Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Blog #31 - Doyle Drive Detour Route

The long awaited reconstruction of Doyle Drive in San Francisco is about to begin. Step one is tree removal which will take place on the weekends early in the morning starting next week.
Please see the two documents below for the information and the detour map.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Blog #30 – Town Council Actions from August 5, 2009 meeting

At the August 5, 2009 Regular Town Council Meeting the following actions were taken:

1. Honored Karen Arnold for her many contributions serving on the Parks and Recreation Commission for the last six plus years.

2. Accepted Upper Scenic Road as a Town maintained street
.

3. Adopted a Resolution opposing the proposed California Constitutional amendment ballot measure misleadingly referred to as the “Taxpayers Right to Vote Act”. This is a statewide proposition, sponsored by PG&E, requiring local governments to obtain a 2/3 vote of the electorate before providing a community choice aggregation electricity program.

4. Heard testimony from 9 residents in the Oak Manor neighborhood regarding complaints about unpermitted keeping of livestock and fowl on an undeveloped 50 acre parcel on Oak Manor Drive. The Council agreed on a 4-1 vote to require the property owner to apply for a conditional use permit and be before the Planning Commission as soon as possible to decide the merits of a conditional use permit. The Council will consider nuisance abatement proceedings on September 2, 2009 if the property owner has not applied for a conditional use permit.

5. Accepted the Grand Jury report titled “Saving Marin Major Crimes Task Force” as presented by the Police Department.

6. Accepted the Town of Fairfax 2005 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Report and set an emissions reduction target for 2020 of 20% below the 2005 levels.

7. Discussed a contract for Solid Waste and Recycling Services with Marin Sanitary Service

8. Adopted a Vision, Mission and set of Core Values for the Town. See below the Vision, Mission and Core Values Statement



9. Approved the annual MOU with the Town of San Anselmo for jointly sponsored recreation programs.

The next regular meeting of the Fairfax Town Council will be September 2, 2009. Some items scheduled for discussion and consideration on September 2nd are: consideration of a solid waste and recycling contract with Marin Sanitary Service; second reading and adoption of an ordinance relating to an administrative citation program; second reading and adoption of an ordinance relating to a 50% remodel; report on the state budget impacts on the Town budget; and the annual audit report for FY 2007/08.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Blog #29 - State Budget Decisions Hurt Town Budget

The State legislators and the Governor balanced the State Budget recently. You may remember that in February of this year the state adopted an 18-month budget. Since February the state accumulated a $26 billion deficit.

On July 28, 2009 the Governor signed a 27-bill package of budget solutions including:

Spending Cuts: $16.1 BILLION:

$820 Million in pay cuts to state employees or a 15% pay cut for 200,000 workers;
$9.3 Billion in education cuts;
$3 Billion in health and human services cuts;
$2.97 Billion in corrections, state parks and elimination/consolidation of state boards

Fund Shifts: $1.0 Billion
Revenues: $3.5 Billion

Borrowing: $2.2 Billion-$1.935 BILLION is the 8% local property tax grab
Other: $1.4 Billion - Payroll shift and health premium delays for state workers

How does the state budget affect the Town's budget?

The Prop 1A property tax grab amounts to about $250,000 in lost revenue to our Town budget. The state must pay this back in three years with interest. In the meantime the Town is short the $250K and must borrow this amount from its own reserves to balance the budget.

In addition to the state borrowing our property tax for three years, the Town's Measure F, a special municipal services tax is up for renewal on November 3rd of this year. Measure F represents $465,000 per year to the Town. The two attachments below summarize how Measure F has been spent over the last four plus years by the Town and provides other information relating to the town budget and Measure F.




If Measure F is not renewed by June 2010 the Town will be short $715,000 by this time next year.

Balancing next year's Town Budget will be a major challenge.