Securing Pinole’s financial future
I’m running because I think Pinole needs to secure it’s financial future. While Pinole’s budget is in balance now, there are future threats which will need to be addressed. Since propositions 13 and 218 sharply limit how much revenue Pinole can raise from property taxes, the city has relied on Sales tax as the city’s largest revenue source (by far, over 40% of unbound revenue)
(budget, pages B-1 and B-2), and the Utility User Tax (UUT) as a significant source of income (10.29% of this year’s unbound revenue, as noted on page B-1). When times are good, like they are now, this isn’t a huge problem. An influx of customers keeps most of the chains open and sales tax revenues high. But when they go bad, the city doesn’t have many counter-cyclical revenue sources. Furthermore, in the city’s own 5-year projection for the general fund, it anticipates significant deficits every single year from 2019 onwards, ranging from $397,603 in the 2019-20 budget year to -$1,539,485 in the 2022-23 budget year, primarily due to marked increases in benefits and insurance costs (City budget, B-10).
In the long term, the big box mall store model is going out of favor, and as the mega-chains collapse (like Toys R Us and OSH), the tenants that replace them might not provide sales tax revenue at all. Finally, the utility user tax (UUT) has been declining over time with the phasing out of landlines, and could potentially drop precipitously if there’s widespread solar installation. I think the city should investigate new counter-cyclical revenue sources.
That said, if the UUT fails the city will immediately face a 1.9 million dollar deficit. I will be campaigning for the UUT measure on this fall’s ballot, Measure C, and urge all voters in Pinole to vote for it. But right now, people are disinclined to vote for it because they don’t see the concrete benefits the government provides. That’s why I’m working on:
Reconnecting Pinole with its government
People feel out of touch with the city government, and vice versa. Even though there’s lots of information that the public can access, people don’t necessarily know that. The city’s website redesign might mitigate some of this, but the city needs to do more direct outreach via social media, mailings and postings at popular community gathering places. I will be doing some of this outreach as part of my campaign, and will continue to do so if elected.
City documents aren’t always easy to understand. Take the city’s budget. The budget proper, while it goes to some lengths to explain items to the public, has no graphs in it whatsoever. You can watch the video of the presentation on the budget which does have graphs, but I wouldn’t call that accessible. I made some graphs from the city’s budget, which you can find here. In addition, I will write a detailed as well as top-level analysis of this year’s budget as I understand it in another blog post. You can find the top-level analysis here.
Finally, most working-age adults cannot attend Tuesday night council meetings to give their input on the city’s agenda items after Citizens to be Heard. I am going to ask the public what meeting times would be easiest to attend, so it would be easier for members of the public to give their input. If the Council is unwilling to change meeting times, at the very least it should have Citizens to be Heard immediately after closed session.
But even if all of these things are done, there’s not necessarily concrete things that the government can point to within the operating budget. That’s why I think we need to work towards having concrete things to point to- like having the library be open every day of the week, and in the longer term reopening the Pinole Valley Fire Station.
Renewing the Library and reopening the Pinole Valley Fire Station
I think one of the major challenges we face as a community is that we lack community institutions for families and non-senior adults. Certainly, there’s the senior center for seniors, and the youth center for youth. But for working-age adults and families as a whole, there isn’t a natural community gathering place.
I think the Library can and should become that place. There’s already a large space separate from the library proper that is used for community events, and it could easily be converted into a community center outright. The problem is that the city of Pinole hasn’t funded maintenance of the library for years, and so it’s only open every other weekday. I would work to have the city take control of the library, fund it so that it can be open every weekday, and create a community gathering space there. This would strengthen the community as well as the library.
Doing this would make it clear that government can bring benefits to the community. On the basis of this, it would be possible to start working towards more ambitious projects, like reopening the Pinole Valley Fire Station. The city has never had the necessary revenue stream to keep that station open, but in rush hour it’s a public safety risk having the only station be on the other side of the high school. While the city is limited in what revenue sources it can seek by state law, I believe that keeping a fire station open is a classic community benefit for a parcel tax levy. I would prefer to adjust the property tax rate directly, but Proposition 13 bars that. Of course right now, the community is divided enough that even existing tax measures draw opposition when they are up for renewal.
Bringing Pinole together
And so, finally, I think we need to come together as a community. That starts with my listening to as many people as I can reach from all walks of life- from the Labor Council to the Rotary Club, from the Police Department to the Pinole Progressive Alliance. I will listen to all sides so that I can represent everyone, and so that I can understand everyone’s perspectives. I will be open minded, because it’s the right thing to do, and because representing the community is impossible with a closed mind. If you can’t understand other people’s perspectives, you can’t represent them properly.
Rafael's thoughts 