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Labor Dept. Releases Highest Unemployment Rates for Cities; CA Cities Still Top the List

The Labor Department has released new jobless figures for the month of November and the results show that unemployment fell in three-quarters of large U.S. cities. Overall, unemployment rates fell in 277 metro areas, increased in 71 areas, and remained unchanged in 29. The Wall Street Journal notes that “One hundred thirty seven metropolitan areas recorded November unemployment rates above the national average, while 225 were lower.” Notably, the cities with the highest unemployment rates were once again primarily in the state of California, with 8 out of the top 10.

Cities with highest unemployment:

1. El Centro, Calif. 27.2
2. Yuma, Ariz. 23.7
3. Merced, Calif. 16.9
4. Yuba City, Calif. 16.8
5. Fresno, Calif. 15.7
6. Modesto, Calif. 15.5
7. Stockton, Calif. 15.5
8. Visalia-Porterville, Calif. 15
9. Hanford-Corcoran, Calif. 14.7
10. Madera-Chowchilla, Calif. 14.3

Cities with the lowest unemployment rates were as follows:

1. Bismarck, N.D. 2.8
2. Fargo, N.D. 3.1
3. Lincoln, Neb. 3.2
4. Burlington-South Burlington, Vt. 3.7
5. Sioux Falls, S.D. 3.8
6. Iowa City, Iowa 3.8
7. Ames, Iowa 3.8
8. Logan, Utah 3.9
9. Mankato-North Mankato, Minn. 4
10. Midland, Texas 4.1

 

Costa Mesa Approves New High-Paying Position: Economic Development Director

The Costa Mesa City Council recently voted unanimously to create a new position: Economic/Community Development Director. Peter Naghavi, who is currently assistant chief executive officer, is expected to take up the post, which will focus on attracting and keeping business in the city as well as coordination with CEO Tom Hatch to solve development issues. The OC Register reports that Councilwoman Wendy Leece commented the following on her support for the position: “We do need someone to be more proactive to encourage businesses to come to Costa Mesa and more of a variety than just the fast food, that's for sure.”

The new position will have a salary of $185,000 a year (not including benefits), which raised some criticism from residents who argued the city did not need another top-level executive when layoffs have affect lower-level employees.

Naghavi served as director of the Transportation Department for Somerville, Mass before he was recruited by the City of Costa Mesa in 1990 to serve as the City's transportation manager. He was promoted to the director of the Public Service Department in 2007. Later he took on the role of assistant chief executive officer.

In other Costa Mesa news, CEO Tom Hatch reported that many department heads recently agreed to pay the maximum amount allowed toward their state pensions. Hatch announced he wants other city employees to follow the example of the department heads to cut down on the city’s costs. The Daily Pilot has more here.

Open-Government Advocates Alarmed by Anaheim Official’s Memo to Purge Records

Anaheim officials are in a bit of hot water over comments made by Planning Department official Hannah Jones, who emailed employees to inform them that they should delete old documents from city files. Debate continues over whether the order is merely an innocuous reminder or if foul play is at work. In addition, the email sent by Jones notes that disciplinary action would be taken if managers or supervisors found “old unnecessary documents” on the computers of workers. Reportedly Jones sent out the email after the city received a request for records of communications to and from City Council members. The request was made by the non-profit news organization Voice of OC, which has been digging around into other city correspondence. Here is the opening of Jones’ email to Planning Department employees:

“The city has been getting daily public records requests, and on several occasions, old unnecessary or inappropriate documents have been found in City files. We have been fortunate in that we have not had old or unnecessary documents turn up as a result of these requests. When these documents do turn up, it can very easy portray the actions of city staff, applications, contractors and decision makers out of context and damage our credibility. Because of the increased scrutiny of these records, division managers or supervisors, from time to time, will be reviewing your records, both hard copy and electronic. If old unnecessary document are found on computers or in offices/work areas, then disciplinary action will be taken.”

City spokeswoman Ruth Ruiz stated that the email was merely a reminder about the city’s retention policy. Anaheim City Attorney Cristina Talley is quoted as saying that she is looking into the matter. The Voice of OC reports on other city feedback:

“City Clerk Linda Andal said she interpreted the email as a reminder to employees to manage city records according to the rules of the department's records retention policy. She pointed to specific guidelines in which Jones outlines which records should be destroyed and which should be saved. […] Records that should be purged include: ‘emails and correspondence that simply confirm meeting dates, confirm shipping or receipt of information, or arranges meeting times.’ The email is simply ‘restating our city's policy on record keeping, purging emails and identifying a record,’ Andal said.”

The Orange County Employees Association has told workers not to comply with the email’s request until the district attorney’s office completes an investigation on its legality.

You can be the judge by reading Jones’ full memo here.

Ceres and Tracy Join the Strong Cities, Strong State Campaign

It’s a new year and there are new cities joining Strong Cities, Strong State. First up is Ceres, which is located in the central San Joaquin Valley, 80 miles south of Sacramento and 95 miles east of San Francisco, in the heart of Stanislaus County. Ceres is in one of the Central Valley's richest and most diverse agricultural areas and is the home of the new $14 million County Agriculture Center. Even the name "Ceres" originates from the Roman goddess of agriculture. Ceres is a growing community with a heartfelt commitment to retaining its small neighborhood personality. Businesses, organizations, and nonprofit community service groups band together for a number of activities throughout the year. Success stories include:

• George Costa Ball Field Complex: Formerly known as Smyrna Field, the George Costa Ball Field Complex now enjoys a completed renovation and the addition of another ball field.
• Community Center: The brand new Ceres Community Center is located geographically and symbolically at the heart of the ongoing revitalization of the Downtown Area and has had its community accessibility greatly magnified with the addition of the newly completed 4th street Parking Lot
• Downtown Specific Plan: The Ceres Downtown Specific Plan is the culmination of several years of concerted efforts to develop a plan for revitalizing the downtown area.

Read more, see photos, and connect with the city here.

Next up is the city of Tracy. It’s a community of 83,000 where neighbors and local merchants greet residents by name and the welcoming never stops. Tradition, charity and prosperity abound. Locals know the City as one of the friendliest cities in California. Tracy is a place to kick off your shoes, sit back and relax. The opportunity to live the good life still exists here, and family, faith, education and the arts are still valued within the community. Tracy is centered in a triangle formed by the interstates of 580, 205 and 5. Tracy is also conveniently situated an hour from Sacramento, San Francisco and San Jose and a few hours from Los Angeles. Success stories include:

• Holly Sugar Sports Fields: The City of Tracy has developed a unique and unprecedented approach to leverage limited available funding and to maximize field development which meets the growing needs and demands of local youth sports leagues.
• Resident Prosperity and Family Enrichment: The City of Tracy recognizes that an outstanding quality of life involves more than safety, water and basic municipal services. It also includes special events and family enrichment activities that create a psychological boost during depressed economic times as well as civic engagement and local pride

Read more, see photos, and connect with the city here.

San Jose Pot Referendum May Force Council to Change Course; 31,103 Valid Signatures

As has been the case in other pockets of the state, medical marijuana collectives showed they wouldn’t take new regulations lying down when they corralled around a referendum to repeal new rules in the city of San Jose. Back in September, we relayed that the City Council had taken steps to regulate the medical marijuana industry through the approval of limits on the number of businesses that can legally operate. The ordinance provoked outrage among pot advocates because the council stipulated that only 10 dispensaries would be allowed to stay open when there were over a 100 operating in the city.

Notably, a referendum effort was able to collect 49,000 signatures in a month to repeal the law. In response, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed has indicated that the city may be willing to amend the ordinance it passed in order to make it less strict. Reed commented that “My preference is that we can negotiate some kind of ordinance that we can all live with." Increasing the number of dispensaries allowed to operate would be foremost among the concerns of collectives, but a majority of the council may be unwilling to change course.

There is another option as well, based on previous comments made by the Mayor. Reed has said in the past that if a referendum effort was successful, then the issue should be put to the voters to have a final say. To pay for the costs of the election in cash-strapped San Jose, the mayor proposed raising the city's tax on medical marijuana collectives from 7 to 10 percent.

The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters has already concluded that the referendum drive gathered the necessary number of qualified signatures, thereby leading to the suspension of the ordinance. Time will tell if the council will repeal the law, call a special election, or put it on the ballot in June.

Redevelopment: Questions Remain in the Aftermath of Ruling; Locals Urge Legislative Action

Penny wise and pound foolish, the elimination of redevelopment agencies equates to the elimination of a vital investment vehicle that boosts the economy and provides jobs, both of which are sorely needed in the state of California. From the get-go, local governments were continually in a defensive position in 2011 and it appears that positioning will extend into 2012 in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling on redevelopment. The new year is starting off from a point of weak negotiating power for cities as they look to salvage what’s left of redevelopment. While the outcome of the lawsuit was the latest twist in ongoing budget battles, plenty of questions still remain about what’s next for the fate of over 400 agencies, payment of their debts, ongoing commitments, and current status of funds.

The California Redevelopment Association (CRA) and League of California Cities (League) vowed to work with state legislators immediately to develop legislation to revive redevelopment in order to protect local communities, job creation and our economy. Chris McKenzie, Executive Director of the League of CA Cities said: “Redevelopment is indispensible to cities to spur economic development, create jobs and improve communities. We know legislators recognize that and we hope they’re willing to work with us to reinstate redevelopment. We want to work as partners with state lawmakers to revive this tool in an accountable manner.”

Even though the State Supreme Court ruled that the abolishment of agencies is a "proper exercise of legislative power,” it’s worth remembering that the Legislature rejected the outright elimination of agencies under an initial budget proposal from the governor. So if the intention of the Legislature was not to seek the abolishment of the agencies, it may indicate there is some willingness to save the agencies and come up with a mechanism that would allow RDAs to continue while taking into account the budget difficulties at the State level.

However, the governor may not share the same willingness to revive RDAs. The Administration has posited that schools and public safety should be a higher priority for local property tax dollars. The governor released the following statement after the court’s decision: “[Thursday’s] ruling by the California Supreme Court validates a key component of the state budget and guarantees more than a billion dollars of ongoing funding for schools and public safety.”

If RDAs are allowed to continue, it may be safe to assume their form would be different than before. The court was particularly critical of Prop 22’s influence over the authority of redevelopment, as the decision reads:

“Had the voters in fact intended to amend the Constitution to fundamentally alter the relationship between the state and this class of political subdivision, we would, moreover, expect to find at least a single mention of such an intention in the various supporting and opposing [Prop 22] ballot arguments. Instead, we find silence.”

With respect to economic development, Speaker Perez released the following statement:

“The Supreme Court validated the Legislature’s action to eliminate existing Redevelopment Agencies, but we are disappointed that they blocked the creation of smaller, more targeted redevelopment agencies that fully funded affordable housing.With Republicans refusing to approve badly needed revenue increases, the Legislature’s action on RDAs became one of many necessary components to balance the $26 billion budget shortfall resulting from the Great Recession. Despite the Court’s action blocking our creation of the smaller RDAs that protected affordable housing funding, we remain committed to finding affordable housing solutions and making smart economic development investments in our local communities.”

You can read the full ruling here.

A New Year, A New Us: CityNews Celebrates its 5th Anniversary w/ Exciting Announcement

CityNews Readers,

It’s hard to believe, but 2012 brings the 5th year of CaliforniaCityNews.  It has been a terrific ride, and to celebrate this milestone, we're kicking off the new year with an exciting announcement. 

For several months, we’ve been busy preparing for the launch of our first ever full-scale redesign.  In celebration of this 5th year anniversary, we decided it was time for a makeover, especially since we’ve grown so much and so quickly over the years. It became readily apparent that we needed to build a new platform that responds to the needs of our expanding audience and the strong demand for quality local government coverage.

CityNews is the longest running and best online news site for local government in California.  We’ve taken great pride in serving our readers with timely information about the politics, policy, and best practices of city governance across the state.  It has also become apparent that CityNews is also the 'go-to' place for information on critical advocacy efforts, and our new site will feature new ways to not only learn about city issues, but also engage at the local, regional and state level.

Our goal with the new design is to create a comprehensive news site full of new and exciting features. Here are just some of the changes we have in store for you:

• Advocacy Center: Get the latest on key developments in Sacramento impacting cities, and make your voice heard.
• In the market for a new job? We’ll feature an updated, sleek and far more accessible jobs board
• A one-stop shop calendar listing of notable local government-related events
• Improved commenting: We want to hear from you, and our new site will make it that much easier for you to connect with Facebook-integrated comments
• Vendor directory: A one-stop resource for the innovate products and services helping cities serve their residents.

 

Reader satisfaction and the loyalty we’ve worked hard to earn were foremost among our concerns about a new look.  Ultimately, this site is about you -- our readers --  and we thank you for your continued interest in our publicaiton.

Please know that we value your input, comments, and suggestions, so any feedback you may have about what you’d like to see more of (or less of) and how we can improve, let us know. We want the new site to be as much yours as it is ours.

Thanks, as always, for your readership and sticking by us all these years. We can’t wait to show you the new site, and we trust you’ll find it a refreshing and compelling change from our current design. Stay tuned for more details as we transition to our new home and we look forward to rolling out the welcome mat.

Best wishes,

The CityNews Team

Gov. Brown Releases 31-Page Report to Favorably Review His 2011 Accomplishments

Photo: Gov. Brown Listed Making Sutter Brown First Dog a 2011 Milestone

Before the year 2011 drew to a close, Governor Brown found time to toot his own horn with the release of a report entitled “Milestones and Accomplishments.” Let’s just say brevity was not the order of the day, as even First Dog Sutter Brown gets a mention in the long report that seems to stop just short of mentioning what the governor accomplished eating every day.

No stone is left unturned as the 31-page report puts a favorable spin on just about every action the governor took in the past year, including the budget (yes, that budget), the State of the State address, and the visit by British royals.

One may find plenty to take issue with in the governor’s list of “accomplishments” for this year; take realignment, as local governments are still left in the lurch over secure and long-term funding for the major shift in responsibility.

Take a look at the report for yourself here.

LAO Raises Concerns in Analysis of Initiative Proposals Reforming Pensions; Legal Questions?

Back in November, the organization California Pension Reform filed two controversial initiative proposals with the goal of qualifying one for the ballot. Both are currently pending before they enter circulation for signature-gathering and their aim is to implement major reforms, such as requiring employees to increase their pension contributions, termination of abuses such as career ending spiking and retroactive benefit increases, and greater transparency. The Bee points out that “One measure would put future employees in hundreds of state and local pension funds into 401(k)-style plans instead of the current defined-benefit retirements guaranteed by employers. The other proposal puts future workers into "hybrid" plans blending the two types of accounts.” You can read fuller details about both proposals here.

The LAO recently released its analysis of both measures and noted that either one is likely to result in a legal battle if it’s passed by voters because of alterations that would be imposed on pension guarantees to current workers. The LAO’s analysis is somewhat muddled in that it points out clear effects are difficult to determine, but the analysis does argue that either initiative could potentially increase costs and force local governments to pay higher salaries to stay competitive. The LAO states the following about costs and investment returns:

“Under this measure, future employees’ hybrid plans would contain defined benefit pension components that are considerably smaller than those offered to current employees. Total contributions to pension systems for future employees’ defined benefits, therefore, will be much smaller than the total current contributions related to current and past employees. Defined benefit pension plans would experience a reduction in their incoming cash flow that would become more substantial over the coming few decades, as future employees grow to a larger share of the public workforce. These reductions in cash flow could cause many California pension plans to shift their allocation of investments to ensure they can meet existing benefit obligations, thereby reducing their average annual future investment returns. In general, when pension plans have to assume lower investment returns in this manner, their estimated normal costs increase, as do estimates of their unfunded liabilities. For these reasons, in the short and medium term (perhaps over the next two or three decades), these changes could result in public employers having to contribute over $1 billion more per year (in current dollars) to cover pension costs of current and past employees.”

Controller Releases Final Audit of Montebello over Fiscal Abuse; Makes Comparison to Bell

Over the holiday break State Controller John Chiang announced the results of his office’s final review of the City of Montebello and the official went so far as to posit there was some room for comparison between Bell and Montebello. The Controller commented, “Lax spending controls and poor bookkeeping contributed greatly to Montebello’s recent fiscal distress. While the roots of Montebello’s problems are different from Bell’s, they both share the common trouble of having little or, at times, no accountability in their spending of public dollars.”

While the Controller found no outlandish salaries like those in Bell, the audit lambastes the city’s accounting procedures. With respect to controls established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the audit found that only eight (11%) of controls were considered to be adequate in the city out of 74 control elements that were evaluated pertaining to internal control components.

In a particularly damaging assessment, the audit states that when it comes to controls “related to integrity and ethical value, commitment to competence, and management and operating style, we found none of the 16 control elements to be adequate.”

Highlights from the report include:

• “The city gave additional stipends as “miscellaneous” income to City councilmembers for board meeting attendance. Yet none of these payments were properly reported to the Internal Revenue Service, as they were instead considered “miscellaneous” payments instead of bonuses
• “On January 16, 2008, the City Council, now including two new members as part of a recall election, “re-hired” the Administrator with a 49 percent salary increase (bringing his monthly pay to $16,250). The administrator retired two years later. This could be a large case of pension spiking”
• “The City also mishandled the retirement for its Director of Community Development, whose employment was terminated through a mutual agreement with the City on July 18, 2006. The City agreed to pay 12 months’ severance including salary, benefits and retirement, and -- even though a terminated employee can no longer earn service credit -- the City credited those 12 months towards the Director’s retirement.”
• “The Controller found that some staff members were allowed full access to the human resources system and the programs controlling payroll (which control time-card data and generate checks), allowing either system to be manipulated and abused for personal gain.”
• Differences between bank statement and general ledger amounts
• Unreconciled outstanding checks
• Missing deposit slips for the city transit department
• Untimely recording of corrections to payroll checks
• Bank accounts established for the RDA were not included in that agency’s financial records"

We’ve relayed previously that bad news regarding past misdeeds continue to plague the city’s road to financial recovery as it works to right the ship under the discipline of interim city administrator Larry Kosmont. The city has committed to improving its accounting capabilities with stronger staff and in February a financial review meeting will be held to discuss what cuts need to be made. The Controller has noted that “To its credit, Montebello has embraced the majority of my office’s findings and has agreed to implement the necessary reforms.”

You can see the full audit here or below:

Montebello Final Review