City is looking for ways to find money to keep some programs threatened by budget cuts

At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, speakers made thoughtful and sometimes emotional pleas to preserve kids', teen,  senior and recreation programs--including funding for the Lindsay Museum, jobs for coaches for the Masters Swim team, and a summer camp for developmentally disabled kids.

But some of these speakers also voiced a desire to work with the city to find new, non-city, ways to fund their beloved arts, recreation and community services programs. 

The council was holding the second of five meetings before adopting its 2010-12 budget. The council plans to adopt a new budget by June 15. 

Those who voiced the strongest willingness to find alternative sources of funding were parents whose developmentally disabled attend a very unique six-week therapeutic recreation summer camp run by the city. According to speakers, this camp is the only one of its kind in the area, and has become a life-saver to families with a child or teen who has developmental or behavioral disabilities.

The camp would be offered for this summer, but not in 2011 or beyond, under the current budget proposal. "I can't say I'll send him to Pleasant Hill or Concord, because there isn't anything like this in those cities," one mother said. Her 10-year-old son requires regular speech and occupational therapy. 

Parents talked about how this camp provided a respite for them, and a chance for their kids to be in an environment and with other kids where, for six weeks every year, they don't feel "different."

"For these kids, it's transformative," said the mother of the 10-year-old. She added that there is "nothing else" in the area like this camp, which is supervised by city employee Preston Jones.

Other parents, whose kids also attend the camp, said they looked forward to the opportunity to brainstorm ways to keep the camp going in 2011 and beyond.

Another summer camp that may go away is the city's Arts, Adventure and Academics camp, for grades K-9. Like the therapeutic recreation camp, the "Triple A" camp would be offered this summer.

Barry Gordon, the director for the Arts, Recreation and ommunity Services, said allowing these two camps to continue this summer gives the city time to figure out how they could be funded in 2011. 

A member of the Masters Swim Team also said he believed the team could look at new ways to fund its coaching staff. The team launched a major letter-writing campaign after learning that the proposed 2010-2012 budget does not include money to help pay for the salary of their team's coach Kerry O'Brien. 


But could the 300 some team members pay themselves for O'Brien's salary? That's a question readers raised in a previous post on the letter writing campaign.

As it happens, other aquatics programs in Walnut Creek and other masters swim teams in other Northern California assume the cost of paying coaches themselves. This is according to a staff survey of some other Northern California cities that Gordon presented. Also, other Walnut Creek aquatics teams, including the Aqua Nuts and the Aqua Bears, pay their coaches salaries themselves.

Guest writer: Don’t lose the teen perspective in city government

Katie Lanfranki, a junior at Las Lomas High School, appeared at the City Council meeting two weeks ago to explain why the city should not discontinue its teen programs, including its Youth Council, as it tries to balance its 2010-12 budget.

Lanfranki is vice president of the council and a five-year member. Here is a excerpt from the statement she read to the council:

The Walnut Creek Youth Council consists of 20 diverse Walnut Creek teenagers ranging from grades seven to twelve. We are not only just a group of teenagers thrown together, but we are a family. The Walnut Creek Youth Council began in the 1970s. That’s over 40 years that teens have been providing a teenage aspect for the City of Walnut Creek.

Now I could give you a list of the plethora of projects we have worked on over the years such as the Walnut Creek Library teen section, Walnut Creek Skate Park, and the General Plan 2025, but I not here to talk about those things. … I’m here to tell you what the Walnut Creek Youth Council means to me.

When I was about 12 years old I applied for the Walnut Creek Youth Council. This was the first interview I ever had and I was indescribably nervous. After somehow surviving the interview and making it onto council, I was placed with a group of about 19 high schoolers. These big older kids intimidated me so much that I was afraid to even say a word at the first meeting. And for those that know me, it is usually hard to get me to stop talking. But after much comfort and many welcomes, the group helped my open up.

This is where I first learned to become a team player. Sure I had done group projects in school and played sports all my life, but the Walnut Creek Youth Council tested me. I had to learn patience and that my ideas were not always the best. I used to always need to be the leader growing up, and I was used to always being right. But council taught me otherwise.

With the help of Lisa Geerlof and my 19 other siblings, I learned how to truly work as a team and family. I learned to speak, listen, and learn. That once outspoken juvenile adolescent seemed to disappear over my time with council. I was able to take my new skill and apply it to school which helped me earn other leadership positions.

The Walnut Creek Youth Council taught me patience and helped me grow up but for many other students it’s a place where the once shy but secretly intelligent can blossom. It helps teens expand their horizon by learning to be creative, outgoing, and lead. You really can’t be shy when you are meeting important people like the mayor of Walnut Creek.

Cutting the Walnut Creek Youth Council would be cutting a family. Cutting the Walnut Creek Youth Council would be hurting teens. Cutting the Walnut Creek Youth Council will put Walnut Creek a step backwards in their growth and development by taking away such a big percent of their population’s perspective.

The proposed Walnut Creek budget: the “new normal” and tough times ahead

The city proposes to eliminate the crossing guard program, install new parking meters, raise parking fines, and cut funding for the downtown trolley service and the contract for animal services. Also on the chopping block? Thirty-three full-time positions.

As for some good news (I think), the city also proposes to increase fees for massage permits and to administer alcohol licenses.

These are just some of the solutions suggested for dealing with “the new normal” economic reality in Walnut Creek, according to the proposed budget for the 2010-12 fiscal year that the city just released.

As the document says: “The economy is expected to continue to be depressed over the next two years and even when economic recovery occurs, revenue recovery for cities will likely lag behind any recovery in the private sector. In fact, a full return to the prosperous revenue levels of a few years ago may or may not occur.”

In addition,“Local government officials have begun talking about a “new normal” to describe the major economic reset that reassessments of property value and changing consumer behavior seem to indicate.”

For Walnut Creek this means trying to “balance for the future.” That is, the city says it is trying to take into account those services residents truly rely on the city to provide in the next year or two, and into the future. 

Should the city continue to put an emphasis on building up its arts, recreation, and “learning” services, which would include the library? Or should more money be given to the police department. These are some of the big questions I often see debated in the comments section of this blog. These are some of the big questions I expect the City Council to discuss on Tuesday night when it meet to begin discussing the budget.

As it turns out, Walnut Creek,  perhaps more than other cities, puts a lot of focus on its arts and recreation programs. There are a fair number of people who think that in lean times, arts and recreation programs should be at the top of any public agency’s cut list. Other people believe that the Walnut Creek’s quality of life, as well as its sense of identity and future economic vitality, depend on it being able to run a top performing arts facility and to open a state-of-the-art new library.

Here are some of the major items included in the proposed budget, in terms of what the city is looking to cut, change, and accomplish. I'll be doing updates on this issue over the coming days. 

Money coming in—even if it’s not as much as before:

--Projected General Fund revenues overall for 2010-2011 total $61.3 million, a decrease of $1.5 million—or 2.4 percent less than estimated revenues for 2009-2010. For 2011-12, the projected General  Fund revenues total $62.9 million, a 2.6 percent increase over 2010-2011. 

--Sales tax “is projected to decrease by 6 percent  in fiscal year 2009-10,  decrease by another 3 percent  in 2010-11 and remain flat for 2011-2012. Sales tax collections in recent years have suffered from increased retail  competition in the area,  as well as the slowdown in sales of autos and other retail goods due to the softening local economy.  

--Property taxes: While property taxes are the largest source of revenue to the city's general fund,  representing approximately $16 million of the total, “secured property taxes are expected to decline by 1 percent in fiscal year 2009-2010, decline by 6 percent in fiscal year 2010-2011 and an additional 3 percent in Fiscal Year 2011-2012 (compared to 6-8 percent growth in prior years),. These declines are due to the sluggish housing market and economy and an increasing number of commercial and office vacancies within the city.  It should be noted that residential properties represent approximately 75 percent of the total assessed property valuation within the city."

--"Tax revenues resulting from the sale of both residential and commercial properties have declined by 75 percent over the last three years due to the conditions noted above, and are not expected to change significantly during fiscal years 2010-2012."

Where it’s going:

--The recommended operating expenditures for 2010–11 total $60.5 million, a decrease of $3.2 million or 5 percent less than estimated expenditures for 2009-10, primarily due to the recommended elimination of 33.36 additional full-time equivalent positions, the recommended restructuring of several programs, including custodial services and facility rentals, as well as the anticipated elimination of divisions such as reprographics, mail and warehouse services.

--Recommended 2011–2012 expenditures total $59.8 million, a 1.2 percent % decrease from 2010-2011.

What’s going/changing

--Eliminate funding for the school crossing guard program. 

--Discontinue “Movies Under the Stars."

--Discontinue school-year programming for teens, including the Youth Council, city support for three annual holiday-themed special events for children and youth, and the Teen Job Faire

--Stop funding for the Downtown Trolley and Shuttle Service, while other sources of funding are investigated for these services, such as grants, partnerships, and fees.

--In the police department,  freeze a police manager position, a watch commander/lieutenant position, a police dispatcher, and a police officer position

--Increase all parking fines by $5

--Eliminate funding for the contract with Contra Costa County for animals services beginning in 2011.

--Increase fees for taxi permits, dance permits, massage permits, and the adminstration of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) licenses.

--Cut temporary positions in the parks division

--Reduce financial support for the Lindsey Museum and the Gardens at Heather Farm Park.

--Eliminate a landscape maintenance worker position in the parks dvision.

--Reduce traffic cones placed at Homestead Avenue and Ygnacio Valley Road at peak times.