| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:43.60 | Charlie Francis | Good evening, my name is Charlie Francis and I'm the finance director for the city of Sausalito and the purpose of tonight's meeting is a community forum on the annexation, the LAFCO application that was made to the local agency formation committee in Marin County, |
| 00:01:00.97 | Unknown | for annexation of the city's boundaries into the Southern Moran Fire Protection District's boundaries in order to provide cost-effective and efficient fire |
| 00:01:12.04 | Unknown | services. So I'd like to begin by directing your attention to the PowerPoint presentation. |
| 00:01:17.56 | Unknown | So up on the podium with me is the city manager Adam Pulitzer, the fire chief Jim Irving, and Dwayne Milnes from CityGate, who is the consulting firm that's been helping us analyze the annexation. Thank you. |
| 00:01:34.51 | Unknown | Thank you for being here. We're discussing today the application that was submitted to LAFCO and the recommendation that went to the city council by staff was an annexation proceed without a parcel tax. And the reason that that recommendation was made is that it continues the very efficient and high levels |
| 00:01:54.97 | Unknown | quality of service that the fire department's been providing our community for the past six years under the combined efforts of the Southern Marin Fire Protection District. It ensures cost effective and efficient |
| 00:02:05.97 | Unknown | level of service is there's a minimum tax impact on citizen |
| 00:02:09.60 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:09.61 | Unknown | and it provides |
| 00:02:10.96 | Unknown | city, fiscal stability to meet the challenges of the future with a structurally balanced budget, eliminates costs of elections. |
| 00:02:20.03 | Charlie Francis | additional budget savings from an expedited annexation and it saves the city $1.4 million from having to institute a full fire department. |
| 00:02:28.28 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 00:02:28.77 | Charlie Francis | And, |
| 00:02:29.04 | Unknown | Finally, it establishes the opportunity to have local control by electing representation from the city to serve the entire district, including Sausalito. Thank you. The PowerPoint slide here shows the fire consolidation timeline. It emphasizes that we had a seven-year relationship with the Southern Marin Fire Protection District where we've been working together as a team. City and the Fire District for this moment. operationally we had to put together standard operating procedures standard ways of doing business and aligning the memorandums of understanding MOUs between the city and its employees and the district and their employees we did this through a very transparent public process that had workshops all advertised community meetings committee meetings and finally leading up to several city council meetings where the city council voted to |
| 00:03:23.97 | Unknown | submit the application to LAFCO on September 13th. There was public opinion polls, there was LAFCO reviews, and a professional analysis. And I like to tell the story with the chart that shows our undesignated fund balance because part of the story |
| 00:03:38.97 | Unknown | I agree. |
| 00:03:39.24 | Unknown | So. |
| 00:03:39.71 | Unknown | was The need, part of one of the giant |
| 00:03:43.03 | Unknown | was not that it just made operational sense, but it made fiscal sense. Back in 2002-03, the city was facing a fiscal crisis. |
| 00:03:51.30 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:03:51.32 | Unknown | you We had to lay off some employees. |
| 00:03:52.97 | Unknown | We had to adjust some revenues. We had to make other interventionary |
| 00:03:56.82 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:03:56.85 | Unknown | of the |
| 00:03:57.02 | Unknown | uh, Thank you. |
| 00:03:57.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:03:57.85 | Unknown | to get us from a negative fund balance to a positive fund balance and do one of those interventions |
| 00:04:04.97 | Charlie Francis | you |
| 00:04:05.04 | Unknown | steps that we took was eliminating the administration costs from the city of Sausalito and contracting |
| 00:04:12.03 | Unknown | with the Southern Rant Fire Protection District for command services, for the chief services and battalion chief, headquarter services. We did not pay the full price of those services, and you can see that this strategy works. Combined with our other fiscal strategies, it allowed us to increase our fund balance to the point where we have reserves that reflect the ability for the city to be resilient and |
| 00:04:38.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:04:42.25 | Unknown | Some of the operational benefits of annexation is that this training has all been standardized. The equipment is standardized |
| 00:04:48.96 | Unknown | the two districts. We have a unified command and specialized response for all the various activities that go on with the city and it reduces the chief officer and administration and places more firefighters on the line. And what is needed to To address the fire in Sausalito's we need an engine. We need a rescue ambulance. And we need a command chief. That command chief is provided to us |
| 00:05:14.45 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 00:05:15.37 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:05:15.39 | Charlie Francis | from |
| 00:05:16.25 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:05:16.29 | Charlie Francis | Southern Marin. Southern Marin has two more engines, and a rescue unit and a ladder truck, so we have a total of |
| 00:05:23.96 | Unknown | 16 personnel at any given day ready to respond to a fire here in Sausalito. Five from Sausalito, three from Marin County, and eight from Southern Marin. And other agencies assist the city. For a first alarm, we get the Southern |
| 00:05:38.04 | Charlie Francis | Fire District and the Marin County Fire Department. And a second alarm or greater city of Mill Valley would join Tiburon Fire Protection District and Corte Maduro. through the Combined operations, we have trains |
| 00:05:53.97 | Unknown | standardized equipment, standard on our operating procedures, and then combined with other units, provides the city excellent fire protection. This slide shows |
| 00:06:05.04 | Charlie Francis | agency locations and |
| 00:06:07.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:07.52 | Charlie Francis | where other Stations and services are |
| 00:06:12.01 | Unknown | compared to the city of Sausalito. We can clearly see that the Southern Marin Fire District Station is the closest to the Sausalito that is staffed with a command staff to provide us the kind of leadership that we need in incident command. |
| 00:06:27.02 | Charlie Francis | at a fire. Now, you will see the Marin County Fire District is a bit closer, but there are no command staff at the Marin County Fire District. |
| 00:06:38.72 | Charlie Francis | So why did this make sense fiscally? From a fiscal standpoint, We have... We're reaching the point where the city that our expenditures are going to be exceeding our revenues. This is occurring for a number of reasons, but primarily the current situation can't continue. we can't continue the current operation because For all this time, the city has not been paying its proportionate share of command staff from the fire protection district. I'm not sure. It wants to be fairly compensated for the level of services that were being provided. Another reason why it can't continue is that the well. |
| 00:07:27.81 | Charlie Francis | Firefighters working for two separate agencies under separate contracts makes managing employees very difficult and takes extra time spent on other issues. And finally, the fire district itself is not interested in continuing the present contract arrangement because annexation makes the most sense operationally, financially, and provides the longest term stability. So in other words, on this graph, the city would have to incur incur cost of 1.4 million dollars more than it's occurring now and those are revenues that would come from revenues that the city currently doesn't have so we've reached the point where if annexation provides us the ability to bring our budget back into structural balance we do that by moving out the same amount of expenses and revenues from the city so two point nine hundred sixty nine thousand dollars of expenses will be transferred to the district these are the incremental costs of providing fire services and we'll be transferring two million nine hundred sixty nine thousand revenues which would come from our current ambulance and permit revenues, the city's share of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area contract. We'll be providing other post-employment benefit payments to the district for $58,000. And finally, a transfer of property tax of $2,667,250. So moving the same amount of expenditures out that would have increased in the future and moving the same amount of revenues out |
| 00:08:57.97 | Unknown | that would not have increased in the future provides us the ability to structurally balance our budget today. Another way of looking at it is on this chart here. |
| 00:09:07.47 | Unknown | Thank you. where Before the city had 14,611,000 in expenses and 14,611,000 in revenues and that's for the current fiscal year 11-12 budget. After we move out $2,900,000 of expenses but only moving out $2,800,000 in revenues, it creates a surplus for us of $184,000 in the city's budget. Another way of looking |
| 00:09:41.04 | Unknown | it is a property taxes currently property taxes consume or the fire department expenses consume 55% of the city's property taxes. By only transferring $2,667,000 of the city's property taxes, that only represents 45% |
| 00:10:00.97 | Unknown | of |
| 00:10:01.42 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:10:02.37 | Unknown | leaving an extra 10% of property taxes available to the city for allocation to other resources. So right now, 55% of our property taxes goes to fire expenses. After annexation, we'll be transferring only 45% of our property taxes, leaving ourselves a net gain. Thank you. |
| 00:10:25.89 | Unknown | And if we wanted to look at it as a graph on how that would happen by moving out an equivalent amount |
| 00:10:30.97 | Unknown | of expenses and just a little bit less revenues, it creates a small surplus for the city as we go off into the future and thereby leaves us structurally balanced. Now we do this by submitting an application to LAFCO. LAFCO and the Marin County Local Agency has certain processes and certain documents that it has to go through. The following chart, which is online, and this PowerPoint presentation is online, as well as all the documents that led up to this decision, outlines the steps. We've submitted the application to LAFCO on September 13. And next week, next Thursday at November 10, LAFCO board will be conducting a hearing to whether or not the |
| 00:11:24.29 | Unknown | the proposal meets all the condition of the application process and conditions. If it didn't meet all those conditions, Lefkoe then would disapprove the proposal. you Uh, More than likely the application has been, because it has been prepared in conjunction with LAFCO who's attended all the city meetings and the district meetings, we suspect then that LAFCO will approve the proposal and the executive officer will set a date for administrative protest hearing. That administrative protest hearing more than likely would be conducted in December. And after the protest hearing, the votes will be counted and certified in January. which then would say if there was valid written protest that exceeded 50% of registered voters and landowners, the annexation would be terminated. But if the |
| 00:12:14.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:12:14.80 | Unknown | you |
| 00:12:14.97 | Unknown | if it was less than 50% but more than 25% written protest by landowners or registered voters then it would, LAFCO would order a special election. If protests are less than 25% of registered voters or landowners, then the LAFCO orders the annexation and the annexation is approved. |
| 00:12:39.14 | Unknown | The documents we submitted to LAFCO included land use tables, a zoning map, and a land use map. Those are required submittals to LAFCO, but there are no land use changes, zoning changes, or any other mapping changes proposed except for the |
| 00:12:56.03 | Unknown | boundaries of the southern fire protection district being expanded to include the city of Sausalito's boundaries. Included in the application was a resolution of the City Council authorizing the City Manager to submit the application. And there were several agreements that were reached |
| 00:13:12.97 | Unknown | the Southern Marin Fire Protection District and the city. Agreements regarding the lease of premises and equipment. Agreement regarding certain financial and personnel matters. There were memorandums of understanding between the district and the employees about memorandum of understanding of employees, and resolution accepting the negotiated exchange of property tax between the city. Along with those applications was a plan for service that included many of the elements I just mentioned before and all those will be reviewed by Lefkoe by next week. As the city was going through this process, of analyzing the best options available to the city. The criteria that we used in making the recommendation of annexation without a parcel tax to the city council, the criteria we used was first of all, the tax burden had to be equitable. Equitable on our citizens, equitable on the district citizens. And then second point was that the options should secure fiscal stabilization for the city of Sausalito. We had to protect the city's current level of service delivery, so we continue with the excellent fire service that we're receiving. And our other basic services, police, public works, recreation, library, continued their excellent level of service. So that was very important in making this decision. We wanted to eliminate duplication of services. We wanted to remove any duplication of equipment. Lower the cost of administrative services. Just visualize right now Southern Marin Fire Protection District has a payroll clerk making sure that |
| 00:14:56.03 | Unknown | payroll is distributed correctly to the district and the city has a payroll clerk for its 15 employees. The incremental cost of adding the 15 employees to the district's payroll |
| 00:15:06.98 | Unknown | you lowers the administrative costs of the city. And finally, there's a transparent and countable local control. When we applied those criteria to the three options that were analyzed, The three options were a JPA, a joint powers authority with the district that operates similar to a contract for service. Second option was a full fire service, and the third option was annexation. after applying those criteria, It was considered by the city council and approved that. that would be a continuation of the high level of service. It would ensure cost-effective and efficient levels of service |
| 00:15:47.04 | Unknown | minimum tax impact on citizens. It helped the city obtain the fiscal stability to meet the challenges of the future, and finally, it established local control. |
| 00:16:00.34 | Unknown | So. |
| 00:16:00.93 | Unknown | At this point, the city is ready to entertain any questions and answers unless there's other information that other panel members would like to speak about. Thank you. |
| 00:16:14.71 | Unknown | Questions and answers. So, okay. Ladies and gentlemen at home, |
| 00:16:20.98 | Unknown | So please, |
| 00:16:22.04 | Unknown | We have a week. The Lafcoat protest hearing is next week, but that doesn't mean we're not available for questions. We are very available for questions. And if you have any follow-up questions from tonight's presentation, please feel free to call myself, Charles Francis, Administrative Services Director for the City at 289-4105. You can also call Chief Irving. |
| 00:16:45.12 | Unknown | create this world. |
| 00:16:48.04 | Unknown | you |
| 00:16:48.09 | Unknown | 38011 |
| 00:16:49.90 | Unknown | and we're going to have a |
| 00:16:49.97 | Unknown | 0 0 and of course you can always reach Adam politics our city manager at 289 for |
| 00:16:57.66 | Unknown | 289-4166 |
| 00:17:00.16 | Unknown | 4166. Our website is updated continually. |
| 00:17:05.96 | Unknown | this presentation will be up there. And following the presentation on the website are questions and answers that came from the last public workshop. |
| 00:17:15.03 | Unknown | probably want to review those also. Thank you very much for watching tonight, and good night. |