Richard On The Issues

My Platform Issues

I believe the city is facing two preeminent issues:

• Management of Future Growth; and,

• The Solvency of the City's Finances

These are the issues we need to get right as they are the foundation all other problems facing the City are built upon.

Planning for Growth

I support responsible, intelligent growth that will preserve Winters' rural character and high quality of life.

We are quickly running out of vacant land in town for homes and businesses. We will need a plan to understand and present our growth requirements to the citizens, business owners, and government regulatory agencies.

But, all of our City's growth plans are out of date:

• The City’s last General Plan was drafted in 1992;

• The Downtown Master Plan was drafted in 2006; and,

• The Housing Element is updated every eight years but is largely controlled by state regulatory agencies -- Winters needs to own this process to reflect local requirements rather than one-size-fits-all state programs.

It's not time that derails our plans. It's real changes happening outside of the plans' underlying assumptions that make them ineffective. Our City plans have been affected by:

• A housing market crash (2008);

• Two recessions;

• A local ballot initiative changing how growth is handled;

• An ongoing pandemic;

• Unanticipated rapid population shifts from the Bay Area and Davis;

• A water management crisis; and,

• Rising costs with hyper-inflation approaching ten percent.

The City cannot afford to continue to operate in this vacuum. Too much is at stake. We need to assess the impact of the changes, make temporary adjustments, and develop new plans.

Strategies to address this issue:

1. Conduct a full council, comprehensive review of the entire city plan. The public must be invited to this to observe and provide input where appropriate.

2. Review and identify the long-term goals for the city, both current and any new goals we haven't put to paper yet.

3. Identify what still works and what doesn't, what meets our goals, and what needs to be updated.

4. If smaller changes can be made without a complete plan overhaul, the scope and cost of those smaller updates should be put out for bid and a timeline set.

All of the above can be done without any additional financial cost to the city. Conversations are free.

City Finances

The City's current financial situation is risky. If the City continues to spend more than it collects in revenues -- it risks insolvency. This is the single most important issue facing the next City Council.

For the past decade, the City has spent an average of $305,000 more than it has taken in as revenue per year. This has resulted in a reduction of the General Fund Reserve to about $1.1 million, less than 50% of what city policy dictates.

If the current trend continues, the reserve fund could be completely empty within the next few years -- putting the City's ability to pay its bills on time in jeopardy.

It is not enough to stop overspending, we must rebuild the reserve fund as well, meaning the City must attract new sources of revenue, without burdening the current tax base.

Some ways we can do this are:

1. Hold spending levels at this year's budgeted amount as much as possible. As revenues increase naturally we will build up part of our needed savings without making any cuts.

2. Identify what non-personnel expenses we can do without for a few years. This will speed up the recovery timeline.

3. Identify and seek out new revenue sources that shift much of the burden onto tourist visitors. The Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT) tax is an example of this type of funding source.

4. Ensure that pay-per-use programs are self-sustaining whenever possible.