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1. Many citizens have complained that they were unaware of
issues that were presented or decided at City Council and
various commission meetings. For example, many who oppose the
mosque being built, or the proposed location of the new fire
station, were unaware that these items were being discussed.
The opposition often claims that these issues are kept quiet by
design, suggesting that the city is trying to sneak things by
them.
What would you do to make sure that all City Council and City
Commission offices communicate upcoming agenda to the public?
I can assure everyone that there is no conspiracy of
silence or secrecy at city hall. During recent years many
approaches have been implemented to improve the transparency of
the decision making process of not only council meetings but the
meetings of all of our committees and commissions. These
improvements include registering for email notification of
meeting agendas, website availability of times, agendas and
staff reports for meetings and recently live webcasting of
council meetings. We will continue increasing means of
electronic improvement to this issue. The frustration of “not
being in the loop” will probably always exist because no
noticing is not enough, obviously, but being noticed for
everything would numb everyone and have almost the same effect.
These are not uncommon complaints for any republic or
representative form of government.
2. What are your opinions related to urban growth boundaries and
what do you see as the future development of Folsom?
Urban growth boundaries are at best a weak and usually
ineffective tool when set by only one jurisdiction in the
multi-jurisdictional metropolitan area. For example, in our
region, Sacramento County has attempted to utilize this tool but
none of the other counties in our 6 county region have adopted
the same philosophy. Even with this tool in place it simply gets
walked over when population pressures become too great. The
better growth methodology is to intelligently control what will
happen instead of pretending it will not. By this I mean
preserve and dedicate open space inside and outside the growth
areas. Examples of this are the 30 percent open space mandate
south of highway 50 inside Folsom’s sphere of influence and the
4000 acre Deer Creek Hills preserve between Folsom and Rancho Murieta.
3. As build-out looms ever closer, sales tax dollars become more
valuable to long-term sustainability. Currently city support for
programming and facilities that generate sales tax revenue
(throughout the city) is minimal compared to similar cities.
Only about 10% of the Park and Rec Budget, very little of the
hotel tax and almost nothing from tourism is used to support and
promote prime activities: “historical sites,” art/history
museums and galleries as well as a full range of cultural and
fine arts events and amenities.
What will you do to aggressively increase city support for
activities that historically generate sales tax and provide the
balanced program residents and visitors expect to find in a city
the size and character of Folsom?
We currently support many arts and cultural programs
inside the city of Folsom. We just recently broke ground on our
Senior and Arts Center and continue to preserve, promote and
subsidize historical and arts programming in the community. I
believe for a community of our size with relatively limited
resources we compare favorably to other communities in this area
of interest and this is why the city was recently rated 34th in
the country for quality of life considerations.
4. Why do you, the city council, generally ignore the
residential blight in the historic district and nearby
neighborhoods?
Why are owners of apartment buildings on Montrose, Talisman, and
Alezane permitted to let their properties fall into utter
disrepair?
Why is the garbage can ordinance not being enforced? See said
apartments for daily examples.
We pour millions of dollars into our redevelopment
areas. We are aggressively revitalizing the historic district
and have enacted many grant and loan programs for business and
home improvements in the district. Property owners have to want
to participate. These generally cannot be mandated and requiring
home or business improvement because “it looks bad” is a
slippery slope of government intervention. The areas mentioned
are actually improved from 15 years ago and we do contact
property owners to make them aware of the assistance programs. I
am unaware of the garbage can issue but at apartments there are
unique challenges. You can forward me any reports of code
violations that have remained unaddressed.
5. I've noticed a lot of businesses creeping "up the hill" and
away from their original locations. What would you do to ensure
that once well-established locations in Folsom remain vibrant?
(example, former Food Source, Ralph's @ Greenback/Madison)
This is typical community maturation and one that we do
periodically confront. Many years ago it was the movement of
business from Sutter Street to East Bidwell. I am confident that
we can devise any needed incentives to attract tenants for these
vacant sites. The very successful Kohl’s moving into the vacant
Kmart building is an example. One of the delaying frustrations
is the large corporate ownership of these recently vacated
sites. Kroger’s in the case of the Ralph’s sites. They are very
slow and are not desperate to respond to vacant assets. I am
confident that most will be leased within the next year.
6. Direct Election of Mayor and Vice-Mayor: Are you willing to
initiate and/or support changes to the Folsom City Charter to
provide for direct election of Mayor and Vice Mayor based on
City Council election results, as is currently done in Roseville
and other comparable cities? If not, please explain how Folsom's
current practice of having only the 5 City Council members
decide in special meeting who will be Mayor and Vice Mayor is of
greater benefit to the residents than having the residents elect
the City's leaders.
Our current system of selection among ourselves actually
does remain the practice of preference in many California
cities. I do think that compelling arguments can be made for
more direct or indirect - like in Roseville, highest vote getter
in council elections - control by the voters. I would support
any change that would have any rational proven basis.
7. Folsom will be working over the next few years to annex land
south of 50. Landowners will reap hundreds of millions (if not
billions!) in profit from the change in zoning from current
agricultural to residential, commercial, etc. What will you as a
councilmember do, prior to the annex and rezoning, to ensure
land for public facilities (schools, parks, branch library, etc)
is both zoned for public uses and reasonably priced? In other
words, how will you ensure both the city and school district
have options to buy annexed property within a reasonable time
frame at prices that are not inflated due to the rezoning?
These are all elements that are part of the annexation
planning process. This is an incredibly complex issue. We are
basically embarking on building a new city from scratch. When
the final annexation documents are prepared, everyone will have
an opportunity to review, comment and support or oppose the
plan. We will all be able to judge for ourselves if we truly are
keeping the best interests of Folsom residents at heart. One
critical element not mentioned above will be sales or property
tax sharing expectations by the county that are different from
our existing city. I am committed to making sure all of these
growth stipulations are clearly discernible by everyone.
8. Folsom is a great place to live, but it is becoming more
expensive by the minute. What will the candidates do to create
more affordable housing? We need low-income housing, but we also
need housing for those starting out. What are your plans for
creating more diverse housing in Folsom?
The only thing we can do is ensure enough multifamily
zoning is present in our land use plans to encourage
construction of smaller entry levels housing options. It is an
ironic twist that our enthusiastic efforts to make Folsom a
great place to live works against affordable housing. We are
victims of our own success in that we create increased demand in
Folsom by providing many great reasons to choose to live here.
9. How do you plan on working with RT to increase running times
on the light rail, specifically having trains from downtown run
later than they currently do? Do you plan on allocating money to
have a turn-around installed on the Folsom run so that we have
trains run more often?
There are actually 3 phases of improvements to the
Folsom Gold line that are being considered or implemented. First
are express trains to downtown Sacramento that skip some stops
and shave 5 to 10 minutes off the trip time. Ground was recently
broken on the Watt Avenue overpass that will help facilitate the
appropriate track configuration. Second is specific to the
question of extending service particularly into the evening
hours. This is simply a budget issue of about $200,000 to
$300,000 per year and we will probably begin to attempt to
identify this funding during the next year. Lastly would be 15
minute runs instead of 30 minutes runs between trains. This is a
capital issue of probably $25M to $35M dollars to construct the
necessary double tracking at critical line segments. Funding has
not been identified but is being pursued.
10. Is there a plan to time the street lights to the train
crossings?
It appears they are timed now but not as precisely or
efficiently as possible. There are some very strict train/street
operation provisions that need to be observed. Light rail into
Folsom continues to be a work in progress and refinements will
be commonplace for a number of years.
11. What are your goals for revitalizing the Historic District?
As well as the efforts by Fedcorp and others, what more do you
think could be done to improve the vitality both commercially
and residentially? and what could you do to help make it happen?
First and foremost is construction of the new bridge
below the dam. We need to clear out as much of the commuter
traffic as possible. The completion of the bridge at the end of
2008 will dramatically improve this congestion. We will be
spending close to $25M of redevelopment money building a 320
space parking structure, plaza and historic area improvements
and commercial building subsidies during the next 4 years. There
is also a specific revitalization effort being directed by Jeff Fierra-Pro, a resident of the historic district. This includes
landscape plans, traffic plans, fire safety plans and façade
improvement plans. In short, all we need to do is continue to
support the momentum in place.
12. What would you do to stop the cut through traffic in the
historic district, stop the speeding on residential streets,
what traffic calming solutions do you have and what ones are you
willing to use, also how do you plan to stop the commercial
traffic in the historic residential neighborhoods?
First and
foremost is construction of the new bridge below the dam. We
need to clear out as much of the commuter traffic as possible.
We have tried most options at our disposal. If commercial cut
through is a problem, I am confident that signage and
enforcement could quickly reduce that disturbing element. This
is one of those frustrating issues that as an elected official
you truly don’t have as much discretion as you would like. The
closure of the dam road is simply something that was
unanticipated but will be replaced in two years.
13. What do you anticipate the worst problems facing Folsom will
be in the next 5-10 years? What can the city council do now in
anticipation of these problems?
I believe it will be traffic, congestion and just the
feeling of hustle and bustle that results. Even with the new
bridge relieving the historic district we have other points of
congestion that will not be relieved by this transportation
addition. We need to make sure that the Empire Ranch and Oak
Avenue interchanges are pursued aggressively and that we can
continue building a bicycle and pedestrian network of trails
that will encourage some non automotive trips. Folsom represents
a regional transportation constriction point because of its
proximity next to a large lake with no crossings. The challenge
is to capture the commerce opportunities while mitigating the
intrusions.
14. What will you, as a new city council member, do to ensure
that public safety services are well planned, and future needs
regarding both police and fire services will be kept up in a
proper manner?
We can already see the fiasco that is currently in place with
trying to play "catch up" in the Empire Ranch area with a new
Fire Station. Wouldn't it be prudent to hire the adequate number
of police/fire/parks&rec/public works people as build out is
occurring, not 5 years after the fact????
Fiasco is somewhat strong when considering all of the
facts. We are not playing catch up. We spend what we have
available and not more. Today $33M of our $58M general fund is
dedicated to police and fire services. Our revenue streams grow
with the city and we will not spend ahead of those limitations.
Our surveys reflect very high satisfaction with police, fire,
parks and public works. Our response times for police and fire
emergencies are similar to response times for all of the
regional public safety departments. In fact, specific to fire,
Folsom provides more mutual aid to neighboring districts than
they do to Folsom. The needs of public safety are continually
evaluated and addressed. We just added a new 5 member drug and
narcotics detail to the Police department. A new Empire Ranch
fire station could not have been staffed with the required 12 or
13 professionals until $1.5M per year is available for
operations. I support the need for a new Fire Station and Engine
Company and we will add this capability during the next few
years.
15. What would you do to make the bus system in town more
viable, usable and popular?
We are a city where bus service is somewhat ahead of the
demographics and population size that drive this public transit
need. At this time there is simply a paucity of demand. Funding
for the bus service is a dedicated state revenue stream of about
$2M. Spending and routing are continually evaluated. Recent
changes include accommodation of light rail stations and help
with college and high school student movements.
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