Riverside Renaissance: Is the party still on?
Riverside Renaissance has finally raised some questions from the Press Enterprise which Columnist Dan Bernstein aside, has always appeared to be an unabashed supporter of the five-year plan.
The pace and growing costs of the ambitious in scope if truncated in terms of time allotted, wide-spread development plan for the city have made people nervous, something clearly seen during Election 2007 which sent two incumbent councilmen packing and was within 13 votes of removing a third from the dais. The budget for the renaissance has grown from its initial $785 million to over $1.8 billion, with the majority of the money being borrowed during times which have brought a housing crisis which will impact property tax revenue and a possible recession, not to mention a state that's been placed under a fiscal emergency by its governor.
(excerpt)
The City Council has added more than two dozen new projects to the list, boosting the original price tag by more than $756 million. The new work includes nearly $300 million to build a new electric power plant and a substation to transfer electricity from the state grid to homes and businesses.
Plus, city officials said they revised the Renaissance budget as they finalized details of individual projects and to take into account the higher costs of steel and concrete.
To complete the now 200 projects -- from recarpeting the third floor of City Hall to street improvements, additional fire stations, new parks and a revamped Fox Theatre downtown -- the city will borrow at least $1 billion.
City leaders insist they will be able repay the money without draining the general fund, which pays for basic services such as police and fire protection.
But they are less sure how to cover the annual operating costs for many of the Renaissance projects, such as new parks, a fire station and library expansion.
The city employees don't seem to be all that concerned about the future. At least not for Riverside Renaissance. It remains to be seen how much of these "specific revenue streams" will be able to handle paying for the operation of this city's basic services without serious cuts.
(excerpt)
The economic picture today is vastly different than when officials announced the Renaissance initiative. But City Finance Officer Paul Sundeen said, "It literally doesn't matter."
"We have specific revenue streams to pay for Renaissance," he said.
The city's elected representatives seem even less concerned though one did express mixed feelings.
(excerpt)
Councilman Mike Gardner, who took office earlier this month, said city officials should make presentations to service clubs and neighborhood groups all over Riverside to help residents understand how the city is paying for the Renaissance.
"There's a real fear in many people's minds that the city is going to have to raise taxes," he said.
But Councilman Frank Schiavone said residents in his ward have not raised questions about how to pay for the plan.
"The sky isn't falling," he said. "I have not had two constituents ... that have expressed any concerns. It is all accolades."
Actually, not quite. There's quite a bit of concern among residents in Ward Four like other wards in the city by city residents, including those who believe that expressing anything critical about the plan that was introduced with much fanfare and cheered by a long line of Rolodexed Greater Chamber of Commerce, is not a productive use of their time and energy. Many of them are doing what their counterparts have already done in the odd-numbered wards. They are waiting until an election year to voice their concerns on the issue.
In Ward Four, people like, even love, many of the public projects but concerns include the time span allotted to complete them, the expenditures and most importantly where the money is coming from. Whether or not taxes will be raised. Whether or not residents will get to vote on the raising of property taxes to pay for it or whether or not the burden will be placed largely on property owners.
One of the major concerns of Ward Four residents I've spoken with is how the expenditures of Riverside Renaissance will impact city services, including parks and public safety. The people most likely to hear these concerns will be those who canvass the even-numbered wards during the next election for city council, because they will catch the views of those who don't contact their elected officials with their concerns.
Ward Four has one of the highest voter turnout rates of all the city's wards when it comes to electing representatives, with the only exception being the runoff election for city council the last time around.
I've lived in Riverside quite a while and I've yet to see an elected official or even a political candidate appear at my door or canvass my neighborhood during an election cycle. I doubt I'm alone in noticing this. Those running for election may get out in their respective wards a great deal but not all of its neighborhoods are reached during campaigns.
It's also not a coincidence that a newly elected council member is more aware of these concerns including the possibility that the city will raise taxes than those who've been sitting on the dais for quite a while. That's also one of the reasons why the first two city council meetings under the new leadership have seen packed chambers, because many city residents want to see what the new leadership will do firsthand.
The role of Riverside Renaissance on this past year's election hasn't been discussed much but if the plan at its current pace and expenditures was such a hit, then two of its biggest proponents on the dais, Dom Betro and Art Gage, probably would have won the first round of the election process and not needed to spend time campaigning and fundraising for the November elections that both ultimately lost. Their colleague Steve Adams of Ward Seven should have won easily but instead narrowly defeated a candidate in a runoff who he outspent about 15 to 1.
For some reason, there are two articles by two different writers on the Riverside Renaissance. Doug Haberman authored a more cheerful article here.
(excerpt)
At the big public meeting the council held last year at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium before it voted to approve the Renaissance, resident Katie Greene said it almost sounded too good to be true.
"I will go home, hope and pray that you're not cheating me in any way," she told the council that night.
Now Greene says she is seeing the Renaissance come true.
"I like the progress," she said. "I'm excited to see it be completed."
Another resident, Art Garcia, said many of the improvements are needed, but he wishes the city had held more public meetings or asked residents whether the Renaissance projects are what the people really wanted.
"We're also seeing the price tag go up," he said. "I'm not sure how they're paying for it."
The Riverside Renaissance is not one vast project that the city is paying for in one lump sum. Each improvement has its own budget, and those projects that cost more than $50,000, whether for the Renaissance or not, come to the council for a vote in public.
The list of projects the council approved on Oct. 3, 2006, had a $785 million price tag. Many have since been revised, other projects have been added and prices for steel and concrete have increased so the cost now is closer to $1.8 billion, City Manager Brad Hudson said.
On top of that, the city is proposing to add a sewage-treatment plant that could cost as much as $250 million and would require an undetermined increase in sewer rates, Hudson said.
The money is there, or will be available, for most of the Renaissance, he and Beck said.
Most of the renaissance. Actually, about two-thirds of its budget is being paid through borrowed funds. And the maintenance of these improvements, long an expressed concern of those who question the renaissance who are otherwise known as its "partypoopers", has instilled enough concern even in Mayor Ron Loveridge.
(excerpt)
Loveridge said the annual cost of maintaining and staffing Renaissance improvements could vex the council down the road.
"It's a little tough to keep expanding the level of services," he said.
At the bottom of this article, there's a section on how these borrowed funds will be repaid. As many have said, it will be primarily through the next generation of city residents through property tax increases in redevelopment zones and utility payments and "user fees". The article states that the money from the general fund can't be used to pay back redevelopment and revenue bonds, which should provide some comfort. Until you sit down and think about how a sewer fund was essentially borrowed against to pay to purchase properties on Market Street, not exactly the way that money is supposed to be spent either.
If you visit the city's Web site, you'll find this City Hall organizational chart. What is interesting about the chart which illustrates and illuminates the food chain in city government, is the link that connects City Manager Brad Hudson to Asst. City Manager of Finance Paul Sundeen. When I asked City Hall Central about this some time ago, I was told that although the Finance division had previously been separate from the city manager's office, it was placed underneath it some time around the period that Hudson was hired by the city council. Some lamented that development because they felt it removed a layer of accountability between the two divisions. Whether that's happened is difficult to say. Time will tell if that's the case or not.
What's also interesting about this flow chart of authoritative power is that if you look beneath Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis, you will find unbroken links connecting him to departments like Human Resources, Public Information, Museum and Library. However, there are also broken links connecting him to the heads of the police and fire departments, which are also connected to Hudson's picture by unbroken links. There's no explanation on the chart as to the difference between the two different types of links, except to say that DeSantis likely has some authority over the public safety departments shared with his boss, Hudson though not as much so, as the other city departments under his command.
This mirrors concerns by individuals in the police department who were concerned earlier this year that the city manager's office was involving itself in the promotional process involving key management positions, a power usually enjoyed by a police chief. That concern culminated in a showdown at city council in March between the police union's leadership and the city manager's office with the city council in the middle, not long after the council had voted to give Hudson a huge pay hike. So who's in charge of promotions? That's a question that was somewhat answered that day, in a way that comforted and reassured many people, but has it been answered? It wouldn't be surprising to see this issue revisited again in the upcoming year.
Press Enterprise columnist, Dan Bernstein has taken out his crystal ball and is making predictions for the upcoming year. Here are several of them.
(excerpts)
Stung by criticism that they have de-emphasized the novel, Riverside school officials will require students to read Monarch Notes for "The Old Man and the Sea."
In a brilliant tactical maneuver, RivCo DA Rod Pacheco will slap himself with an injunction that declares him a public nuisance and prohibits him from associating with Riversiders who want to talk to him about his injunction against the East Side Riva gang.
Attempting to tap into a booming sector of the healthcare industry, UCR will scrap its campaign for a costly School of Medicine and announce plans for a cheaper School of Medical Insurance, specializing in training students to deny health care to underserved groups.
Forging a statesmanlike compromise, Rep. Ken Calvert will build storage units on the controversial Mira Loma site, but will invite critics of the land deal to live rent-free in the units until after the oxygen runs out.
DHL will resolve all neighbor noise disputes when a new flight path takes cargo planes beneath the flyovers at the Riverside Squeeze.
In the Eastside, an injunction filed by the Riverside County District Attorney's office might be filed in its permanent form later next month, according to the Press Enterprise.
(excerpt)
"I was trying to find every tool I could to stop kids from being shot in the wrong area at the wrong time," Tortes told a group of residents at a recent Eastside Think Tank meeting. "This didn't just happen overnight."
After Tortes retired, Lt. Larry Gonzalez took over as commander for the area. He speaks to groups, attempting to answer questions about how officers will enforce the injunction. Police have not yet arrested anyone on suspicion of an injunction violation. Gang members found in violation could be charged with misdemeanor violation of a court order.
"This is a small tool for us in a very large toolbox we have," Gonzalez said.
Department spokesman Steven Frasher said the injunction can be used when it needs to be, but so far police have not seen any trouble.
"If people are behaving themselves we have no reason to bother them with this at all," Frasher said.
Officers have already been trained on what the law says and when it's appropriate to apply it. Some residents have posed concerns about officers harassing young men suspected of being gang members who are not. Gonzalez told residents at the think tank meeting that he needs to be told if that happens.
Harrison Police Department has declared 2007 the "year of the law suits" and all of them lead back to the door of one single police officer according to the Journal News.
(excerpt)
Officer Ralph Tancredi has given police brass and town officials a yearlong headache with his legal battles, both in and out of the department. He is a plaintiff in four federal lawsuits against Harrison police, and a defendant in three domestic-violence cases involving his ex-girlfriend.
Police Chief David Hall said Tancredi's lawsuits and other legal problems have hurt the department by creating tension among groups of officers.
Tancredi, who was suspended in July, became a Harrison police officer 10 years ago this month.
According to Newsday, five police officers in Schenectady, New York were suspended while being investigated for an onduty beating.
The Idaho State Police Academy has nixed the slogan referring to going out and causing PTSD after an uproar resulted when the news broke.
(excerpt, Associated Press)
Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney, who attended the Dec. 14 graduation, pointed out the slogan to the academy's director, Jeff Black, minutes before the ceremony began, Raney said. A photograph of the program was e-mailed anonymously to news outlets throughout the state.
''That's not something we encourage or condone,'' Black said. ''It shouldn't have been there. It was inappropriate.''
Black said the class president was ex-military, and that the slogan ''slipped in.'' He declined to identify the graduate. Black said future slogans would be vetted by academy leaders.
Yes, that slogan was a poor choice. But why an individual would come up with it in the first place should also be explored.
Speaking of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a study conducted of rescue workers and volunteers who worked at the World Trade Center after 9-11 showed a wide variation in the rates of this disorder among them depending on their occupation, according to Psychiatric News.
Police officers had the lowest rates while construction workers, engineers and unaffiliated volunteers had the highest.
Riverside resident Aric Isom has a new entry on his blog. Check it out.
The pace and growing costs of the ambitious in scope if truncated in terms of time allotted, wide-spread development plan for the city have made people nervous, something clearly seen during Election 2007 which sent two incumbent councilmen packing and was within 13 votes of removing a third from the dais. The budget for the renaissance has grown from its initial $785 million to over $1.8 billion, with the majority of the money being borrowed during times which have brought a housing crisis which will impact property tax revenue and a possible recession, not to mention a state that's been placed under a fiscal emergency by its governor.
(excerpt)
The City Council has added more than two dozen new projects to the list, boosting the original price tag by more than $756 million. The new work includes nearly $300 million to build a new electric power plant and a substation to transfer electricity from the state grid to homes and businesses.
Plus, city officials said they revised the Renaissance budget as they finalized details of individual projects and to take into account the higher costs of steel and concrete.
To complete the now 200 projects -- from recarpeting the third floor of City Hall to street improvements, additional fire stations, new parks and a revamped Fox Theatre downtown -- the city will borrow at least $1 billion.
City leaders insist they will be able repay the money without draining the general fund, which pays for basic services such as police and fire protection.
But they are less sure how to cover the annual operating costs for many of the Renaissance projects, such as new parks, a fire station and library expansion.
The city employees don't seem to be all that concerned about the future. At least not for Riverside Renaissance. It remains to be seen how much of these "specific revenue streams" will be able to handle paying for the operation of this city's basic services without serious cuts.
(excerpt)
The economic picture today is vastly different than when officials announced the Renaissance initiative. But City Finance Officer Paul Sundeen said, "It literally doesn't matter."
"We have specific revenue streams to pay for Renaissance," he said.
The city's elected representatives seem even less concerned though one did express mixed feelings.
(excerpt)
Councilman Mike Gardner, who took office earlier this month, said city officials should make presentations to service clubs and neighborhood groups all over Riverside to help residents understand how the city is paying for the Renaissance.
"There's a real fear in many people's minds that the city is going to have to raise taxes," he said.
But Councilman Frank Schiavone said residents in his ward have not raised questions about how to pay for the plan.
"The sky isn't falling," he said. "I have not had two constituents ... that have expressed any concerns. It is all accolades."
Actually, not quite. There's quite a bit of concern among residents in Ward Four like other wards in the city by city residents, including those who believe that expressing anything critical about the plan that was introduced with much fanfare and cheered by a long line of Rolodexed Greater Chamber of Commerce, is not a productive use of their time and energy. Many of them are doing what their counterparts have already done in the odd-numbered wards. They are waiting until an election year to voice their concerns on the issue.
In Ward Four, people like, even love, many of the public projects but concerns include the time span allotted to complete them, the expenditures and most importantly where the money is coming from. Whether or not taxes will be raised. Whether or not residents will get to vote on the raising of property taxes to pay for it or whether or not the burden will be placed largely on property owners.
One of the major concerns of Ward Four residents I've spoken with is how the expenditures of Riverside Renaissance will impact city services, including parks and public safety. The people most likely to hear these concerns will be those who canvass the even-numbered wards during the next election for city council, because they will catch the views of those who don't contact their elected officials with their concerns.
Ward Four has one of the highest voter turnout rates of all the city's wards when it comes to electing representatives, with the only exception being the runoff election for city council the last time around.
I've lived in Riverside quite a while and I've yet to see an elected official or even a political candidate appear at my door or canvass my neighborhood during an election cycle. I doubt I'm alone in noticing this. Those running for election may get out in their respective wards a great deal but not all of its neighborhoods are reached during campaigns.
It's also not a coincidence that a newly elected council member is more aware of these concerns including the possibility that the city will raise taxes than those who've been sitting on the dais for quite a while. That's also one of the reasons why the first two city council meetings under the new leadership have seen packed chambers, because many city residents want to see what the new leadership will do firsthand.
The role of Riverside Renaissance on this past year's election hasn't been discussed much but if the plan at its current pace and expenditures was such a hit, then two of its biggest proponents on the dais, Dom Betro and Art Gage, probably would have won the first round of the election process and not needed to spend time campaigning and fundraising for the November elections that both ultimately lost. Their colleague Steve Adams of Ward Seven should have won easily but instead narrowly defeated a candidate in a runoff who he outspent about 15 to 1.
For some reason, there are two articles by two different writers on the Riverside Renaissance. Doug Haberman authored a more cheerful article here.
(excerpt)
At the big public meeting the council held last year at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium before it voted to approve the Renaissance, resident Katie Greene said it almost sounded too good to be true.
"I will go home, hope and pray that you're not cheating me in any way," she told the council that night.
Now Greene says she is seeing the Renaissance come true.
"I like the progress," she said. "I'm excited to see it be completed."
Another resident, Art Garcia, said many of the improvements are needed, but he wishes the city had held more public meetings or asked residents whether the Renaissance projects are what the people really wanted.
"We're also seeing the price tag go up," he said. "I'm not sure how they're paying for it."
The Riverside Renaissance is not one vast project that the city is paying for in one lump sum. Each improvement has its own budget, and those projects that cost more than $50,000, whether for the Renaissance or not, come to the council for a vote in public.
The list of projects the council approved on Oct. 3, 2006, had a $785 million price tag. Many have since been revised, other projects have been added and prices for steel and concrete have increased so the cost now is closer to $1.8 billion, City Manager Brad Hudson said.
On top of that, the city is proposing to add a sewage-treatment plant that could cost as much as $250 million and would require an undetermined increase in sewer rates, Hudson said.
The money is there, or will be available, for most of the Renaissance, he and Beck said.
Most of the renaissance. Actually, about two-thirds of its budget is being paid through borrowed funds. And the maintenance of these improvements, long an expressed concern of those who question the renaissance who are otherwise known as its "partypoopers", has instilled enough concern even in Mayor Ron Loveridge.
(excerpt)
Loveridge said the annual cost of maintaining and staffing Renaissance improvements could vex the council down the road.
"It's a little tough to keep expanding the level of services," he said.
At the bottom of this article, there's a section on how these borrowed funds will be repaid. As many have said, it will be primarily through the next generation of city residents through property tax increases in redevelopment zones and utility payments and "user fees". The article states that the money from the general fund can't be used to pay back redevelopment and revenue bonds, which should provide some comfort. Until you sit down and think about how a sewer fund was essentially borrowed against to pay to purchase properties on Market Street, not exactly the way that money is supposed to be spent either.
If you visit the city's Web site, you'll find this City Hall organizational chart. What is interesting about the chart which illustrates and illuminates the food chain in city government, is the link that connects City Manager Brad Hudson to Asst. City Manager of Finance Paul Sundeen. When I asked City Hall Central about this some time ago, I was told that although the Finance division had previously been separate from the city manager's office, it was placed underneath it some time around the period that Hudson was hired by the city council. Some lamented that development because they felt it removed a layer of accountability between the two divisions. Whether that's happened is difficult to say. Time will tell if that's the case or not.
What's also interesting about this flow chart of authoritative power is that if you look beneath Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis, you will find unbroken links connecting him to departments like Human Resources, Public Information, Museum and Library. However, there are also broken links connecting him to the heads of the police and fire departments, which are also connected to Hudson's picture by unbroken links. There's no explanation on the chart as to the difference between the two different types of links, except to say that DeSantis likely has some authority over the public safety departments shared with his boss, Hudson though not as much so, as the other city departments under his command.
This mirrors concerns by individuals in the police department who were concerned earlier this year that the city manager's office was involving itself in the promotional process involving key management positions, a power usually enjoyed by a police chief. That concern culminated in a showdown at city council in March between the police union's leadership and the city manager's office with the city council in the middle, not long after the council had voted to give Hudson a huge pay hike. So who's in charge of promotions? That's a question that was somewhat answered that day, in a way that comforted and reassured many people, but has it been answered? It wouldn't be surprising to see this issue revisited again in the upcoming year.
Press Enterprise columnist, Dan Bernstein has taken out his crystal ball and is making predictions for the upcoming year. Here are several of them.
(excerpts)
Stung by criticism that they have de-emphasized the novel, Riverside school officials will require students to read Monarch Notes for "The Old Man and the Sea."
In a brilliant tactical maneuver, RivCo DA Rod Pacheco will slap himself with an injunction that declares him a public nuisance and prohibits him from associating with Riversiders who want to talk to him about his injunction against the East Side Riva gang.
Attempting to tap into a booming sector of the healthcare industry, UCR will scrap its campaign for a costly School of Medicine and announce plans for a cheaper School of Medical Insurance, specializing in training students to deny health care to underserved groups.
Forging a statesmanlike compromise, Rep. Ken Calvert will build storage units on the controversial Mira Loma site, but will invite critics of the land deal to live rent-free in the units until after the oxygen runs out.
DHL will resolve all neighbor noise disputes when a new flight path takes cargo planes beneath the flyovers at the Riverside Squeeze.
In the Eastside, an injunction filed by the Riverside County District Attorney's office might be filed in its permanent form later next month, according to the Press Enterprise.
(excerpt)
"I was trying to find every tool I could to stop kids from being shot in the wrong area at the wrong time," Tortes told a group of residents at a recent Eastside Think Tank meeting. "This didn't just happen overnight."
After Tortes retired, Lt. Larry Gonzalez took over as commander for the area. He speaks to groups, attempting to answer questions about how officers will enforce the injunction. Police have not yet arrested anyone on suspicion of an injunction violation. Gang members found in violation could be charged with misdemeanor violation of a court order.
"This is a small tool for us in a very large toolbox we have," Gonzalez said.
Department spokesman Steven Frasher said the injunction can be used when it needs to be, but so far police have not seen any trouble.
"If people are behaving themselves we have no reason to bother them with this at all," Frasher said.
Officers have already been trained on what the law says and when it's appropriate to apply it. Some residents have posed concerns about officers harassing young men suspected of being gang members who are not. Gonzalez told residents at the think tank meeting that he needs to be told if that happens.
Harrison Police Department has declared 2007 the "year of the law suits" and all of them lead back to the door of one single police officer according to the Journal News.
(excerpt)
Officer Ralph Tancredi has given police brass and town officials a yearlong headache with his legal battles, both in and out of the department. He is a plaintiff in four federal lawsuits against Harrison police, and a defendant in three domestic-violence cases involving his ex-girlfriend.
Police Chief David Hall said Tancredi's lawsuits and other legal problems have hurt the department by creating tension among groups of officers.
Tancredi, who was suspended in July, became a Harrison police officer 10 years ago this month.
According to Newsday, five police officers in Schenectady, New York were suspended while being investigated for an onduty beating.
The Idaho State Police Academy has nixed the slogan referring to going out and causing PTSD after an uproar resulted when the news broke.
(excerpt, Associated Press)
Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney, who attended the Dec. 14 graduation, pointed out the slogan to the academy's director, Jeff Black, minutes before the ceremony began, Raney said. A photograph of the program was e-mailed anonymously to news outlets throughout the state.
''That's not something we encourage or condone,'' Black said. ''It shouldn't have been there. It was inappropriate.''
Black said the class president was ex-military, and that the slogan ''slipped in.'' He declined to identify the graduate. Black said future slogans would be vetted by academy leaders.
Yes, that slogan was a poor choice. But why an individual would come up with it in the first place should also be explored.
Speaking of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a study conducted of rescue workers and volunteers who worked at the World Trade Center after 9-11 showed a wide variation in the rates of this disorder among them depending on their occupation, according to Psychiatric News.
Police officers had the lowest rates while construction workers, engineers and unaffiliated volunteers had the highest.
Riverside resident Aric Isom has a new entry on his blog. Check it out.
Labels: business as usual, City Hall 101, public forums in all places
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