The devil is in the details

I have read the commentaries of candidates for the City Council with great interest. It is obvious to me that some of the candidates have really done their homework to learn the issues through the media, from members of the City Council and the City staff. Every candidate was encouraged to meet with City staff which included the City Manager, City Attorney and department heads. Most chose to, a couple did not. Their commentaries reflect that.
Much has been made in this election cycle about the unfunded pension liability faced by the City. In the summer of 2011, Councilmember Tom Chambers and I reached out to Joe Nation and CalPers to examine our pension so we could understand exactly where we were and what options we might have to make substantive changes to reduce our future liability. Mr. Nation reached out to many cities for an opportunity to examine their situation. Healdsburg was the only small city in the county to engage in the process.
As a business owner I have the ability to modify our retirement plan without negotiation with my staff. This is very different from the rights of employees in the public sector. We found that the City has no power or authority to modify the pension formulas of existing employees. These rights are guaranteed by state law that dates back to 1937. However, through bargaining with existing employees, we have the ability to create a second tier of pension benefits for new employees, have existing employees pay more towards their retirement, prevent spiking of pensions, and modify what pay actually counts toward retirement calculations. We have done that. We continue to look for ways to reduce future liabilities and I am confident that we will. We have used the report that Joe Nation and the Stanford Public Policy Institute as a template for our efforts and have worked through his recommendations. Further changes to public employee pensions have to come from the state legislature or the initiative process — a state ballot measure.
Cutting costs alone will not allow us to recover from the economic recession. Business development has been an important driver in the efforts to create a solid economic base. More than a year ago we implemented a streamlined permitting process for contractors and business owners. It has been very successful. The majority of the red tape you hear about is directly attributable to the State building codes and health and safety codes which individual cities have no control over. While our process is not perfect, we have been recognized by contractors, business owners and other cities as progressive and constructive partners — and many cities are considering our model. We continue to work to improve.
As far as Redevelopment goes, we are working through a process prescribed by the state for the dissolution of the agency. The process provides for the city to make its case for the retention of some of the funds. An important component in that is fighting for $17 million dollars in bond funds that the city has acquired through a lengthy process. Those bond funds would not go to the state, but back to issuers of the bonds. This money would allow us to move forward on some – but not all of the necessary infrastructure projects we face in the city.
The devil is in the details. Moving Healdsburg forward to the bright future we all strive for means working together to find solutions that work. Consider your choices carefully on November 6, and by all means, please vote.
Jim Wood is a Healdsburg City Councilmember.