STAFF REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
DATE: Special Meeting of August 29, 2024
TO: Mayor and Members of the City Council
VIA: Dante Hall, City Manager
SUBMITTED BY: Mike Roberts, Public Works Director/City Engineer SUBJECT: Service Levels for Victoria by the Bay Landscaping and Lighting Assessment District (Continued from the July 23, 2024 Council Meeting) RECOMMENDED ACTION:
It is recommended the City Council provide direction to City Staff by minute order on the timing of the service level reductions for the residential parkway strips in the Victoria by the Bay Landscaping and Lighting Assessment District (LLAD), which Staff recommends begin on September 30, 2024.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This agenda item is a continuation from the July 23, 2024 City Council meeting. As such, the information contained in that staff report remains applicable to tonight’s discussion (Att #1).
At the July 23 meeting, the City Council set the FY 2024-25 assessment rates for Victoria by the Bay LLAD at $617.03 per single family home, which is a 2.37% increase from last year’s. The 2.37% increase is equal to the applicable Consumer Price Index (CPI) and is the maximum allowable rate increase, given the property owners voted not to raise rates by a higher amount by a wide margin of 70.7% to 29.3%. Under Proposition 218, a majority of the weighted returned ballots must support the increase to be able to implement it. The discussion regarding service level reductions was continued to a future meeting by the 3 Councilmembers in attendance to allow a full Council discussion to occur.
Previously, at their March 26, 2024 meeting, City Council selected the elimination of irrigation and landscape maintenance (excepting trees) of the residential planter strips as the cost cutting measure to cure the structural deficit and eliminate the fund deficit over a 10-year period if the Proposition 218 process was not successful. City Council also added the caveat that the timing of the elimination of these services would be at Council’s direction.
With the severity of the District’s structural deficit in mind – which is estimated to be $449K beginning FY 2024-2025 and to increase $14K each subsequent month – staff is recommending the service cuts occur as soon as is reasonably possible. This would include time for a transition to occur to allow for:
Notification to property owners of the pending service cuts via a mailed postcard.
Negotiating a modified scope of work with the City’s landscape contractor.
Dialog with the HOAs on the viability of having them assume the maintenance responsibility of the residential parkway strips.
Taking into account the time needed for this transition to occur, staff is recommending the service cuts be implemented starting October 1, 2024.
City staff is currently in discussions with the Alexandria HOA Board regarding assuming maintenance responsibilities, and (as of the date this report was written) is scheduled to meet with Victoria by the Bay HOA for the same purpose. Staff will provide a full update on these ongoing discussions at the meeting.
ATTACHMENTS:
July 23, 2024 Staff Report
June 25, 2024 Staff Report
Final Engineers Report