The Citizens Advisory Committee on the School Parcel Taxes (CAC) will discuss public outreach and making powerpoint materials easily accessible on its PUSD webpage.  The members of the CAC collected extensive date over the past year, providing information on comparative district information and historical budget trends to the Board of Education to better inform Board decisions.  See Powerpoint Presentation from the CAC.

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A letter from Barbara Peters Urging a Meeting Between PRFO and FMC to find a Blair Park Solution

Dear Editor,

It’s time to end the divisiveness around the issue of Moraga Canyon and Blair Park and to look for creative solutions.

The Piedmont sports clubs desire additional field space in town since their lease in Alameda expires in the fall of 2012. If  Piedmont Recreation Facilities Organization (PRFO) is willing to meet with Friends of Moraga Canyon (FMC), perhaps we could find common ground. Two well respected architects, Bill Blackwell and Chuck Oraftik, have each drawn excellent plans for enlarging Coaches Field. An enlarged Coaches Field would provide much of the field space that the private clubs are seeking.

There are many advantages to enlarging Coaches Field: Click to read more »

The Recreation Commission meeting on May 18 will include an update on the Moraga Canyon Sports Facilities from Mr. Mark Delventhal, Recreation Director .   The meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at 12 Vista Avenue.  It will be videotaped and viewable on KCOM.   The Moraga Canyon update will follow a public hearing on pool fees.  See Ageneda.

The  Piedmont Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Review Committee will be touring the “education wing” of the former Christian Science Church building at 801 Magnolia on Monday, May 16, 2011.   The tour will begin at 6:30 p.m. in front of City Hall.  It is open to the public.

Staff has proposed the education wing of 801 Magnolia Avenue become a childcare facility.  This may include moving programs out of the Recreation Department location at 358 Hillside Avenue, allowing staff to expand its offices.  Other uses for the space raised by Piedmont residents and mentioned in the General Plan Survey have not been proposed by staff.

The CIP Committee is charged with, “Develop(ing) procedures for encouraging and seeking citizen input into the capital budget process.”  However, due to limited funding no public input was solicited this year.  A list of pending projects and highlights from staff’s “wish list” of proposals from the CIP staff report are provided below.

Following the tour, the CIP committee will review the draft CIP priority list and its  CIP recommendations.  These recommendations will be considered by the City Council at 9:00 am on Saturday, May 21, 2011 in the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) of the Police Department.   It will not be videotaped.

The CIP fund represents the largest amount of discretionary spending by the Piedmont City Council.  Due to CIP funding being utilized to satisfy Piedmont Hills undergrounding cost overruns, the CIP budget has been reduced.  It is now $573,000.  New funding is not anticipated for 2011-12.

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PIEDMONT, CALIFORNIA (April 24, 2011) — Can a garden be both sustainable and stunning? Edible and elegant? Drought-tolerant and dramatic? Visitors to the gardens on the Piedmont Green Garden Ramble will see eight examples of the beauty of green gardening, as well as a local school’s edible and butterfly habitat gardens. The free, self-guided tour, on June 4 from 9:00 am to 12 noon, is sponsored by Piedmont CONNECT, a community group supporting local efforts toward environmental sustainability. Click to read more »

The Recreation Department staff has published a newly revised proposed pool fee schedule for consideration by the Recreation Commission on May 18.  Daily rates would be limited to non-holiday Monday – Thursday from 8am -3pm.  The proposal has simplified the overall rate structure.  It includes:

• Same resident and non-resident daily rates for children and youth (age 12 to 17).
• Seasonal pass at less than one-half the cost of an annual pass for individual adults and seniors (over 65).
• Slight discount (11%-25%) for seasonal, annual passes, and adult daily rates for residents compared to non-residents.
• Guest privileges and weekend/holiday swimming for seasonal and annual passes.

Under the prior fee schedule (see p. 5.), staff estimated operating pool costs would be paid $380,000 by taxpayers and $375,000 by users, resulting in a 50% taxpayer subsidy of pool cost.  (See Aquatics budget.)   A revised budget estimate for the new proposed fee structure has not been provided.  The specific assumptions regarding pass sales and numbers of users underlying the 2 fee schedules have not yet been made public by staff or reviewed by the Recreation Commission.

A PCA Editorial: The City has taken over operation of the Piedmont Pool at taxpayer expense.

A Piedmont asset that was built and operated for half a century at no cost to taxpayers has begun to drain funds from the City budget at a rapid rate. City operation of  the pool will exceed the costs borne historically  by a group of volunteers. Numerous assumptions have been made regarding pool usage without adequate operating data.  The only certainty is that swimmers will now be subsidized by Piedmont taxpayers, rather than swim club members. Click to read more »

Recently released pool use proposals and budget numbers hold a number of surprises for Piedmont taxpayers and swimmers:  Piedmont taxpayers will begin providing a 50% subsidy of pool operating costs starting July 1st.

• Piedmont taxpayers will pay pool costs of $380,000 while the City hopes swimmers will generate $377,000 in fees, to cover a total estimated pool budget of $757,000.
  
• An additional $108,000 in transition costs will be paid in FY 2010-11
• An additional $600,000 in proposed capital improvement funds  (CIP staff report)
• The currently proposed fee structure offers daily swimming privileges to residents and non-residents at the same low rate.
  

The annual estimated $380,000 taxpayer subsidy exceeds the City’s prior estimate of this amount:  $127,000 to $327,000 per its Aquatic Study in 2006. The City’s operating costs of $757,000 are higher than the most recent financial information from the Piedmont Swim Club:  $650,000 per year.  The CIP staff report includes an additional $600,000 in capital improvements for the pool. Click to read more »

A Report Submitted by Michael Rancer, Chair of the 2011 Municipal Tax Review Committee

On Wednesday, May  4, the Municipal Tax Review Committee held a study session with city staff to review the City Administrator’s FY 2011-12 budget proposal to the Council.  The meeting was devoted primarily to a presentation by City Administrator Grote and Finance Director Bichsel, commingled with questions by members of the Tax Review Committee.

The presentation and discussion identified several critical budget issues that face the city in the coming year.  Although the proposed budget covers the fiscal year beginning this July 1, decisions made now will have a significant impact on city finances during the life of the next parcel tax, which will last at least four years beginning July 1, 2013.

The major issues discussed include the following: Click to read more »

An Opinion on PUSD Administrators’ Salaries and Benefits from Martha Jones, Board of Education Trustee

I would like to offer a few comments on the topic of public employee compensation.

1.     Transparency concerning public employee salaries and benefits is very important.  Taxpayers need to know which services they are paying for and how much these services cost.  Efforts to make some of these figures more easily available to the public have taken various formats, including searchable databases for the salaries of state employees (http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/), local city, county and special district employees (http://www.sco.ca.gov/compensation_search.html) and public employees in the bay area (http://www.mercurynews.com/salaries/bay-area), Click to read more »