Should the city charge fees to bars that stay open late and require a lot of police attention?

I just posted this story on Walnut Creek Patch, dealing with an idea that emerged at last night's City Council meeting.

Council members were talking some more about if and how the city could help pay for the Masters Swim Team, school crossing guards, crisis counselors in Walnut Creek Schools, the Lindsay Museum, the downtown trolley, and the Walnut Creek Concert Band.

The idea has come up that six to 12 bars, which are open past midnight, require a lot of police attention during those late hours, especially on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Maybe these establishments should have to pay a special fee for the impact on public safety they have.

You can read more on this proposed bar fee at Walnut Creek Patch. Some council members think it's a great idea, others are not so sure. It would be great to see some of your comments there too.

Meanwhile, check back later on Walnut Creek Patch to read about how the council is likely to vote on saving or cutting other programs near and dear to many's hearts: the Masters Swim coach's position, school crossing guards, school crisis counselors, the therapeutic recreation summer camp for disabled kids, and the Walnut Creek Concert Band.

Walnut Creek to consider fee increases for city services

You might have to pay a little—or a lot—more for parking tickets or permits to install a solar system or new roof. Or to have your license for your massage business suspended.  

The city is trying to close a $20 million budget gap and has found that it is undercharging for some services—compared to what other cities charge for those services. The city expects that 37 percent of its revenue will come from user fees in the next two years.

The City Council will discuss these fee increases, suggested by a consulting company, at its meeting Tuesday night. The suggested fee increases could produce $1,904,000 in revenue over the next two years.

There will be some fee modifications for arts and recreation programs or classes, but generally it won't cost more to play golf at Boundary Oak, to take a Civic Arts Education class, to see a Center Repertory show, or to swim at Clark Memorial or Larkey swim centers. Notable exceptions include raising prices for the preschool program, the after-school sports program, and charging up to $3 per-person-per-day at the Heather Farm Tennis Center Facility.

Most of the city's fee changes would largely be imposed by the Community Development Department. For example, the city is looking to charge developers for the cost of revising and preparing the General Plan. While the department expects a downturn in development activity for the next two years, it's still possible for the city to recoup approximately $1 million over the lifespan of our current General Plan.

You can read about all the proposed changes on the city's agenda. Here are some other highlights: 

--Solar permit: Increase the fee for a new solar unit in a single-family and duplex residential from $65 to $262.50. (This suggested fee would put Walnut Creek in line with what other cities and is still far below the $800 to $1000 that some East Bay cities charge.)

--Reroof permit: 25,000-square-foot commercial building with valuation of $75,000, be increased from $76 to $1,027.

--A taxicab permit fee of $132 for each taxicab under one owner, instead of existing flat fee per owner

--Raise the Building Division’s hourly rate for plan review from $125 per hour to $205 per hour, and raise the hourly rate for a building inspection from $115 to $172 per hour.

--Kitchen Remodel:  Valuation of $35,000. Current fees: $1,668; recommended fees: $2,023

--Single Family Home Addition of 500 square feet: Valuation is $100,000. Current fees:

$3,541; recommended fees: $4,379.

--Parking tickets to increase from $35 to $40
--Massage permits: The city would not increase its fees for massage technicians and establishments--which are $82 to $132, respectively. But the staff recommends the city assess those fees on an annual basis instead of every two years, and charge a business when it gets its license suspended. 

Saving Coach O’Brien: Letter writing campaign to keep the city paying for Masters Swim coach position

The City Council will continue its discussion about which programs to keep—and which to ax—as it tries to balance the budget.  Members of the city’s nationally recognized Masters Swim Team continue to voice their hope that their beloved coach, Kerry O’Brien, keeps his job.

Masters Team swim members pleaded their cause at the City Council meeting two weeks ago. Now they have flooded the council—sorry, couldn’t avoid this verb—with letters, presenting their reasons for why the team isn’t just good for the team’s some 500 swimmers, but for the city, too. 

The city proposes to discontinue funding for O’Brien and the assistant coaches. The team has more than 300 members, adults of all abilities from their 20s to seniors. They joined the team to swim for fitness and for competition. Many rise early to make their daily practices at Clarke Memorial Swim Center at Heather Farm. O’Brien has been coaching the team since 1980 and is himself an accomplished butterflier who competes in the 45-49 age group.

“The Walnut Creek Masters Team plays a vital role in making Walnut Creek the top desired location in the Bay Area for new residents and visotrs. The number one reason why people love Walnut Creek is because of its healthy, competitive sports and outdoor recreation lifestyle.

If the city does not fund the coaches, WCM may need to let them go because our dues cannot cover the cost of their employment,” write brothers Jon and Ben Luchesse

Many on the team reside right here in the city, there are some who travel great distances.

Walnut Creek business also directly benefit from a strong, robust [masters swim team]. We patronize the city’s swim and sporting goods stores. We regularly gather after practice. …

It is well known that most residents and visitors to our city are drawn here for our unmatched outdoor, recreational and sporting activities. Some may think it’s the shopping, but really many of the stores in Broadway Plaza are the same ones you can find at nearby malls. What really makes Walnut Creek unique is that it is the perfect place for competitive and recreational athletes.  Where else can one get top-notch swim instruction, in a beautiful swim facility, under the sentinel of Mt. Diablo?”

Rob Butcher, executive director of U.S. Masters Swimming writes: “More than 30 years ago, the city pioneered a partnership with Walnut Creek Masters that today is being modeled across the country. Your partnership included empoying Kerry O’Brien as a masters swimming coach. You partnership signaled a commitment tot he citizens of WC to offer and adult swimming lifestyle program that would be accessible and make a difference in the quality of their lives.”

One team member said she moved to Walnut Creek for the sole purpose of swimming on the masters team. She also made important friends on the team. “Best of all, I found a partner and we have been married for 15 years. My husband and I have two children who are swimmers as well—this has all been a direct result of the masters!”

The council is set to finalize its budget by June 15. 

Vested interest alert... and more on arts and cops in these tough budget times

Vested interests.

I've written about this concept before: whether it's right or wrong for people to have "vested interests" when it comes to how they position themselves on public issues. Readers used this term in debates about the Neiman Marcus controversy. Now, it’s popping up again in debates about the city budget and in discussions about the decision to go forward with building the library. Actually, the term “conflict of interest” is also showing up in comments.

To me,  “conflict of interest” applies to very specific, legal circumstances, and it suggests a public official who is doing something illegal. He or she is voting on a project, for instance, that would lead to direct personal financial gain.  

Just so you know, I checked in with City Attorney Paul Valle-Riestra in regards to one city council member, Cindy Silva. Someone in the comments raised the question: When she voted to approve funding for construction of the library in January 2007, did she have a conflict of interest? 

Given that she had been a paid, part-time consultant for the Walnut Creek Library Foundation and a volunteer campaigner for a library bond measure in 2005?

Valle-Riestra says no. He says she resigned from her consulting job with the foundation as soon as she was elected to the City Council in November 2006. She didn’t stand to gain financially from her yes vote on the library a few months later, and personal financial gain is the standard for a conflict-of-interest allegation, Valle-Riestra said.

As for her voting when she had a history of advocacy for this project, Valle-Riestra said that politicians vote on issues all the time in which they have a personal interest or bias.  We might be uncomfortable with that sometimes, but there is nothing illegal about it. 

“People have sued politicians for voting in favor of projects for which they campaign during elections, and show a strong bias,” he said. “The courts have said that politicians are supposed to have strongly held views of issues during campaigns. If they kept silent about their biases, we wouldn’t have much of a democracy.”

Now that we’re talking about this council person’s bias and work and volunteer history with regard to this major downtown project, I might as well reveal a potential bias of my own as I continue to blog about the city budget.

Up until recently, I edited Diablo Arts, the magazine that is distributed to patrons at the Lesher Center. As that magazine's editor, I talked regularly to Lesher Center and Diablo Regional Arts Association staff, and to people involved with local performing arts groups.

And, just so you know,I was a big drama geek in high school. So, I like the theater, and I like artsy people.

The talent, creativity and drive of some of Walnut Creek's arts folks added to my sense that it is really cool to live and work in this town. Maybe you could say I drank the arts Kool-Aid, but I do see arts and culture as an asset to the city. Now, and in the long term. 

For example, the city made a huge investment back in the 1980s to build the Lesher Center, which opened in 1990. It transformed the downtown, for good or for bad, depending on your position.

Walnut Creek’s happening night life sure keeps the police busy on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. I witnessed that first hand when I went out with the police on a ride along last weekend. And, I didn't even go out on the very busy shift last Saturday night/Sunday morning when the officers rounded up 10 drunks and three drunk drivers and carted them off to County Jail in their new special van for just this purpose. 

Through this blog, and more recently, I've had the pleasure of meeting officers and administrators in the police department. As it is with those artsy people, I have come away from my contacts with Walnut Creek police with the sense that it is really cool to live and work in this town. 

Oh, some more disclosure in terms of my background. Besides being an arts geek, I am also a cop/crime geek. For much of my career as a daily newspaper reporter, I had the police beat, including in Richmond--at a time when there were up to three murders in a single week. (I might still have a trashy crime novel or a few true-crime exposes in my future.) As a police reporter, I came to respect the job that everyone in a police department--from patrol officers to the detectives to the chief--does. 

I understand the position of some people that when times get tough, public entities have to make difficult choices about programs to eliminate. I agree that public safety is one of those investments that shouldn’t be shortchanged.  I also believe, though, that Walnut Creek needs to keep up its investment in arts and culture.  These programs are crucial to the town’s identity and, ultimately, to its economic vitality.

Maybe, as these very difficult budget negotiations continue, I will need to become a parks and recreation geek and a public services geek. 

Police chief believes public safety is city's No. 1 priority

Should the city support arts and culture? Or the police department? Does it have to be either or?

Not according to Walnut Creek Police Chief Joel Bryden.

I spoke with him Monday morning, and I mentioned one of the debates raging on this blog with regard to the city’s proposed budget for 2010-12, which the City Council will begin working on Tuesday night. The debate has to do with the impression that city staff is not making the police department and public safety more of a priority in these very tough economic times. Some readers believe that funding for the Arts, Recreation and Community Services should take more of a hit. The thinking here is that when times are tough arts and recreation programs are expendable. 

“Stick to the basics that cities have to proivde like cops, streets, keeping the parks clean etc.,” wrote one reader. “Let private groups step up for the arts and recreation stuff. Since so few people use those services regularly they should be willing to volunteer or pay extra.”

Bryden believes that public safety is the No. 1 priority in the city.

He acknowledges that yes, the department could always use more money and more officers. Any police department could. But he said he and the police department participated in discussions that took place with regard to the budget, and the department came up with its own list of programs that could be restructured or frozen positions that would not be filled. He added what City Manager Gary Pokorny emphasized last week: none of the 33 possible layoffs taking place in other city departments would affect the police department.

In budget documents prepared for Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, the police department proposes that two police officer positions be changed to a per diem basis starting in 2011 and that one position for watch commander/lieutenant and one for a police officer be unfunded. The department could also save money by reducing overtime and retire one police car, and that the city earn additional revenues by operating a tow yard.

“We told them what we could afford to lose while keeping the city safe and maintain the level of service that we have now,” Bryden said.

Here are some more specifics of what budget documents say about spending on police, as well as on and arts, recreation and community programs and on other departments.

--The police department budget could be cut by 2 percent in the coming fiscal year,  public services by 2 percent, and arts, recreation and community services by 6 percent. The biggest hit—of 24 percent—is to general government. In 2011-12, expenditures for police and public services could increase slightly, funding for arts and recreation will go down 2 percent. Again, the biggest hit (47 percent) would be to general government.

--In terms of which department in Walnut Creek will likely get the biggest piece of the budget pie in 2010-12, that would be the police department: 35 percent. Arts, Recreation and Community Services would get 20 percent. 

Walnut Creek seeks community input on its "big picture" goals to make future budget choices

In July I asked readers to share their vision of Walnut Creek and its future. My question generated a fair amount of thoughtful, insightful, and, yes, visionary responses. You can read those responses here and here.

Now you can share your vision of the city in a more, shall we say, official and reputable forum.

The City Council has identified their six "big picture" goals, and members hope people who live or work in Walnut Creek can help define those goals more specifically at a series of "community conversations" that will be held in September and October. Members say they want to hear what people's priorities are so that they can, in essence, decide how to budget the city's current limited financial resources.

The Six Big Goals are:

--Strong neighbors and a sense of community

--Economic vitality

--Effective transportation and mobility

--A safe community

--Stewardship of the natural and built environment

--Culture, recreation and learning opportunities

After receiving input in September and October, the city wil then as for further community input in November, which will involve helping the council to set priorities.

These workshops are scheduled for:

--7 p.m. Monday, September 21

--9 a.m. Tuesday, September 29

--9 a.m. Saturday, October 10

--7 p.m. Thursday, October 22

There will also be a workshop for Rossmoor residents only at 3 p.m. Tuesday, October 13.

Pre-registration is required, and when you sign up you can indicate if there is a particular goal that you, yourself, would like to focus on. To register, call (925) 256-3505 or email community@walnut-creek.org.

Ongoing information about these conversations will be posted at the city's website.