The Truth Matters: Additional Information on a Letter You Received
Dear Neighbor,
Many of you recently received a two-page letter from a former city council person in your mailbox. I appreciate her service on the City Council a decade ago. Although we’ve never met, I respect anyone who steps up for public service and remains engaged in our community.
In many ways, her letter reads like an endorsement of me and my fellow candidates, as many of the facts she mentions reflect accomplishments that I am proud of.
However, similar to what we’re seeing on the national stage, her letter unfortunately spins successes in a negative light and uses incomplete information to sow confusion and fear rather than encourage engagement and clarity.
To fill out the story a bit, here is more information for your consideration:
Measure L: Supported by a 69% vote of Sausalito Residents!
Measure L provides ~$24 million dollars towards improving our infrastructure over the coming years. In 2022, the City Council voted unanimously (link) to put this Infrastructure initiative on the November ballot and 69.1% of Sausalito voters voted YES (link).
Sewer Rates
All five City Council members supported the sewer rate increase of 5% (link). Ensuring the rates are set so we can adequately maintain our sewers is the responsible thing to do. If the toilets don’t flush, we have failed at Governing 101.
Business Improvement District ROI is a Good Investment:
The professional report generated by City Staff predicts the BID will be one of the best performing investments for the City. The staff report estimates a net $624k over five years; that is an ROI of 59% based on the cash flows on the professional report: (link). The author of the letter cited only net cash proceeds of the BID, not accounting for any savings. But even just that $156k positive cash flow over five years makes it a good investment. The City’s professional staff predicted on the record that it would likely earn much more.
City Staff Wages, Morale and Turnover
I am proud that we raised the wages of our City Staff (link). We matched the mean pay of our neighboring communities with whom we compete for talent. Our staff turnover for FY2022 was 35%, for FY2023 it was 20% and as of June 2024 it was 15%. 15% is a “normal” rate for a City government like ours. Turnover is expensive, disruptive and lowers staff morale. Failing to invest in our staff is costly and shortsighted. Keeping staff wages low sounds fiscally responsible, but it it’s not.
Pension Costs
Pension costs are high as a result of decisions made circa 2000 (link) to increase retiree benefits. This is a problem we share with nearly every California community. I wish those choices had not been made by a previous City Council. But during my term, we have had three years of budget surpluses in a row, and put extra money into our pension trust to save for these future liabilities. Our pension trust savings balance has only increased during my term. Our spending requires very careful management, and we have been careful. Incomplete information and fear mongering does nothing to help address the issue.
Tracy Way Transformation & Construction Grant
I voted for the exciting transformation of Tracy Way into a pedestrian promenade. We’ll lose no parking revenue and likely gain more as downtown becomes more attractive, especially in the off-season. The project received strong public support, and in 10 years, I predict today’s detractors will defend it passionately. This project is grant funded (link). Just this week, through our leadership, the City Council approved an agreement to add 47 new revenue producing public parking spaces to the next door private Sausalito Yacht Harbor lot, which stood almost always empty. This will provide more net parking spaces than exist today and generate revenue to the city.
South Bridgeway Median
I am in support of preserving the South Bridgeway Median as I don’t see any other design that provides egress for emergency vehicles and a place for cars to pass bikes. At the same time, the area is subject to speeding and does not have a single crosswalk! The reference in the letter you received is making an issue out of an application made by staff for an external grant to improve safety in that area: adding cross walks, speed reduction measures, better bike management, etc. The City Council voted unanimously to direct a grant funded study of the area conducted by an expert traffic engineer to suggest ways of making the area safer. To me, the rapid egress of emergency vehicles is a non-negotiable requirement of this work.
To summarize:
We are investing $24 million into infrastructure over the next eight years. We have more than $5 million in various capital improvement funds, and we have fixed numerous roads recently (Turney, Woodward, Toyon, Edwards), have a Pavement Management plan approved (link) and we are increasing investments in our infrastructure because of Measure L.
Everyone supports fixing infrastructure. I proposed, supported, and implemented policies that have actually made it happen!
Our city has been well run financially with multiple years of budget surpluses. It is also true that we have challenges including underinvestment in infrastructure and our long-term pension liabilities.
Don’t be fooled by the strategy of using budget numbers to sow fear, confusion and doubt. It is not a serious response to address the challenges that we — along with many, many other cities — face.
I believe that together, we can grow our economy, use our resources wisely, and find creative, consensus solutions!
Thank you,
Ian
