HomeMy WebLinkAboutFinance Document City of San Bernardino
Estimated Revenues and Expenditures
FY 2014/15
General Fund
Estimated Revenue FY 2013 Actual FY 2014 Mid-Year Fiscal Calendar 2015
Charges for services 6,254,132 4,589,105 5,164,317
Fines and forfeitures 1,743,683 2,011,402 2,051,630
Intergovernmental 1,870,250 1,741,170 1,751,982
Investment income 693,040 638,000 648,600
Licenses& permits 9,268,406 9,324,651 9,767,182
Miscellaneous 3,706,242 6,107,276 4,653,337
Property Taxes 27,300,625 29,502,938 29,134,727
Property tax in lieu of sales tax 7,010,874 7,255,117 7,472,771
Sales and use tax 28,167,686 28,969,108 29,742,202
Utility users tax 22,468,359 22,500,000 22,837,500
Measure Z Sales Tax 6,806,870 7,000,000 7,210,000
Grand Total MI 1 ,r.f-,
Transfers in • ■ 13,325,534 • �� ���
Estimated Expenditures FY 2013 Actual FY 2014 Mid-Year Fiscal Calendar 2015
010 Mayor 535,218 495,580 419,862
020 Common Council 557,046 628,683 672,144
030 City Clerk 1,195,113 1,849,123 1,448,628
040 City Treasurer 205,747 214,456 177,604
050 City Attorney 2,727,548 3,327,308 3,031,450
090 General Government 6,057,364 12,448,312 7,127,357
100 City Manager 645,282 1,065,200 1,596,554
110 Human Resource 470,607 538,474 869,506
120 Finance 1,501,388 1,771,286 3,088,973
140 Civil Service 349,835 445,539 467,501
180 Community Development 4,517,647 3,047,601 2,618,424
200 Fire 29,408,382 30,413,324 35,750,725
210 Police 57,070,838 56,751,837 56,076,674
380 Parks Recreation &Community 4,183,046 6,075,446 8,991,656
400 Public Works 6,788,264 9,024,526 6,751,349
Total-Estimated Expenditures 0 128,096,695 .� • �:
Total Transfers Out MM �•
Deferred Payments 12,000,000
• . ��� ���
Estimated Total • j,
;Excess(Deficiency)Available of
Estimated Ending Funding Balance • of
1,Unbudgeted Liabilities 25,000,000 13,000,000
. _ GcJ �t•7°�
Budget Options Savings
Eliminate General Fund $800 K
Transfer to Animal
Control
Close Libraries $1.7 Million
Close libraries or create library parcel tax
Close Parks $5 Million
Close parks or create parks parcel tax
5%Cut across $6.5 Million
Departments
Reduce number of Fire $2.4 Million
Stations by 2
Fire Department to 72 $3 Million
hour shift
Code Enforcement $1.5 Million
Reduction of 50%
Police Department $1.4 Million
General Investigation
Reduction of 20%
Eliminate Vacant $5.8 Million
Positions
Change health $1.9 Million
insurance deductible
from $0 to$1,000
TOTAL $30,000,000
Revenue Revenues
Enhancements
Real Property Transfer $3.2 Million
Tax 50%+ 1 Voter Approval
Reduce UUT%(7.75 to $4.5 Million
7.5)and/or broaden the 50%+1 Voter Approval
base and charge UUT on
refuse, sewer,water
of a percent increase $7 Million
in sales tax 50%+ 1 Voter Approval
Increase Transient $400,000
Lodging Tax Rate 50%+ 1 Voter Approval
Establish Warehouse $300,000
tax 50%+ 1 Voter Approval
Establish Quarry Tax $200,000
50%+ 1 Voter Approval
Establish 911 Fee $4 Million
50%+1 Voter Approval
A fee charged to all cellular and land line phones to
recover costs associated with 911 operation
Library Parcel Tax $2 Million
2/3 Voter Approval
Parks Parcel Tax $5 Million
2/3 Voter Approval
Establish Citywide $6-7 Million
Assessment District 50%+ 1 Voter Approval
Would pay for street lighting,street sweeping,
graffiti removal,tree trimming
Increase Business Fire $300,000
Inspection Fee Update Master Fee Resolution
Consolidations
Information Technology Unknown
Partnerships
Privatize Animal Shelter Unknown
Privatize City Cemetery Unknown
City/County/School Unknown
Library Systems
Centralize Fire and rest Unknown
of City Fleet
Management
Combine Fire and Police Unknown
Dispatch
TOTAL $33,400,000
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City of San Bernardino Economic Development Plan
by
Jian Torkan
February 11, 2014
One of the main issues facing the City of San Bernardino is blight in residential and
commercial developed areas. To resolve issues of blight in the commercial sector, one must
first seek to resolve blight in the residential sector. I believe the blight issues stems from the
fact that the City of San Bernardino(CSB) is the oldest city in the geographic area and many of
the housing projects in the City are many decades old. This coupled with the fact that as the
Inland Empire experienced population growth over the years, there was significant and low cost
large parcels of land which could be developed into new housing tracts. Therefore, as new
housing tracts were built, it was not economically feasible to renovate,teardown and build new
housing in the CSB, causing the housing stock to become significantly aged and in many cases in
disrepair. As the cost of home ownership in the CSB became cheaper due to the age of homes
in the City versus new homes build in new housing tracts,the City started to attract lower and
lower income homeowners and renters.
Although job creation in the City is very important, it is not as important as improving
the housing stock in the City. The logic behind this falls on the fact that if one was to create
high wage paying jobs within the City, those who would fill these jobs would choose to live
outside of City,choosing Highland, Redlands, Loma Linda and even as far as Calimesa,
Beaumont and Banning. Therefore,the residents of the CSB would not be the beneficiaries of
these jobs. Even if an individual from the City is able to obtain a new high wage paying job in
the City,that individual is very likely to move out of the City once the employment matures,
seeking better housing options in area Cities.
Tackling and resolving the aged housing stock issue will resolve many issues which face
the City. It will attract higher income individuals and thereby, increase disposable income to be
spend in the City's retail outlets,thereby attracting additional retailers to the City and allowing
retail property owners to improve their properties to tenant their space with the higher rent
paying new tenants. In short, improving the housing stock, will eventually lead to reduction in
blight in the retail and commercial sector.
Improvement in the Housing stock will also lead to improvement in the School system.
One form of improvement will come from higher property tax payments on higher value
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homes, which a certain percentage is directed to the:school system. The mix of higher income
and lower income families will also contribute to improvement in the school system. It has
been well documented that higher income area schools perform better than those with only
lower income families. The reasons for this is the subject of much debate, but the statistics are
clear in identifying the discrepancy.
Given the City's current economic condition and the loss of Redevelopment Funds,the
City's political leaders need to search for new ways of revitalizing communities, attracting and
keeping businesses, modernizing its housing stock and providing other essential services. The
following are possible solutions for some of these issues.
1. Waterman Ave Corridor
Waterman Ave from the 10 freeway to the base of the foothill is the City's only major
North/South thoroughfare. Yet, as one drives down the street, it is riddled with dilapidated
buildings, auto repair shops and other businesses which detract from the fact that Waterman is
a major corridor for the City. Given my experience in developing new projects on Waterman,
four at current count, I have learned several facts. One is that retailers are reluctant to locate
on most parts of the street due to a lack of residential population within close proximity to the
street. Those retailers who locate on Waterman,for the most part are gaining business from
the traffic which passes along Waterman Ave. The City must take the following actions to
revitalize and bring Waterman Ave. to take advantage of its major corridor opportunity.
a. Re-Zone mid-block parcels to high density residential zoning for market
apartments or townhome condominiums.Zoning can require gated community development
only, minimum size development and possibly require!amenities, security or secured access
entry. Other conditions can be placed on the development to insure such development
projects will remain in good condition and desirable, such as requiring owners to evict residents
with criminal records. This will solve two issues currently present on Waterman Ave. First, land
parcels which are currently zoned for uses which there is no demand for will be absorbed with
new development and attractive buildings; second, residential density will be created to allow
for both existing retail and future retail to benefit from. I suspect that with the increase in
residence on the street, developers will also purchase some of the tire shops, muffler shops and
other undesirable business on Waterman and develop some of those parcels into vibrant retail
and or office development.
b. Utilize outside sources of funds,such as Measure I funds and other funds
available from the Federal, State,or County government to improve Waterman Ave with a
landscape median, attractive street lighting and to place sidewalks in areas with missing
sidewalks and landscaping in front of certain undesirable business to at least block their
visibility to the street. If funds allow,the City can even widen the street in certain locations to
give the street a better more dramatic feel.
C. Designate another street within the City to allow business that are not desirable
on Waterman Ave to move to. Those areas will be rezoned for these specific uses. This will
allow customers who wish to have vehicle repair services to drive along one street within a
designated area of the city and have access to all those businesses. It should allow those
businesses to thrive even more as residents will know that the area has many options for them.
This would be the same concept as having auto dealerships locate adjacent to each other.
These businesses can be encouraged to move by starting a program of vigilant monitoring and
fining for code violations.
2. Creation of Secure Residential Sectors:
a. Designate a number of blocks within a single family housing area,for example an
area bounded by 9th street, 15th street, Sierra and Waterman. Block all streets leading to this
section of homes by putting iron fence to close the streets leading into the housing sector,
leaving only two entrances and exits. The two ingress and egress streets will be secured with
security gates, so that only residents and their guests can enter and exit the housing sector.
b. The two secured access points to the housing sector can be cleaned up and
made aesthetically appealing by creating landscape areas, waterfalls, and other items which
create a nice entrance to a secure housing area (in the same lines as one sees in the lower
desert housing development entrances).
C. Create a homeowners association within the housing sector, so that the
homeowners can become involved in the sector and get a sense of ownership for the entire
housing sector, not just their individual homes.
d. The homeowner's association,with the help of the police department can create
neighborhood patrol service; or alternatively,the City can fund the homeowners association to
retain a professional security service for the sector. The savings from having local police patrol
the housing sector will far outweigh the cost of having the homeowners association retain and
hire a professional security company.
e. Identify sources of funds (Federal and State and other charitable organizations)
that can help homeowners renovate the exterior of their homes and the landscaping around
their homes. Create specific specifications to create continuity for renovation throughout the
housing sector.
f. City attorney to utilize its Receivership program to place chronic code violators in
receivership (preferably homes that have long term vacancy and absentee owner)and demolish
and rebuild those homes as new homes. This will create a comparable price within the specific
housing sector which will increase the value of all the homes in the housing sector and further
encourage other homeowners to renovate their homes to achieve its highest value.
3. Downtown San Bernardino
The downtown area has significant potential in that it currently has many thousands of
higher income professionals working within the downtown area. The two issues facing the
downtown area is that, one, many if not all of those employees currently brownbag their lunch
and do not walk the downtown streets or visit its restaurants and retailers and two, downtown
does not have enough of a nighttime crown to fill restaurants for their dinner crowd
requirement. This is what prevents the downtown area from attracting and retaining successful
restaurants and retailers to downtown. The following are some recommendations to overcome
these two issues. The downtown area will not and should not seek to attract restaurants of
national or regional character, such as we see in the Hospitality corridor. Rather, downtown
restaurants should be an interesting and eclectic group of mom/pop restaurants to distinguish
themselves from the Hospitality corridor restaurants.
a. A beatification program should be initiated for the downtown area. This can
include increasing lighting by utilizing blue Christmas lights on each existing street light pole,
adhesive window covers which depict people shopping,sitting, and working on empty widow
fronts, landscaping planters and garbage cans on sidewalks.
b. Recruit a number of Gourmet Food Trucks one day a week for the downtown
area (ie every Wednesday). Close off Court Street and place temporary outdoor seating and
tables with umbrellas to create a comfortable, cool and relaxing environment for people to dine
and lounge during lunch. Recruit a band from either one of the high schools or the colleges to
play tranquil music during this two to three hour event.
C. Close off the Food Court to all except for employees of the downtown area, at
least initially. This will allow the City to keep out the elements which drives the working
population of downtown away from such venues.
d. Prior to the initiation of the event, speak with the larger downtown employers to
encourage their staff to visit this event and take time off from work to have lunch just once a
week at this event. The hope is that the employees will enjoy the experience and want to have
it more often, possibly daily. This will benefit the employer in that employees who leave the
office for a break will be more productive when they are back at work.
e. If funds allow, provide shuttle service from area businesses to the event to
encourage and make travel to the event easier.
f. Keep account of Food Truck Sales and work with them to open a permanent
restaurant in the downtown area. It is possible that after many months of service, they will
have a following and given the realization that there is a large pool of customers in downtown,
they may find it feasible to open a physical location in downtown.
g. Amend the City Code to facilitate and cut the cost of opening a new restaurant in
downtown.
h. Partner with area universities to set a free program with interested restaurants
to create a design for the restaurant.
i. If funds permit, create other financial incentives for supporting new restaurants.
4. Carousel Mall and Housing in the Downtown Core
The Carrousel Mall is a huge asset that exists in the downtown core. What makes it
attractive is the size of land that it sits on. There are very few singular controlled large parcels
available in the downtown core. It should have a retail draw, but one must look to maximize
its impact for the downtown area and be realistic about what tenants can be located there.
a. Start out by interviewing a sample of downtown employees to see what they
want to see in downtown.
b. If feasible, integrate a high density, market rent, housing component with the
Carousel Mall development. Government Employees working in the downtown area are
exactly the type of residents that the City should want to attract to the downtown area;
therefore, particular effort should be made to gain an understanding of what these employees
would require to enable them to live in downtown. These individuals are the low hanging fruit
for residential in downtown and particular effort should be made to create the type of housing
that would be attractive to these employees.
C. If a successful effort is made to house downtown employees in downtown, this
may create an incentive for other employers to locate in the downtown area to allow their
employees to live close to work.
e. Initially, concentration should be placed on only three or four blocks of
downtown. This will allow the concentration necessary to dramatically change those blocks
and the remainder of the downtown core may be positively affected by a successful
deployment in those few blocks.
5. Third Party Funding of Economic Development
The City should create a list of potential third party sources of funds which it can tap
into to utilize towards economic development. These funds can be from the Federal
Government, State Government and Charitable Organizations. Typically these funds will not be
designated for economic development; however,in understanding the limitations of each such
funding sources, one can determine ways of utilizing the funds to meet the goals of the funding
source and simultaneously achieve redevelopment goals of the City.
6. City Attorney Receivership Program:
The City Attorney has at its disposal an arsenal of tools to clean up neighborhoods.
These tools and their limitations should be identified to determine how they can be used to
achieve the overall redevelopment goals of the City.
a. Aggressive prosecution of code violations can create significant cash for the City
to utilize for redevelopment activities, but also to force segments of the City to fall in line with
the goals of the City.
b. The Receivership program available to the City Attorney can help take out the
worst homes in a neighborhood and rebuilt them with new housing. This can be a very
effective tool in creating new housing stock in infill locations. If the program turns out to be
successful, it can then be used towards apartments with serious code violations. New homes in
an area can attract other investors to demolish and build new homes or to encourage current
residence to renovate and take advantage of increasing market comparables in their area.
7. City Parks
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The City currently has many parks. These parks are owned by the City and are a real I
estate asset for the City; however, currently they are a drain on scare resources of the City.
Parks are an important part of all communities; however,there can be ways to utilize this asset
and at the same time pass the responsibility of maintaining the parks to other parties. this can
be a very controversial subject and will need careful planning to allow the community to benefit
in the long term. In other words,the City should not sell assets today and shortchange future
generations of such assets.
a. Sell small portions of city parks to developers who can build high density and
higher end housing along the parks. The Developers can then be required to maintain the parks
in a certain condition and/or to provide security services for such parks in which their housing
projects reside. Possibly gate off parks and make such parks available only to residents of San
Bernardino and entry would be allowed only upon proof of residency (ie drivers license).
b. The City can take the funds from sale of the portions of existing parks to
condemn areas of housing which require redevelopment and create new parks in those areas.
If desired,the City can again come to agreement with a developer to sell a portion of the new
park for housing and to allow such developer to pay for the maintenance and security of the
park.
e. The City should seek other ways of monetizing the parks, such as allowance of
vendors on weekends at the parks and revenue sharing of their sales or temporary leasing of
space to vendors, kiosks, etc.
f. There is currently an example of this in the City of San Bernardino south of the
10 Fwy. This can serve as a sample of how such development can be complementary for both
the parks patrons and the developers.
8. Large Single Family Tract Development
The City should be proactive in identifying areas where a developer can purchase large
tracts of land for single family development. The City should be in communication with the
property owners that it identifies, going as far as mediating so that multiple parcels can come
to agreement to sell and assembling multiple smaller parcels into one large parcel.
The goal of the City should be to facilitate the purchase of large parcels of land for a
developer to be brought in for development of such land into large single family housing
development.
9. Traffic flows within the City:
A general long term plan of the City should be to allow traffic to flow form side streets
onto major traffic corridors. For example, to develop a long term plan that would allow traffic
from Arrowhead Blvd and other North/South streets to the West of Waterman to flow onto
Waterman Ave. in a way that would force traffic to flow on Waterman Ave to travel
North/South. Over time this will allow the City to concentrate funds in widening Waterman and
creating a major Boulevard that allows a significant amount of traffic to flow along Waterman
Ave. Creating and diverting more traffic to Waterman Ave. will allow this street to attract more
retail and allow the City to devote more funds to beatification of the street.
10. Properties along the 215 Fwy:
Driving North from the 10 Fwy onto the 215 Fwy, one finds many scrap metal business
and generally junk oriented business. This is the face of San Bernardino to hundreds of
thousands of people traveling through San Bernardino on the 215 fwy. It is not a first
impression that the City should give to those travelers. The City should work with these
businesses and property owners to relocate them in other areas of the City to allow for new
industrial development to be done. Most of the properties along the 215 fwy stretch are not
conducive to retail; therefore, new Industrial would be a simple way to cleanup that area.
11. Freeway Exits:
One main asset that the City of San Bernardino has is that it is essentially surrounded by
Freeways, the 10 Fwy to the south, 215 to the West, and 210 to the North. Hundreds of
thousands of people travel on these freeways. The City should identify ways to attract and
capture the freeway traffic and allow them to exit the freeway to purchase goods and services.
Therefore, key exists should be identified and worked on to allow retail to be attracted to those
exits. Allowance of large pylon signs at retail exits which would identify the businesses
immediately along the exits to allow the vehicular traffic to have the opportunity to spot the
retailer they would want to exit for and to allow time for them to make the exit. A substantial
amount of revenue can be generated for retailers along freeway exists and these revenues will
translate into additional retail development and additional revenue for the City.
12. Redevelopment Properties:
The Successor agency now has a significant amount of properties that it will need to
liquidate. The funds generated from the liquidation do not go to the benefit of the City. The
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City must identify those properties and burden them with significant offsite requirements. For
example, if the property on 4th and G is to be sold, require the property owner to widen the
street for the entire block not only on the frontage of the property being sold,to put
landscaping median for the entire block,to put decorative lighting along the block, and other
improvements to the street that would benefit the City. These requirements would reduce the
value of the land being sold, shifting the funds that any developer would pay for the property
away from the purchase of the property to the offsite improvements the property would entail.
The developer or purchaser of the property would be no better or worse off, as it values the
property being purchased, less any offsite improvements that would be required to develop the
property.
13. Graffiti Removal
The City currently has free Graffiti removal services, yet the City is still riddled with
graffiti. Possibilities for attacking this problem as follows:
a. Identify areas of the City,commercial corridors,that the City would want to
concentrate its efforts for Graffiti removal.
b. Organize businesses to work with the Graffiti removal section of the City to allow
Graffiti to be removed immediately upon it being reported.
C. Fine businesses that do not remove graffiti from their property within a certain
period of time.
d. Most businesses would be willing to pay a small fee to be part of a program,
where a City or a Non-profit would regularly drive the business owners properties and, on the
spot remove graffiti from those properties.
14. Utilization of Non-Violent and low level felons and parolees as laborers for certain
cleanup tasks not otherwise currently deployed:
Many Cities utilize these individuals to keep their cities clean. This has the dual benefit
of keeping the City clean and disciplining the individual, putting them back on the right tract to
employment. Reduced sentences can be offered to those individuals to participate in this
program,so that it can be a voluntary program.
15. Pre-Design Approved Homes:
In order to encourage smaller homebuilder to purchase existing homes, demolishing
them and redeveloping new homes on these sites, the City can create three or four designed
homes, with full construction drawings, which it has pre-approved. The Developer will know
prior to purchasing a home, that by utilizing the pre-approved design, they will know what the
city requirement will be, what their cost of construction will be, and have certainty that if one
of these designs are chosen,they can save on architectural costs, permitting fees, and gain
certainty in the development process. All the developer needs to calculate in order to proceed
with the development of a new home, is to determine the cost of purchasing the property and
the value on the sale of the property.
This will significantly streamline the process of purchasing, demolishing and developing
some of the older housing stock in the City. It will make the process easier, more affordable
and less uncertain for a small homebuilder.
The City of San Bernardino has many assets and significant potential. There are many
individuals who would give time and effort to insure the success of the City. For the City to take
advantage of its assets, it must act. It must prioritize actions to be taken and move quickly to
implement them. Over the years there have been many ideas on how to revitalize the City,
where the City is lacking is ACTION. It must make decisions and move forward with
implementation of the decisions quickly. Time is of the essence and moving forward and
making a mistake is better than not having done anything at all.
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