Agenda Item12
1 DATE: May 5, 2025
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council through City Manager FROM: Peggy Flynn, City Manager
Brian Cochran, Assistant City Manager
SUBJECT: Receive and Update on Fiscal and Organizational Sustainability Plan Implementation
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council receive an update on the Fiscal and Organizational Sustainability analysis that the City conducted between 2019 and 2020 and the role that Measure U has played in rebuilding the City since its approval by the Petaluma voters in 2020.
BACKGROUND
The City’s Fiscal and Organizational Sustainability analysis that was conducted in 2019 and 2020 was an attempt to daylight the gravity of the City’s historical funding issues that had prevailed prior and since the Great Recession. Staff endeavored to ”turn over every rock” to analyze all aspects of the City’s lack of sustainability. The analysis showed a $6+ million annual structural General Fund deficit for existing services at that time; 16% (48 positions) below 2008 pre-recession levels, despite the growth in Petaluma‘s population and below-market compensation that had not kept up with inflation or the surrounding labor market medians; $200M+ deferred maintenance in City roads, facilities, parks, sidewalks, storm drain systems, fleet vehicles, etc.
This analysis was the impetus for the City Council to place Measure U, a 1% transaction and use tax (sales tax) on the November 2020 ballot. Measure U was approved by the Petaluma voters with more than 60% affirmative votes. Since then, the City has worked to implement the community’s eight priorities of Measure U; to keep the budget balanced by leveraging our revenues and making needed strategic investments in our staffing, services and infrastructure.
This workshop will review the above history in more detail and serve as a primer and tee up for discussions at the City Council’s budget workshop on May 12, 2025.
ATTACHMENTS
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4 1. PowerPoint Presentation (to be uploaded Friday, May 2, 2025)