful in his labor talks. April 3, 2012Some thoughts on general plansPlease -- somebody take egalitarianism out behind the chicken coop and shoot it. That's the only way Fresno is going to get its financial house in order. As proof, I give you the 2035 general plan. Actually, I don't know if we're talking about the 2035 general plan or the 2035 general plan update ... or simply an update of the perpetual planning that goes on among City Hall planners who are especially fond of planning. There's good reason for my confusion. At 5 p.m. on Thursday, the City Council will hold a hearing on the review and selection of what a staff report calls "a preferred alternative for the preparation of the 2035 Fresno general plan update." I don't know how you can update the 2035 general plan without first adopting a 2035 general plan. And I don't remember any of the recent councils adopting something called a 2035 general plan. But I remember well the hullabaloo surrounding the drafting and adoption of the 2025 general plan more than a decade ago. And that hullabaloo was involved first and foremost (as are almost all political issues in Fresno) with a hyper-egalitarianism. Politicians and citizens acted on that hyper-egalitarianism. And that's why Fresno is nearly bankrupt. April 2, 2012Some thoughts on SPCA/City Hall issueI chatted with a Fresno City Council member late last week on the SPCA issue. I told him a story about the construction of the downtown stadium in 2001-02. I thought the story might shed some light on the scale of challenges facing City Hall and its efforts to find a new animal-control provider. I didn't do a good job with the story. Let me try again. Brevity is the soul of wisdom -- except at City HallThe Fresno City Council on Thursday is expected to take another step forward on the 2035 General Plan update. The council's charge, according to a staff report, is to "review and select a preferred alternative for the preparation of the 2035 Fresno General Plan update." I look forward to Thursday's debate. I didn't come close to understanding the the 2025 General Plan when it was created some ten years ago. Maybe I'll have better luck this time. Then again, maybe the fault wasn't mine. Here's a sentence from the staff report introducing the nearly 200-page document that the council will chew on in three days: "During the past year, the Development and Resource Management Department, Sustainability Services Division long range planning team has been working with the General Plan Advisory Committee, appointed by the Mayor and City Council, and the project consultant team comprised of the firms of Dyett and Bhatia Urban and Regional Planners and the MW Steele Group, to prepare information and subject area analyses to inform the process of formulating and conceptual general plan alternative." That's 73 words -- in one sentence. That's 408 letters -- in one sentence. (I think. I didn't have the energy to count twice). I've got no idea what any of it means. But I love the use of the word "inform." Those City Hall folks -- real jokers. March 28, 2012Will council see itself in SPCA woes?There figures to be a lot of talk at Thursday's Fresno City Council meeting about transparency and accountability at the Central California Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In particular, we're talking SPCA board meetings -- should they be open to the public? SPCA officials say they're a private non-profit that doesn't have to comply with the state Open Meeting Law. They say they want to ensure decorum at their board meetings, something that might be impossible if the meetings were open to the SPCA's very vocal critics. It'll be interesting to see at Thursday's council meeting whether any council members recall their struggle to restore decorum at council meetings in 2010. The City Council at every meeting has something called "unscheduled oral communication." This is when anyone from the public can speak to the council for a maximum of three minutes on any issue involving the local municipal government. Of course, that could be just about anything. February 21, 2012Historic homes at DT project create challengeOn March 17, 2002, The Bee published a long article I co-wrote. This is how it began: Continue reading "Historic homes at DT project create challenge" » February 7, 2012City Council may dig into RDA's pastThe Fresno City Council has added another item to this Thursday's agenda: Should the three members of the council's Finance and Audit Committee become old-fashioned muckrakers? February 6, 2012Leadership Clovis Academy begins Feb. 23Leadership Clovis, an opportunity to learn the way Clovis city services are provided, will meet February 23rd from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Participants will meet Mayor Jose Flores, city management staff, police Chief, fire Chief and economic development and city planning department leaders. It will be held in the City Council Chambers at 1033 Fifth Street. Enrollment is $5 and includes pastries and coffee. For more information, call Ed Flores at (559) 681-4447 or edflores1976@gmail.com January 31, 2012There is decorum at Mayor's speechRevolutionaries sometimes decide it's best to keep a low profile. One of those times occurred Tuesday morning at Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin's State of Downtown address. January 27, 2012City of Fresno to be governed by Oversight BoardThe Fresno Redevelopment Agency is no more. The Fresno City Council created the RDA some 60 years ago. But the council, left with no legal choice, killed the RDA on Thursday night. The council then turned around and named another agency to succeed the RDA. That successor agency is the City of Fresno. Continue reading "City of Fresno to be governed by Oversight Board" » January 25, 2012City Council to consider a change to DROPThe consent calendar for Thursday's Fresno City Council meeting has an interesting item involving the Deferred Retirement Option Program, or DROP. Continue reading "City Council to consider a change to DROP" » January 23, 2012Steve Pepper -- a blessing to retail and the theaterNo one mentioned tennis. That's a shame. Because whenever I hear the name "Steve Pepper," I think of tennis. But this was a memorial service for Steve at Roger Rocka's Dinner Theater in Fresno's Tower District, the same theater where Steve performed in more than 85 shows with the Good Company Players over the course of 30-plus years. Steve died of colon cancer on July 30, a day before his 64th birthday. His fellow actors and dancers and singers gathered on the morning of November 19 to pay their respects to him and his theatrical legacy. It only made sense that these pros would focus on Steve's acting successes, not his athletic successes. Continue reading "Steve Pepper -- a blessing to retail and the theater " » January 17, 2012Unwinding the RDA will raise land questionsCan the Fresno Redevelopment Agency survive its death? Continue reading "Unwinding the RDA will raise land questions" » January 11, 2012Voting results on the Vargas settlementCity Attorney James Sanchez has announced results of the Fresno City Council's Jan. 5 closed-door vote on the $1.3 million Steven Anthony Vargas settlement: 5-2. Andreas Borgeas and Larry Westerlund voted no. January 9, 2012Brown Act is for Fresno City Hall's benefitThere's something fishy about the Fresno City Council's closed-door vote on Thursday. It was on Thursday morning that the council went behind closed doors to vote on a settlement offer in the Steven Anthony Vargas wrongful death lawsuit. The council agenda was light. The main business in open session was the election of Clint Olivier as council president. At about 10 a.m., Olivier informed the public that the council would head into closed session. Near as I could tell, Gene, Tom and I were the only reporters there. Continue reading "Brown Act is for Fresno City Hall's benefit" » January 4, 2012How do you rent a car at Fresno's HSR station?Where's the car-rental facility at the high-speed rail station in downtown Fresno? So far, nobody knows. But finding a spot for it figures to be a challenge. I raise the question because Fresno Yosemite International Airport has a car-rental facility. And, as I've said before, I don't see any major difference between the mission of our airport and the mission of our soon-to-be high-speed train station. They're both hubs for high-speed regional travel. The difference is that the airport already has decades of experience at that complicated task. High-speed rail and the downtown train station are still nothing but hype. At FYI, the car-rental counters are next to the baggage-claim area. People rent a car, walk out the terminal's north exit and almost immediately get in their car. The large lot for the rental cars is about 30 feet from the terminal door. Just a bit north of the car-rental lot is the area where companies like Hertz and Avis clean and maintain their cars. The system is designed for maximum efficiency for customers and the car-rental companies. There's no wasted space. There's a lot of security. At the same time, the lot and the maintenance area are located in spots where strangers are unlikely to stroll by. All that said, the car-rental lot and the maintenance facility take up a total of 14 acres. That's 14 football fields. About 600,000 people fly out of FYI every year. About that many fly into FYI every year. Based on my rough analysis of budget numbers, about 100,000 car-rental transactions occur each year at FYI. You've got to figure the number of car-rental transactions at the downtown Fresno high-speed rail train station would be at least that high. Millions of people are expected to arrive and depart from the train station each year. Many will need rental cars to complete their business here. The high-speed rail train station in Fresno is planned for the intersection of H and Mariposa streets. There's a lot of stuff already in that area. Where is the High-Speed Rail Authority or Fresno City Hall going to find at least 14 acres for a car-rental system? And keep in mind that a key to FYI's car-rental system is its location -- right next to the terminal. Then there's the security nightmare in downtown. December 21, 2011A walk and tape measure tell a tale about downtown FresnoEighteen feet. I went for a walk through downtown today and came to a conclusion: The two sides in the fight for Fresno's future can be symbolized by that measurement of length -- 18 feet. Let me start at the beginning. I got a phone call right after lunch. The caller, a former local government official, is a treasured source. We argue without hurt feelings on all sorts of topics. We take turns being a devil's advocate. His point this time: Something funny is going on in Uptown. Lots of public money changing hands, lots of publicly-funded property changing ownership, lots of public boards and commissions with inter-connected memberships, lots of City Hall pressure to build something new. Then he said: "And what about low-income housing in Uptown?" Continue reading "A walk and tape measure tell a tale about downtown Fresno" » November 22, 2011Council nears end of search for new city clerkFresno City Hall most likely will fill Rebecca Klisch's job with far less fuss than it handled Jerry Dyer's retirement melodrama. Klisch announced her retirement as city clerk in late June. The city clerk, along with the city attorney, are the only two big-time jobs at City Hall that are the responsibility of the City Council, not the executive branch. Council President Lee Brand said there were more than 100 applicants for city clerk. Terry Bond, head of the city's personnel services, screened the applications and brought the top 12 to a committee of Brand and council members Sal Quintero and Clint Olivier. Brand said he, Quintero, Olivier and Klisch interviewed the top 12 applicants. After considerable discussion, the three council members with the help of Klisch and Bond settled on three finalists, he said. Brand said the entire council on Dec. 1 will interview the three finalists in closed session. If the council can't settle on one of the three, it'll meet later in December and interview the next three on the list of 12. Brand said the council will formally choose the new city clerk with a vote in open session. He said the new city clerk could be on the job by late December or early January. Six months, start to finish. Let this job search be a model at City Hall. Other Beehive BlogsOther Bee SitesRecent CommentsPrior Posts |