Compare and Consider: Morro Bay Candidates (continued)
City Council Candidates Website Highlights
Nancy Johnson - Website
The budget is an area that I feel has the most potential to look at our commercial core, which needs a boost so that we are able to capture more sales tax. We need to look comprehensively at the public services department and how it could be made more efficient, reducing the planning and building fees for commercial development during this slow economic time.
The budget is balanced using realistic revenue and expense projections without using savings or accounting gimmicks. There are many places to look for savings but the one area that I believe has a lot of potential to achieve significant savings is the benefits that the City offers the employees. The other suggestion I have is for the employees to contribute more to both their health insurance and their pension costs. Today, for all intents and purposes they do not contribute to their pension plan. If the City was able to do nothing more than to roll that benefit back for new hires to where it was in 2002, the savings would be really meaningful.
I know the current City Council is already addressing the employees benefit package, but if elected I will promise to push the city manager to enact new pension formulas and to increase the employee contribution percentages to their benefit package in the next round of their union contract negotiation that will be taking place next spring.
Raising taxes to cover the revenue shortfall is one solution that some have advocated, but one that I reject. I will not ask our citizens to dig into their pockets unless I am completely convinced that every tough decision to reduce costs has been made. There will be programs or services that I know are important to a small group of citizens that might have to be eliminated, but we must only spend money on services that we have the revenue to support.
I would work with the commercial property owners in the downtown area, as well as City government, to find incentives that would encourage them to make the type of improvements that would attract and keep tenants who would offer a more “up scale” selection of products or services. This would result in more sales tax revenues by offering more services and encouraging the residents to shop locally.
To promote tourism, taxpayers fund the City’s Community Promotion Committee and the Visitors Center operated by the Chamber of Commerce. The third source is the Business Improvement District, which is funded by the motel and hotel owners. I am not convinced that this structure is the most productive way to spend our resources. I think we could improve the Embarcadero by closing the street from Beach to Pacific Streets to through traffic, providing tourist attractions, such as a maritime museum, having water-level boardwalks and a sunken ship as a reef for divers.
Because I think it makes sense to try and reuse the discharged waste water, if elected, I will make sure that the new plant is designed to make it easy to add that process in the future. I believe it is important to get the new plant built in the timeline that the JPA has negotiated with the Regional Water Quality Control Board and deal with reuse issues when the new plant is up and running.
D'Onna Kennedy - Website
Regarding the wastewater treatment plant upgrade, I researched PERC Water and other companies like them, and I am impressed with their offerings and the fact that their technology is innovative. The environment has always got to be a factor, and it appears they address this also. There will be no penalty if we choose to change course from the current plan. We can still meet the timeline needed for completion because, for instance, PERC Water can complete the upgrade in two years.
Dial-A-Ride will become a "flex/fixed service," which is all that can be offered at this time due to funding (constraints).
To increase tourism, we should gather the information and look at new ideas such as family-friendly permanent activities. And focus on the signs that point traffic from Highways 101 and 1 to Morro Bay. Perhaps we need a contest for artists for the signs.
We should not raise the TOT (transient occupancy tax) to try and make up for a budget deficit.
First and foremost, we should continue to emphasize water conservation as a means of limiting consumption. I believe our wells, when maintained and tested properly, can provide an adequate supply of water in conjunction with the state water required to sustain our community.
George Leage - Website
Our city is a $27 million business. As a practical businessman I am responsible to my customers, employees, suppliers, government, and others. I know how to listen. I know responsibility. I know how to prioritize. I know how to get things done by enlisting the help of professionals and others. I will bring these abilities to the City Council.
When the power plant operates, our town prospers. If the plant upgrade happens, our city would receive an additional $2 million per year, and additional millions from indirect impacts on our local economy from the plant’s local expenditures. That money would solve a lot of our problems. Yet, despite a mandate from the voters to have the upgrade, our council has done nothing in the past two years to pursue that possibility. If the plant’s owners aren’t willing to upgrade the plant, then we should tell them an idle plant is not a long-term option in Morro Bay.
Parking and building fees increases have discouraged new businesses and housing starts.
I believe that we are transitioning to a more active type of tourist and that we should explore activities that will attract those type of tourists. Morro Bay is a playground for outdoor activities: surfing, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, sailing, kayaking, road cycling, mountain biking and the "new" sport of stand-up paddle surfing. Positioning Morro Bay as a destination for these activities will help us expand our tourist base and attract all-important dollars. I also support the plan to bring a maritime museum to Morro Bay. The Central Coast Maritime Museum Association has developed a concept and is eager to work with the city to make this dream a reality.
I am in favor of taking a look at the PERC Water option for the wastewater treatment plant. This project is too important, both financially and environmentally, not to take a closer look.
As for the Morro Bay Plant, I seriously doubt that a new plant will ever be built. With all the new regulations regarding seawater cooling, approval of such a plant is not likely to happen. The cost of building a dry-cooled plant seems to be prohibitive, or at least that's what energy companies are putting out there, My concern is what happens to the plant when the "owner" turns it off and walks away. I think that the city is already late to the game when it comes to future plans for the property. An exit strategy or strategies must be developed now. I know that there have been groups who have proposed various ideas for the plant. Most of these are pie in the sky. Even if the owner deeded the plant to the city, the cost of demolition or renovation would be astronomical.
Belted Kingfisher image on banner by Cleve Nash
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