FY 21-22 MID-YEAR BUDGET UPDATE
AMERICAN RECOVERY PLAN ACT (ARPA)
General Fund Loss of Revenues:
ARPA #21-1: Strategic Communication Plan [One-Time]
To enhance public outreach, community engagement and social media tools and platforms to facilitate open communication and information sharing with the public. With the completion of several new projects, the City is experiencing a renaissance period of sorts. This synergy is making it possible to move projects and initiatives forward. Great things are happening in Hercules. However, staff is lean and have limited bandwidth. Most employees go above and beyond to accomplish multiple tasks and take on expanded roles – even beyond their current expertise. The City lacks a communication professional with training and experience in-house. Staff who are taking on communication roles are doing so in addition to other duties. There is a need for the City to engage the community through both periodic project communication and daily communication that is well-planned and executed. A qualified communication firm is needed to assist the City in developing and implementing a sustainable Strategic Communication Plan.
Expense Increase: $50,000
ARPA #21-2: Willow/Palm Sidewalk Installation (Transit Center) [One-Time] Install a sidewalk from the Hercules Transit Center along Willow Avenue to connect to the existing sidewalk at Palm Avenue and then along Palm Avenue to connect to the existing sidewalk on Sycamore Avenue. Removing this gap will connect the Foxboro and Sycamore/Redwood/Lupine neighborhoods to the Hercules Transit Center.
Expense Increase: $250,000
ARPA #21-4: Refugio Tennis Court Tree Maintenance [One-Time] The tennis courts are surrounded by Eucalyptus trees that need occasional pruning and sometimes removal because of the nature of the tree (top-heavy and shallow-rooted). Some of the trees growing are volunteer trees (not planted) and need to be removed. Prune and or remove trees located at Refugio Valley Tennis as needed. Several trees are top heavy and many overhang the courts both dropping debris and raising safety concerns.
Expense Increase: $6,000
ARPA #21-5: Sidewalk and Safe Walkways [One-Time]
Sidewalks provide many benefits, including safety, mobility, and healthier communities. In addition to reducing walking along with roadway crashes, sidewalks reduce other pedestrian crashes. The City has over 100 miles of sidewalks and pathways which require ongoing repairs. The funds would be used to eliminate sidewalk tripping hazards.
Expense Increase: $100,000
ARPA #21-6: Community Swim Center Safety Fence Replacement [One-Time] The safety fence surrounding the Community Swim Center needs to be replaced. The current fencing is a wood frame with a metal mesh material. The wood has broken, split, fallen off, and has rotted in many places (see photos). The facility's fence is approximately 680' linear feet and 8' feet tall. For safety purposes and to follow the code, the fence needs to be replaced with "anti-climb" safety fencing around the aquatic facility. Parks and Recreation staff have secured quotes from professional fencing companies to ensure that we would cover the cost to replace the entire fence.
Expense Increase: $100,000
ARPA #21-7: Community Swim Center Gym Floor Replacement & Other Building and Deferred Maintenance [One-Time] The gym floor at the Community Swim Center needs to be replaced. The current flooring has been sanded and refinished many times. There are broken boards on both ends of the floor. Repairing the floor may be an option but won’t fully be known until the floor is pulled up in areas to assess the total damage. If the floor can be repaired, the remaining money would go towards other building and deferred maintenance such as:
• Replacing interior doors, handles, locks, etc.,
• Painting interior of the facility,
• Painting and repairing exterior of the facility (broken/rot board and baton), • Replace the (2) two main pumps and impellors at the pool, • Replace equipment in the kitchen, etc.
Parks and Recreation staff has secured quotes from professional flooring companies to ensure that this would cover the cost to replace the entire floor, taking in to account the cost of wood at this time.
Expense Increase: $250,000
Other ARPA Eligible Projects
ARPA #21-x: E-Gift Card Program [One-Time]
Many cities in California are using ARPA funds to help implement Community Digital Gift Card programs as a cost-effective way to stimulate the local economy to assist small businesses in recovery. They provide some additional savings to residents to shop locally. Community digital gift card programs allow residents to purchase gift cards only accepted at participating businesses. This is a great way to support small businesses and promote ‘Shop Local.’ Typically, community digital gift card programs have a resident buy a gift card valued at $50, with the initial investment from the resident being $25. Then they receive a ‘purchase bonus’ amount of another $25 paid by the city through ARPA funding. In other words, it is ‘buy one and get one free’ for residents.
HdL provides ARPA support to San Leandro, Pinole, and Lafayette of the cities highlighted above. Municipalities use three community digital gift card platforms, including Factor4, Giverrang, and Yiftee, with Yiftee being the most popular and offer the best customer service rating. Yiftee, based in Menlo Park in the Silicon Valley, is currently doing community digital gift card programs in many Bay Area and Northern California cities, including Alameda, Benicia, Berkley, Brentwood, Cupertino, El Cerrito, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Martinez, Merced, Nevada City, Newark, Pleasanton, Sacramento, San Leandro, Selma and South Lake Tahoe. Additionally, the City of Pinole approved a program with Yiftee on December 21, 2021, and is looking to implement it in late January 2022. Lafayette’s City Council has also approved moving forward with a Yiftee gift card program in February 2022. Several cities (Benicia, Brentwood, Cupertino, Fremont, and Sacramento) initially funded their community digital gift card programs from the CARES Act and have followed up with them because they have been so successful more ARPA funding for additional rounds.
Both the Business Needs Survey and the recently completed Community Survey show strong support for the use of a gift card program for Hercules. In fact, 72% of respondents from the Community Survey said they would participate in a community gift card program for local Hercules businesses. The following is an outline of the steps required to establish a community digital gift card program.
City brands the program and sets it up with selected platform/vendor at no cost City invites local businesses to participate at no cost and City and the Chamber of Commerce encourage merchants to join City, in collaboration with the Chamber, markets and sells card to community members City provides financial incentives during limited period of time (i.e. pays for the purchase bonus and delivery fees) Community members purchase digital cards on web portal – direct link from City webpage Community members able to use digital cards at participating merchants (either with a digital code or print out of gift card) Result: Community investment in local economy that has ripple effects.
Staff recommends that the City Council approve a Pilot Program, utilizing $65,000 in ARPA monies that would include:
Funding the $1 + 5% delivery fee (purchaser fee) and the $1/bonus gift fee A bonus gift card to incentivize use of the program and provide a benefit to all community members Branding costs associated with development of the “shop local Hercules” campaign Marketing costs for advertisement and promotion of the program and related point-of-sale signage and posters for participating businesses Expense Increase: $65,000.
CITY OF HERCULES FY 21-22 MIDYEAR BUDGETCITY OF HERCULES FY 21-22 MIDYEAR BUDGETARPA PROJECT LISTARPA PROJECT LIST CITY OF HERCULES FY 21-22 MIDYEAR BUDGET
CITY OF HERCULES FY 21-22 MIDYEAR BUDGET
ARPA PROJECT LIST
ARPA PROJECT LIST