South Poway Votes
Questions and Answers –At Large
1. District Elections
A. Do you think the district elections are a positive or negative thing for Poway voters? Please explain your thinking.
B. Would you support a 4 district citizen’s commission to redraw/rebalance the district boundaries after the 2020 census or would you prefer that the council members do it? Again, please explain your thinking.
Caylin Frank- declined to participate
Torrey Powers A. I believe district elections are a positive change for Poway because they provide better representation for diverse neighborhoods and ensure that all of the city’s residents have a voice in local government. For example, South Poway has been grossly underrepresented on the city council for years, and district elections will guarantee that these communities will now have a seat at the table. District elections also make elected officials more accountable to the residents they represent, fostering civic participation and strengthening our democracy.
B. I absolutely support a 4 district citizen’s commission to redraw the district boundaries after the 2020 census so they are fair and truly reflective of the communities, free from political influence and gerrymandering.
In 2017 the council redrew the districts for political gain. Council members voted to adopt an arbitrary map proposed by the Mayor, Steve Vaus, designed to protect their seats. They didn’t stop there. Even though the city has moved to district elections, they voted to make District 4, which represents South Poway, a city-wide election for 2018 to dilute the voting power of residents in the south part of the city. To add insult to injury, the entire City Council, led by Mayor Vaus, voted to appoint current council member CaylinFrank to an open seat three months after she moved to Poway, giving her the benefit of the incumbency and effectively rigging the elections in their favor. Powegians will not stand for these political shenanigans that undermine our democracy. Our city leaders have abused their power. That’s why we need to have citizens help make those decisions based on data and free from political influence.
Tony Russo– no response
___________________________________________________________
2. Park Needs Assessment
During last Tuesday’s City Council Meeting, City Manager Tina White mentioned that the last time Poway did a park needs assessment was in 2008.
In the 10 years since that last assessment, Poway has added many residents, and the council has approved the Poway Rd Corridor Study, which will add thousands more residents, all without assessing if there are sufficient parks to serve their needs.
A. In your opinion, whose job is it to initiate a park needs assessment?
The council? The city manager? Both? Neither?
B. What kind of maps, data, metrics and other information would you find useful in a park needs assessment ?
C. When discussing park needs, what is of particular concern to you?
Caylin Frank-declined to participate
Torrey Powers-
A. Our city has a general plan which includes a Parks and Recreation needs assessment. I think we need to create a plan where the assessment is scheduled to be performed every ten years. If significant growth were to occur, that should trigger a needs assessment to be carried out sooner.
The Community Services Department, with the assistance of the Parks and Recreation Committee, would have the true pulse on this issue. If a need were to arise, they should report the need to City Manager who would in turn alert the council and advise them to plan for an earlier assessment. The Council is also free to, and encouraged to, initiate a Parks needs assessment as well.
B. Maps of the locations of all current parks would be compared to population density of each area. Parking availability would also be examined. A clear timeline would be established for completing this assessment.
I would include all neighborhood, community and pocket parks in the study areas. I would also included all available school recreational facilities, along with the skate park, swimming pools, and recreational parks and trails. Golf courses would not be included in this assessment as they are not intended to serve the general population of the community.
C. Parks provide a huge community benefit that enhance our quality of life and should always be a part of any new development or city planning. One of my greatest concerns is having sufficient surface space to meet the needs of our residents and guests in addition to sufficient services and amenities. A good plan would provide for example: green space, shade, sports fields, playgrounds, in addition to providing rental space, educational programs and community events.
Tony Russo-
A. I believe that the council and the city’s manager can work together.
B. The can put together a special commission to oversee and report back to them.
Ther are many ways by seeing the amount of traffic that flows through the area, schooling that would possibly be opened and the number of actual families.
Let’s not try to reinvent the wheel common sense prevails.
C. First and foremost safety!!!!
The need to be have sufficient lighting.
Second I truely believe the parks need some activities for the kids and grown up to utilize.
Third making it our cities park with the input of our people !!!
___________________________________________________________
3. Poway Road Specific Plan
The recently approved Poway Road Corridor Specific Plan allows for 1399 new residential units on Poway Road, between Oak Knoll and Garden Road.
That amounts to adding 3456 new residents and 360 new employees to the area, most densely concentrated between Community and Carriage Rd.
Which of the following statements best reflects your feelings about the new Poway Road Specific Plan (PRSP)?
a. Poway Rd looks run down and trashy. Bringing new businesses and new residential units to this area will spark a badly needed economic revival in Poway.
b. Poway Road may look funky, but I like it the way it is. I don’t want to see these familiar places torn down and replaced with upscale, chain stores. I want to see Poway’s hills, not 3 story apartment buildings.
c. I thought Poway was all built out. I resent the state making Poway build more residential units. But if we have to build them, I would rather build on Poway Rd instead of opening up east Poway for development.
d. Growth is inevitable. We should look to the future and forget about the past.
Please add anything else you would like to say about the PRSP.
Caylin Frank-declined to participate
Torrey Powers--This question is at the heart of my concerns for the future of Poway. As I am concerned about many different aspects of the Poway Road Corridor Study, with that said I agree with a piece of each one of these statements regarding different sections of Poway Road.
The committee was originally formed to get input from our community members. There was never any authority in the group that city staff had to follow when writing the specific plan. In fact, when the city finally started to follow the Brown Act that is when the developers really showed up and pushed the narrative that the only way to get anything done on Poway Rd was high density. Within a matter of time the citizens lost their voice.
After that shift in focus, the developers were in charge and they negotiated for the setbacks to go away, greater height to buildings to allow higher density and less parking for residents, shoppers and visitors to increase their profits.
None of these were in the best interest of tax paying residents, but were intended to max out the developer's profit. As a result, we are now at risk of losing our view of the hillsides and the ability to widen Poway Road. The developers also negotiated a way to avoid building 15% affordable housing by paying a fine of $500 per unit.
This process has defunded our Affordable Housing fund which then makes us, the taxpayers, liable for the shortfall. The bottom line is that now the developer don’t have to pay their fair share and we are stuck with covering this expense.
Simply unacceptable!
If the current Council is allowed to continue in the direction they are going, then the developers will over develop Poway Road making it unaffordable for local small business. This will force us into having to accept more large box stores, greater traffic congestion due to higher density, and a severe shortage of available parking. None of this is in line with the quality of life we have grown accustomed to and demand in Poway.
Let’s not forget - where is the housing promised to our Veterans? Their are 44 affordable housing units zoned on city owner property on Poway Rd that are in current negotiations, will they be for Veterans?
Growth is inevitable and healthy if done correctly. Unfortunately we are not on that path with this specific plan or council. We need to course-correct immediately by voting in new like minded representatives. I believe it is possible to create a smarter, more responsible plan, with more citizen input, for Poway Road.
Tony Russo-We can not keep looking at the past we only have the power to change the future. I my self as council would like to see if we can adjust the plan to make it a win win for everyone involved. Growth will happen . When one tree dies we need to plant another for us to have fruit for the future. Right now Poway needs to attract the right people in the right area. If this is done we need to work as a team on or infrastructure and traffic control so we all can prosper .___________________________________________________________
4. General Fund
(short version) Do you think the city is transferring too many general fund expenses to our water, sewer, trash, LMD bills?
(long version) It seems as if the current trend is to transfer expenses that used to be paid by the general fund to residents. For example, when the City voted to extend a contract to an exclusive trash hauler, the contract included the provision that the City would get free trash service. That wiped hundreds of thousands of dollars off the general fund expenditures and added those costs to our trash bills. The City charges a “cost allocation” to our water and sewer debts, and to the landscape maintenance districts too. The cost allocation is a share of all of the costs of running various city departments. Our water and sewer bills get dinged for half the cost to run the legislative and administrative department in the City (city clerk, city manager, asst city manager, city councilmembers) as well as a portion of the costs to run the human resources department, some planning expenses and to pay the city attorney. This is in addition to paying for the city employees who work in the Public Works department. The City has also been charging the water and sewer ratepayers for all of the water that is used at city facilities including the parks and the pool. Last year, the City started paying a portion of those costs, but not the full costs. Why aren’t those costs paid by the general fund? Payments for a portion of the bonds to pay off the city hall building are charged to our water and sewer bills. But when the City sold the old water building on Poway Rd, a building paid for by water and sewer ratepayers, the proceeds of the sale were put into the general fund, not in the water and sewer fund. Revenue from using the water reservoirs as cell towers amounted to $610,194. All of it went into the general fund, none of it was used to reduce our water bills. The City took $5.2 million from the sewer fund and $2.6 million from the water fund and loaned it to the redevelopment agency. Some of those loans are over 25 years old. The City could pay it back with the proceeds from the sale of redevelopment property, but instead they are squirreling away over $9 million of that money to build a new community center. The general fund used to pay for all street landscaping. Then new developments had to form LMDs to pay for new landscaping Recently, the City tried to add more of us into the old LMDs. Now, they are talking about a city-wide LMD where they can transfer another general expense on to property owners. It seems as if assets go in the general fund, and debts are billed to us. Do you find this trend disturbing? What do you think should be done about it?
Caylin Frank-declined to participate
Torrey Powers-Yes, I find this particular instance disturbing, the borrowing money to the tune of 9 million dollars from the water and sewer fund to redevelopment as a loan and then refusing to pay it back, is unethical.
We need to keep utility revenue and expenses separate from the service revenues and expenses. The city should be able to repay that 9 million dollar loan, in way of an impactful and needed water CIP (capital improvement plan) that benefits the many and not just an individual $1.12 savings for everyone.
For example, we could carry the purple pipes down from the business park along Community rd. all the way down to Twin peaks hitting the LMD’s, Hillary Park, Aubrey Park, andso on.
Tony Russo-It all comes down to one thing and that is the the power that the council believes it has without the input of the People of Poway.
The water fund is to be used accordingly, instead the council believes it can move money around from general fund to the water fund and pay it back. This I believe is a tactic used to do it doesn’t need voter approval.
The easy way. Forget the voters,we will make all the decisions right?
This unfortunately is going to continue unless we stop the gross over spending,stay within our budget and quit giving contracts that cost us a lot more than anticipated. We need to clean our city and the people whom run this circus of back and forth . Let’s start to use the money for things that are needed but let’s catch up first. No more rate increases, taxes or excuses
______________________________________________________
5. Housing
There are 2 mandates requiring Poway to plan for and/or build certain kinds of housing, one from the state and the other from the redevelopment program. The state requires every jurisdiction to plan for a “fair share” of the housing needs for the future. Sandag is the local agency where the overall number of low, very low, moderate and above moderate housing numbers are divided up for San Diego county jurisdictions for each housing cycle (a period of about 5- 10 yrs). Poway and the other cities must then zone enough land at a density high enough to meet their allocation of houses in each category. These will be market rate homes, not deed restricted “affordable” housing.
The redevelopment program required that each agency spend a certain percentage of incoming redevelopment dollars on affordable housing. Affordable housing is deed restricted housing for low and moderate income people. People have to qualify by income level for such housing. Because affordable housing brings in less rent money than market rate properties, the financing for affordable units is more complex and difficult. The redevelopment agencies have been disbanded, but some existing affordable housing projects and programs still exist in Poway and are administered by the Poway Housing Authority.
A. If it were up to you, where would you rezone land in Poway to accommodate Poway’s “fair share” allotment from the next housing cycle?
B. Do you think Poway needs more affordable (deed restricted for low and moderate income) housing? Why or why not.
Caylin Frank- declined to participate
Torrey Powers- no response
Tony Russo-
Part A
The fair share housing could be rezoned where stoneride country club was. Not only will that clean up a mess that was made and possibly resolve two issues with one solution.
Part B
I thought about this long and hard. Low income housing is a requirement by the city .So where do we put them . One possibility there is property on Poway rd where jiffy lube and the Big brown old medical building are. This could be in conjunction of cleaning and upgrading the apartments that are in the back of that area .
I believe this could one resolution.
_________________________________________________________
6. Staff Residency
The city council members must live in Poway since their decisions affect the quality of life in the city in which they live. Senior management on the city staff make some administrative decisions concerning land use, zoning, and developments without taking them to the city council for approval. Should senior city staff management be required to live in Poway since their decisions affect the residents of Poway?
Caylin Frank- declined to participate
Torrey Powers no response
Tony Russo-I believe this should be a must, The city manager is perhaps one of the top positions in a city. How can you manage a city that you don’t live in and see on daily basis? The issues and concerns the people have are seen 90% of the time when not at your desk. When interacting with the people of Poway.
______________________________________________________ 7. Water & Sewer Rates
Which of these would you support?
A. Cost allocations- only allow the city to charge for costs that are directly related to water and sewer. For example, currently half of all of the costs for the legislative and administrative department (city council, city manager, assistant city manager, city clerk, etc) are charged to the water and sewer bills. A change in cost allocations would require that employees keep a record and only charge for the time spent directly on water and sewer issues.
- Change to a uniform sewer rate. Currently, the lowest water users pay the highest sewer rates. Converting to a uniform rate would relieve an unfair burden on smaller volume users.
- Disallow legal fees and cost of judgments to be billed to the water and sewer fund. Bill them to the general fund.
- When assets paid for by water and sewer ratepayers are sold, put the money into the water and sewer fund instead of the general fund.
- Insist that any rents or leases collected on water and sewer property or infrastructure be put into the water and sewer fund.
- Pay back the $8 million borrowed from the water and sewer funds at an interest rate equal to the amount that Poway”s investment fund earned each year since the money was borrowed. Accelerate the repayments so that they money will be paid back within the next 4 years.
Please share any other ideas you have to reduce water and sewer rates.
Caylin Frank- declined to participate
Torrey Powers no response
Tony Russo-First I think whom ever is elected the whole council in general needs to work on a plan on advising the tax payers the on the true usage of the water funds are being used for on other projects ,
The city at this time is using the water fund to be basically there revolving checking account.
Second the city needs to stop using the funds to pay all the admin cost unless it truely relates to hours spent on projects that requires thier input.
Last if the city does receive any funds from leases and general usage it then should automatically be put back into the water fund.
So if needed, it can be used accordingly.
The water issue will be a never ending battle.
It’s needed, it’s free but like buying the gimmicks on tv we pay thru the roof for shipping and handling as a figure of speech.
This allows the city to raise rates and continue to pass the charge to the people of Poway.
If elected the process goo to be working together to stop wasteful spending,providing,educational excellence,and finally putting the people’s interest first.
No comments:
Post a Comment