ACTION:
____________________________
Clerk/Secretary
Department: Finance Item No: PH1
Prepared by: Mike Sylvia, Director/Treasurer Meeting Date: May 13, 2025 Approved by: John Conley, City Manager Agenda Location: Public Hearings SUBJECT: PUBLIC HEARINGS TO CONSIDER ADOPTION OF RESOLUTIONS CONFIRMING THE
BALLOT RESULTS TO DETERMINE WHETHER A MAJORITY PROTEST EXISTS IN THE
PROCEEDINGS TO FORM THE CITY OF VISTA, VISTA CITYWIDE STREET MAINTENANCE ASSESSMENT DISTRICT NO. 2025-1 (SMAD) AND THE CITY OF VISTA,
VISTA CITYWIDE LANDSCAPING AND LIGHTING MAINTENANCE ASSESSMENT DISTRICT NO. 2025-2 (LLMAD)
RECOMMENDATION: Open and conduct Public Hearings regarding the formation and levy of assessments for the City of Vista, Vista Citywide Street Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-1 (SMAD) and the City of Vista, Vista Citywide Landscaping and Lighting Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-2 (LLMAD).
CORRELATION TO CITY COUNCIL GOALS: Fiscal Responsibility.
PRIOR ACTION: On October 10, 2023, adopted City Council Resolution No. 2023-174, awarding a contract to NBS for assessment engineering consulting services; adopted City Council Resolution No. 2023-175, amending the Operating Budget for Fiscal Years 2023/24 and 2024/25 (Vote: 5-0).
On March 25, 2025, adopted the following City Council Resolutions:
1.Resolution No. 2025-41 initiating proceedings and declaring its intention to form the City of Vista, Vista Citywide Street Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-1 as well as preliminarily approving the Engineer’s Report.
2.Resolution No. 2025-42 setting a time and place for the Public Hearing for May 13, 2025, and ordering the initiation of assessment ballot proceedings for the City of Vista, Vista Citywide Street Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-1.
3.Resolution No. 2025-43 initiating proceedings and declaring its intention to form the City of Vista, Vista Citywide Landscaping and Lighting Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-2 as well as preliminarily approving the Engineer’s Report.
4.Resolution No. 2025-44 setting a time and place for the Public Hearing for May 13, 2025, and ordering the initiation of assessment ballot proceedings for the City of Vista, Vista Citywide Landscaping and Lighting Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-2. (Vote 5-0)
STATEMENT ON THE SUBJECT: The two current assessment districts which provide 1) street maintenance and street sweeping, and 2) landscaping and lighting maintenance, were established in 1991 and 1992, respectively. These districts were established to provide an ongoing source of funding for the AGENDA
REPORT
CITY COUNCIL
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
SUCCESSOR AGENCY
BUENA SANITATION DISTRICT
JOINT POWERS FINANCING AUTHORITY
Opened, conducted, and closed the Public Hearings. No vote taken.
MEETING DATE: May 13, 2025 PAGE 2
SUBJECT: PUBLIC HEARINGS TO CONSIDER ADOPTION OF RESOLUTIONS CONFIRMING THE
BALLOT RESULTS TO DETERMINE WHETHER A MAJORITY PROTEST EXISTS IN THE
PROCEEDINGS TO FORM THE CITY OF VISTA, VISTA CITYWIDE STREET MAINTENANCE ASSESSMENT DISTRICT NO. 2025-1 (SMAD) AND THE CITY OF VISTA,
VISTA CITYWIDE LANDSCAPING AND LIGHTING MAINTENANCE ASSESSMENT DISTRICT NO. 2025-2 (LLMAD)
operation, maintenance, and servicing of the City’s streets, street trees and landscaping, street lighting, traffic signals, and street sweeping, specific to each district’s original scope of services and consist with California state code. However, while the districts’ costs have continued to increase due to multi-decade inflation, there has not been an increase in the two districts’ assessment rates and thereby aggregate revenue since 1997, due to legal requirements of Proposition 218, which was approved by California voters in November 1996, as well as subsequent court case outcomes which affect how assessment districts operate. Compounding the revenue/cost imbalance, neither district has an inflation factor within the current districts’ methods of assessment.
Given that the existing assessment districts do not provide adequate revenue for the services and maintenance of the improvements, staff proposes to form new assessment districts that are intended to provide sufficient revenue to fund ongoing annual maintenance, operation, and servicing of the improvements; reserve funds for replacement and repair of the improvements; administrative expenses; and an allowance for an annual inflation factor so the assessment rates may be increased over time as costs increase without conducting a new ballot proceeding, consistent with prior unanimous City Council direction in May 2023. The proposed assessment districts are the City of Vista Citywide Street Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-1, and Citywide Landscaping and Lighting Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-2.
On March 25, 2025, the City Council acted to initiate proceedings and declare its intention to form the SMAD and LLMAD, called for the preparation of an engineer’s report, and set May 13, 2025 as the date for the public hearing. On March 30, 2025, an assessment ballot was mailed to the property owners of record of the parcel(s) to be assessed, in accordance with Article XIII D of the California Constitution.
Tonight’s public hearings represent the end of the 45-day timeframe for ballot submission. After the conclusion of the Public Hearings, assessment ballots will be tabulated in the Vista Room by the City Clerk along with City staff and NBS Government Finance Group beginning on May 14, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. The tabulation process will be open to the public. The results of the ballot tabulation and final actions will be taken at the May 27, 2025 City Council Meeting.
If there is not a “majority protest,” the Council may approve and adopt a Resolution Declaring the Results of the Ballot Tabulation in the proposed City of Vista, Vista Citywide Landscaping and Lighting Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-2 and Providing that No Majority Protest Exists in Proceedings to Form the District and Ordering the Collection of Levies for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025/26 and a Resolution Declaring the Results of the Ballot Tabulation in the proposed City of Vista, Vista Citywide Street Maintenance District No. 2025-1 and Providing that No Majority Protest Exists in Proceedings to Form the District and Ordering the Collection of Levies for FY 2025/26.
If there is a majority protest, the Council may approve and adopt a Resolution Declaring the Results of the Ballot Tabulation in the proposed City of Vista, Vista Citywide Landscaping and Lighting Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-2 and Abandoning Proceedings to Form such Assessment District and the Levy of an Annual Assessment Therein; and a Resolution Declaring the Results of the Ballot Tabulation in the proposed City of Vista, Vista Citywide Street Maintenance District No. 2025-1 and Abandoning Proceedings to Form such Assessment District and the Levy of an Annual Assessment Therein.
If these two new assessment districts are approved by a majority of effected property owners who return ballots by the conclusion of the Public Hearing (weighted by financial obligation), the two new districts will 05/13/2025 PH1 2 of 3
MEETING DATE: May 13, 2025 PAGE 3
SUBJECT: PUBLIC HEARINGS TO CONSIDER ADOPTION OF RESOLUTIONS CONFIRMING THE
BALLOT RESULTS TO DETERMINE WHETHER A MAJORITY PROTEST EXISTS IN THE
PROCEEDINGS TO FORM THE CITY OF VISTA, VISTA CITYWIDE STREET MAINTENANCE ASSESSMENT DISTRICT NO. 2025-1 (SMAD) AND THE CITY OF VISTA,
VISTA CITYWIDE LANDSCAPING AND LIGHTING MAINTENANCE ASSESSMENT DISTRICT NO. 2025-2 (LLMAD)
replace the existing Street Maintenance District No. 1, and Landscaping and Lighting Maintenance Assessment District No. 1.
FISCAL IMPACT: If the two new assessment districts are approved on May 27, 2025, the direct fiscal impact to the City’s General Fund is twofold, per district: 1) a general benefit contribution, and 2) City- owned parcels’ assessments. The estimated FY 2025/26 general benefit contributions are $77,129 and $305,125, and the City-owned parcels’ assessments are $3,297 and $22,653 for the SMAD and LLMAD, respectively.
EXHIBITS: None
05/13/2025 PH1 3 of 3
From:
To:
Subject:
Date:
DanielOe Green
Public Comments
Formal Objection to the Formation of Assessment Districts No. 2025-1 and No. 2025-2 Tuesday, May 6, 2025 10:22:16 PM
one people who received this message don't often get email from -ortarl
Dear Mayor Franklin and Members of the City Council,
I am writing as a homeowner in the City of Vista to formally OPPOSE the formation of Citywide Street Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-1 and Citywide Landscaping and Lighting Maintenance Assessment District No. 2025-2, as proposed in your March 25, 2025 staff report because they represent an tuijustified cost shift onto properly owners. Under the proposed rates, my own annual assessment would increase from $32.63 to $59.65 —an increase of $27.02, or over 83% despite no significant change in the services provided.
While I fully support maintaining quality infrastructure, landscaping, and lighting in our city, strongly object to the proposed finding mechanism, which places the financial burden on property owners through special assessments. These assessments, with limited oversight and no voter approval required beyond this initial process, effectively fimetion as a tax increase, and their inclusion of automatic annual inflation adjustments makes them even more concerning from a fiscal accountability perspective. They should be fiunded through the general fund, which is already supported by property taxes and other local revenues.
According to the city's own budget figures for FY25, over $83 million will be collected from taxes, and total revenues are projected at $117 million. Yet, public safety accounts for over 55% of total expenditures, while the functions most closely related to the proposed assessments, such as public works (6.8%), community services (7.1%) & community development (5.9%) receive a significantly smaller share. These three categories which directly relate to sheet maintenance, landscaping, lighting, and neighborhood beautification receive less than 20% of the general fund. A modest reallocation of the budget's public safety funds —such as 5% - 10% —would be sufficient to fund the services these assessment districts aim to cover, without increasing costs for residents. It is clear that this is not a revenue issue, but a budgeting priority issue. Rather than imposing permanent, annually increasing assessments on homeowners, the City should re-evaluate its budget priorities.
Property owners already contribute substantially through property taxes, sales taxes, and service fees. In this time of increasing inflation and housing pressure, the City of Vista should not attempt to fix long-standing budget gaps or structural finding issues by imposing new annual charges on homeowners —especially for services that are clearly part of basic municipal obligations it is supply inequitable and fiscally unjustified.
I urge the Vista Mayor and Meiubers of the City Conuncil to vote NO on and publicly reject the formation of Assessment Districts 2025-1 and 2025-2 and instead commit to prioritizing budget reallocation or other alternative, equitable and sustainable finding sources that do not unfairly target homeowners with additional charges for essential services.
I will be attending the public hearing on Tuesday, May 13, 2025 and strongly urge the Mayor and City Council members to publicly reject these proposed assessments and publicly commit to prioritizing the reallocation of budget expenditures. Please know that your decision on this matter will weigh heavily in how I cast my vote in future campaigns and elections/re- elections.
Please acknowledge receipt of this comment in writing via electronic correspondence, dated 6 May 2025. Thank you.
Respectfully,
Danielle Green, Vista Resident/Homeowner
Assessor's Parcel Number (APN
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