Council: Budget, WRP purchase, Las
Piedras Park fix on Monday agenda
May 15, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
The City Council will continue their budget discussions, hear a report on the city’s purchase of the water recycling plant and its continuing operations and consider approving plans for remodeling Las Piedras Park at Monday’s meeting.
The May 18 session will start at 5:30 p.m. with a closed session in the City Hall Administration Conference Room where council members will hear an update on labor negotiations and continue the evaluation of City Manager Jaime Fontes. The council will also hear about one unspecified potential issue of pending litigation.
The council will continue the meeting at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers; the session will be broadcast live on Time Warner Cable Channel 10 and replayed per schedule. The meeting will also be live streamed on the city website and archived for later viewing.
The council will hear a presentation by Dr. Robert Levin, Ventura County’s Public Health Officer.
Users of Las Piedras Park will be happy to know that the playground-remodeling project is on the consent calendar for council approval. The popular play equipment—dedicated just a few years previously—was destroyed by arson in March 2014. The insurance company approved the claim for an unspecified amount of money in July 2014. Once the council approves the plans, which also passed muster with the Recreation Commission, bids for new playground equipment and resurfacing can be opened.
Public hearings include the annual Hillsborough Open Space Maintenance District hearing, the $150 parcel tax for 71 properties in the development that pays for common landscaped areas and other needs particular to the area.
Also a taxing issue is the 2015-2016 program for the mandated municipal stormwater permit program that costs each property owner $6.65 annually, a charge to the property tax.
The council will also discuss and possibly take action on creating a youth leadership council.
With the purchase of the water recycling plant, a deal finalized April 30 with the city paying about $70.6 million for the privately owned facility after years of rate increases and arbitration, the council will hear a report from bond consultant Terry Maas. The bond rate was set at just over 4 percent, about half of what citizens are now paying that caused basic sewer bills to be $77.23 a month.
The council will also address the next steps in the management and operation of the facility that was a Design-Built-Operate-Finance (DBOF) partnership between Alinda Capital Partners and PERC Water. The latter continues to operate the plant and has an operations/management buy-out clause in the original contract that has a $940,000 “break fee.”
Lastly the council will continue their planning session for the 2015-2016 Fiscal Year Budget. At the last council meeting department heads presented projected budgets, their wish lists and needs to fulfill same but a $400,000 projected deficit for the first half of the fiscal year triggered orders for revision. The council will hear that new revenue has been projected and reductions—each department had to present proportional cuts—examined for next fiscal year. The report also notes that the projection for the revised 2014-2015 ending balance has been reduced by more than half.
City Hall is located at 970 E. Ventura St.
