From: Dave G <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2023 10:25 AM
To: City Clerk Group <[email protected]>
Cc: Dave G <[email protected]>
Subject: Opposition to Agenda Item C.2 23-278 Public Hearing for a Street Lighting Benefit Assessment for Fiscal Year 2023 – 2024.
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Dear City Clerk – please add my attached written comments to the Public Comments Received for Agenda Item C.2 23-278 Public Hearing for a Street Lighting Benefit Assessment for Fiscal Year 2023 - 2024, meeting date July 18, 2023, and distribute accordingly.
Thank you very much,
David Gaughen
Goleta CA, 93117
Opposition to Agenda Item C.2 23-278 Public Hearing for a Street Lighting Benefit Assessment. Page - 1
DAVID GAUGHEN
7456 Evergreen Drive
Goleta, CA 93117
Telephone: (805) 985 – 7229
Email: [email protected]
July 18, 2023
To: The Mayor and Council Members
130 Cremona Drive, Suite B
Goleta, CA 93117
Subj: Opposition to Agenda Item C.2 23-278 Public Hearing for a Street Lighting Benefit Assessment for Fiscal Year 2023 - 2024
Dear Madam Mayor and Council Members:
On the City of Goleta Calendar for June 20, 2023, Agenda Item A.8 23-277 “Resolution to Hold a Public Hearing for a Street Lighting Benefit Assessment for Fiscal Year 2023/24,” was placed on the “Consent Calendar” for a combined total of 21 consent items at the June 20 City Council meeting. It was my understanding that Consent Calendar Items follow Public Hearings but it appears they also preceded Public Hearings as well. In the future, I will now review all consent calendar items in advance of the calendar item being placed under Public Hearing.
City of Goleta Single Family Residents invest their time, money, labor and paid water to personally maintain the parkways which house their City street light. This Single Family property owner investment for parkway landscaping and maintenance far exceeds and offsets the proposed $24 annual street light assessment. Since Single Family property owners maintain these parkways at their expense (>> $24 annually) and Not the City (except for parkway tree pruning every 2 or so years), it was mutual understood that this service would be free or at a greatly reduced cost and Not formally assessed for single family residential property owners.
Per the Staff Report, anticipated Single Family Residential assessed collections equate to $138,096.00/annually (see Table 2) and under Alternatives, “Given the ongoing maintenance costs and need for additional financial resources to maintain and operate the recently acquired streetlights, there is
Opposition to Agenda Item C.2 23-278 Public Hearing for a Street Lighting Benefit Assessment. Page - 2 no alternative to the staff recommendation above.” In contrast to Alternatives, I can think of multiple spending cut solutions which could have effortlessly paid for and kept our residential street lights operational at no expense to these property owners. For example: 1) Why is the City placing the priority of the procurement of hybrid electric vehicles and battery operated vehicles before securing funds to keep our street lights on (3 vehicles @$170K, total procurement $640K – see Staff Report on Adoption of Green Fleet …), 2) Why did the City authorize $174,055.00 from the General Fund to assist in paying for the Economic Development Strategic Plan contract award before securing future funds to pay for keeping our street lights on (see Staff Report on Visitor Profile Analysis and Economic Development Strategic Plan Contract Award), 3) To the best of my knowledge, why was this Street Light funding requirement not a part of the Measure B discussion which could easily cover all street lighting costs, 4) Why is the City moving forward on new projects requiring new funding while transferring the street lighting costs directly to single family residents (see Agenda Item B.7 23-327 Award a Professional Design Services Agreement with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. for the Citywide Traffic Signal Upgrade Project, not to exceed $430K – please delay this project or an equivalent project to pay for our street lights), 5) Please look at Agenda Item “B.8 23-324 Public Works Professional Service Agreements for Fiscal Years 2023- 24 and 2024-25” which requires considerable funding which could also be delayed in part and/or with funding reduced to pay for the anticipated costs of $138,096.00 for 2023 – 2024 (i.e., Single Family Residential Street Lighting), and 6) Multiple other non-critical contract awards and professional service agreements could also be delayed or partially funded.
My primary concern is for the City to pay in whole the entire street lighting costs of $138,096.00/annually for Single Family Residents whereby the other proposed assessments could proceed forward. In conclusion, if I can find the money with practically zero effort, I’m confident that City Staff and/or the Mayor and Council Members can do the same to provide funding of $138,096.00/annually for Single Family Residential City Street Lighting.
Respectfully,
David Gaughen