At its last meeting, the Ukiah City Council approved a list of responses to a recent Mendocino County grand jury report on how the city should spend sales-tax funds designated for street repairs – money it is collecting after voters approved Measure Y – and how the public should be kept updated on, and included in, the process.
“The report is fair, and represents a lot of the concerns I hear in the community, such as, ‘What is this money going to be used for?’ and how residents want it to be used for what it is intended, which is fixing our streets,” said Public Works Director Tim Eriksen last week, explaining that he believed much of the impetus for the report was the stoppage of work on Luce, Observatory and Washington avenues and the subsequent rumor that it was because the city ran out of money.
“Now that it’s May and every street is being torn up and re-paved,” the situation is very different than in March when the report came out, Eriksen continued, adding that in general, the “report is fair enough, and the concern is certainly real.”
In drafting the city’s response to the grand jury, Eriksen noted several findings and recommendations staff disagreed with, including:
• Finding: The Measure Y dashboard falls short of the intent to make the Measure Y sales tax revenue and expenditures transparent.
• Response: The city has taken significant steps to enhance its reporting of special projects and other items of particular community interest, including the use of Measure Y proceeds (and) makes considerable effort to meet the highest standards of financial reporting and transparency in its practice of accounting. The Measure Y “budget dashboard,” as referred to by the Grand Jury, is such an attempt and was carefully designed to convey, comprehensively, information relevant to Measure Y in a simple, direct, and easy to understand format. The city is also developing additional reporting methods for all city activities through the implementation of a web-based, dynamic, and interactive financial and project reporting platform called OpenGov.
• Findings: That “redirection of state funding has resulted in funding for alternatives to vehicular projects instead of needed street repair and maintenance, and that the “budget for the Downtown Streetscape project is likely inadequate for construction costs a decade later.”
• Response: The city’s response to both those findings is “we are not aware of data supporting those findings.”
As for the list of recommendations, Eriksen notes that the city is already “using the Pavement Condition Index as the primary criterion to select streets for maintenance and repair,” is expanding the process of making Measure Y information accessible and transparent, and has reinstated the Measure Y project tab on the city’s website.
However, he said the recommendation that the Measure Y dashboard include “a list of specific revenue sources and expenditures by the next budget, and update that dashboard at least quarterly and make it publicly available” will not be implemented because “the resolution by the City Council that directs the use of these funds directs staff to review the expenditures from this fund as part of the adoption of the budget annually.”
Eriksen said the city would also not “make more effort to enable public input early in the planning process for grant-funded projects in order to assure that the city priorities match the residents’ preferences,” nor would it “listen and respond to public input by creating a designated public comment page for each project and recognizing media comments.”
Because, Eriksen said, “we have implemented a system where city staff reports to City Council, in a public meeting,” before it applies for any grant funds and describes the project, amount of funding and “the city’s financial responsibility and staff time commitment over the lifetime of the project. Agendas for these meetings are publicly posted (and) emailed to interested parties.”
Also, Eriksen notes that “in order to efficiently respond to ‘media comments,’ it is important to have a manageable number of sources to monitor. The city of Ukiah welcomes inquiries from the public, whether they are by phone, email, mail, or in person, and will take the time to discuss public projects. Informational pages about major projects already exist on the city’s website. Additionally, updates are often posted on social media, where comments and questions are promptly addressed by city staff.
Finally, Eriksen said the recommendation that “the city not spend Measure Y sales tax revenue on any grant-funded project, for example on the Downtown Streetscape, Rail Trail and the Low Gap-Bush Street roundabout” would also not be implemented.
“Measure Y funds are not intended to fund proposed special projects. However, within special projects it would be appropriate to utilize these funds for any portion of existing road resurfacing or road reconstruction that is in need of repair.”
“Everyone wants to make sure that we, as the government, are using funds efficiently and effectively, and I think there’s nothing wrong with that,” said Vice-Mayor Maureen Mulheren, who also thanked staff “for updating the website as much as they possibly can,” and describing that information as invaluable to her, both as a council member and a resident. “As much as we can be transparent with the community regarding Measure Y funds, the better for all of us.”
The City Council then voted unanimously to approve the city’s response to the grand jury report titled “Ukiah Streets.”May 23, 2018
May 23, 2018
Ukiah Daily Journal
By Justine Frederiksen
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