BACKGROUND:
At their meeting on August 3, 2022, the City Council of Cathedral City voted to place a local funding measure (Measure K) for parks and recreation on the November 2022 ballot. Had it been approved by voters, this measure would have cost property owners 15-cents per building square foot annually on single-family residential units to allow Cathedral City and the Desert Recreation District (DRD) to:
•Provide safe and clean parks, playgrounds, and recreational facilities in Cathedral City
•Maintain and improve neighborhood park safety
•Maintain safe drinking water and improve water conservation •Enhance youth drug and gang prevention programs
•Provide affordable after-school and senior programs
•Address homelessness in local parks
•Make a wide array of recreational programs available in Cathedral City •Provide funding to develop a community recreation center Because it was a single purpose tax measure, provisions in California state law imposed a super majority requirement on Measure K, meaning a two-thirds majority was needed for adoption. The measure received majority support from Cathedral City voters but did not reach the required two-thirds level for adoption:
Yes 6,980 55%
No 5,808 45%
Total Votes 12,788
As a result of the strong community support for providing parks and recreation services and programs in Cathedral City, the City Council adopted the following action item as part of their five-year strategic plan adopted in April of 2023:
Action B-13 Develop a plan to address the need for funding for parks and recreation services through the DRD; and other resident priorities including streets, and work toward a potential funding measure in 2024 DISCUSSION:
The City Manager appointed a committee of residents to review unfunded needs in the community, explore possible solutions and potentially make recommendations to the City Council. The following residents participated in what become known as the Resident Study Committee:
Terry Applegate
Rocio Conde
Teri Hargreaves
Angel Herrera
Erin Hyland
Jonathan Lanz
Danny Lee
Richard Martinez
Rick Saldivar
Sue Townsley
Chip Yarborough
The committee first met and began their work on October 26, 2023. They received a presentation from Financial Services Director Kevin Biersack on the City’s current financial status including information on where revenues come from and where money goes according to the current adopted budget. Discussions included the large portion of the general fund budget that goes to personnel, both city staff salaries and benefits and the costs of contracted services, and the large portion of the general fund budget that goes to the police and fire departments. These conditions make it very difficult if not impossible to reallocate existing funds to cover the identified unfunded needs in Cathedral City. The committee also discussed the effect of the approximately $6 million spent on recovery from the damage caused by Tropical Storm Hilary, which does not include an estimated additional local contribution of up to $6million for street repairs which will be required to repair damage cost by the storm and subsequent clean-up work.
The second meeting of the committee was held on November 16, 2023. The primary agenda item was a presentation by staff from the Desert Recreation District. The presentation covered the history of the annexation effort and the outcome of the 2022 Measure K. The discussion then turned to what the DRD can bring to Cathedral City immediately upon annexation, which is all the recreation programming that can be provided without a community recreation center using parks, schools and other facilities.
Parks maintenance standards, the park ranger program to prevent undesirable activities at parks and other benefits of the DRD assuming responsibility for parks maintenance were also discussed. Finally, the committee looked at what a community recreation center might cost and how it might be programmed.
The next meeting was held on December 7, 2023. The agenda included a presentation by Engineering and Public Works Director John Corella on the city Pavement Management Plan. Committee members were very interested in the funding gap between what is needed to maintain and improve the condition of the streets and the funding that is available via traditional funding sources including state SB1 funds and the local maintenance of effort funds. The City uses grants, Measure A and gas tax funds to supplement those sources as they are available, but still falls far short of the funding needed in any given year. This results in some of the streets with the lowest pavement management index having to wait for repair work due to the great cost differential between having to completely rebuild a street compared to a slurry seal to extend the life of a street that is in better condition.
Also on December 7, the committee heard a presentation from Fire Chief Mike Contreras outlining the need for better response times for emergency medical services and an innovative plan to add a fourth ambulance staffed with two personnel to respond to medical calls for service in circumstances where emergency medical dispatch has determined that a two-person response will meet the identified need. This will leave the more costly fire engine response available for other calls where that is required and improve ambulance availability and response time across the system.
The final meeting of the committee was held on January 11, 2024. The agenda included a review of the previous presentations and followed by a discussion of ideas from committee members for addressing the identified funding gaps. Discussion included the applicability and limitations of grant funding, public private partnerships and single-purpose tax measures. Ultimately, the committee members coalesced around recommending a general purpose, half-cent sales tax (transaction and use tax) to the City Council. Some committee members voiced support for a three-quarter cent or even a one-cent additional tax. It was noted that a half-cent tax would raise about the same amount as the original Measure K would have raised – approximately $5 million per year. That amount of revenue would fund, in approximately equal amounts the following:
1. Annexation into the DRD and their assumption of parks maintenance responsibilities in Cathedral City.
2. Operating costs for a community recreation center.
3. Debt service costs to develop a community recreation center – most likely the adaptive reuse of an existing building.
4. An additional $1 million per year for street maintenance work per the pavement management plan.
5. The addition of a two-person medical response ambulance on each of the fire department’s three shifts (six staff total).
Items 2 and 3 above would not be required initially until a building for a recreation center was designed, developed, built or rehabilitated and opened. In the meantime, funds could be saved and applied to such costs reducing the amount of debt funding required.
Next Steps –
•Council will discuss the committee report and provide direction to staff •If a decision is ultimately made to move forward with a tax measure staff will need to return to Council with contracts for polling and consulting on educational materials
•A formal agreement with DRD for services that is acceptable to LAFCO will need to be developed
•Final action to refer a question to the voters will need to occur in June or July depending on the summer schedule for Council meetings to meet the August 9 deadline for submission of measures to Riverside County.
FISCAL IMPACT:
A successful measure will provide revenue necessary to support the items discussed in the report. Funding will be required for public opinion polling and educational materials which will need to be allocated in a future meeting.
FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN:
Action B-13
Develop a plan to address the need for funding for parks and recreation services through the DRD; and other resident priorities including streets, and work toward a potential funding measure in 2024.