Selecting the location for proposed bus stops and discussing the findings of the annual Tuolumne County Civil Grand Jury report released on June 29 are potentially hot topics the Sonora City Council will look at during a public meeting on Monday.
One of the highlights of the grand jury’s report that the council will discuss were the controversial findings related to the Tuolumne County Economic Development Authority, a partnership between the city and county formed in 2008.
Among the chief findings were a lack of transparency, accountability and oversight related to the authority’s overall performance and that of its executive director, Larry Cope.
The council will be tasked with discussing whether it agrees with the findings and providing a response to the report’s recommendation for the city and county to jointly pay for an independent firm to conduct an audit of the authority’s management practices.
“They’ll provide comments to the city attorney and myself and we’ll come back with a draft response at the next meeting (on Aug. 20),” said City Administrator Tim Miller.
The council will also give direction to city staff on a response to the grand jury’s recommendation for conducting a public discussion regarding a sales-tax increase that would specifically be used for road repairs, part of a separate investigation the jury conducted into the deteriorating state of roads throughout the city and county.
After giving direction on responses to the grand jury report, the council has scheduled to set aside time for an open discussion about the findings related to the TCEDA to solicit public input and potentially provide direction on what the city should do moving forward.
Several city residents at recent public meetings have urged the council to cut back the authority’s funding and look into severing ties with it all together.
Nearly all of the authority’s annual budget is funded 23 percent by the city and 77 percent by the county.
The authority’s budget for the previous and current fiscal year was about $460,000, with about $102,000 of that coming from the city’s General Fund that pays for services such as police, fire protection, administration and public works.
About $330,000, or nearly 72 percent, of the authority’s overall budget was for salaries and benefits, including Cope’s base annual salary of about $163,000.
Also at Monday’s meeting, the council will consider providing direction on whether to construct bus stops along South Washington Street or Stockton Road as part of a $1.8 million transit project funded by the state.
The so-called “Stockton-Washington Corridor - Downtown Transit and Accessibility Improvement Project” was originally proposed in the Vision Sonora Plan adopted by the council in 2013 that aimed to improve aesthetics and mobility in the downtown area.
One of the decisions the council will consider on Monday is whether to construct proposed bus stops along South Washington Street or Stockton Road.
Conceptual designs for the proposed locations were unveiled at a community meeting on July 23 and posted on the city’s website for public input through July 31.
The first concept would construct bus stops with transit shelters on both sides of South Washington Street between Stockton Road and Church Street.
Landscaped bulb-outs would also be built at the northeast and northwest corners of South Washington and Church streets and the southwest and northwest corners of Stockton Road and South Washington Street.
The second concept has the stops located on both sides of Stockton Road just west of South Green Street, with landscaped bulb-outs at the southwest and northwest corners of Stockton Road and South Washington Street and all four corners of Stockton Road and South Green Street.
There would also be diagonal parking spaces added on the south side of Stockton Road in front of the Trado Restaurant Corporation building and on the north side before the entrance to Save Mart.
Both concepts also propose an entrance sign on the east side of South Washington Street in front of the Marengo Building at the intersection with Stockton Road, regardless of where the bus stops would be located.
Public comments received on the concepts were mixed, though most were negative about both options.
Several comments expressed concern that the width of the bus stops would constrain traffic and lead to further congestion, especially if they were located on South Washington Street.
There were also comments critical of proposed diagonal parking spots on both concepts because they believed that it would create safety issues if vehicles had to back up into traffic to get out.
Some said they preferred the bus stops to be located on Stockton Road because it was less intrusive to businesses located along South Washington Street, while others thought the whole thing was a “bad idea” and didn’t fit with historic character of downtown Sonora.
August 3, 2018
The Union Democrat
By Alex Maclean
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