Healdsburg City Council covered a slew of topics at its April 15 meeting at city hall.
The city’s pension funding was addressed and the city unanimously adopted a resolution to adopt a new funding policy.
The city has an unfunded pension liability of $33.7 million dollars as of June 30.
In an attempt to lessen this burden, the city is taking steps to take more control of its pensions, as opposed to CalPERS, which has had high growth assumptions that are part of the cause of the pension crisis. CalPERS is the state pension system.
The new option — labeled Option 1 in the report, as it was the first of three choices at a January meeting — also lowers trust target rates to 27% and 53% in contributions to the two pension funds: safety and miscellaneous, versus 33.8% and 57.2%. These contribution rates will go from 2024-25 through 2035-36 and 2023-24 through 2036-37, respectively.
This is done by making direct payments to CalPERS over a 19-year period and the report states that these lower targets will bring about savings to the city’s budget.
Councilmember Shaun McCaffery was glad to see the plan brought forth as he said it lent budget stability and consistency through future city councils.
Though the presentation stated that the new policy demonstrates to the public that the unfunded liabilities are being addressed, picturing what these numbers mean in real terms can be difficult.
Resident Tim Unger stated as much during the call to the public. He asked what the total amount of unfunded liabilities currently was (the $33.7 million was not discussed in the report) and also asked what that amounted to in annual payments to both departments and what total annual pension benefits were on average to retired city employees.
“We really don’t have any understanding from this report or from prior reports from the actuary,” Unger said
The city did not have the latter two numbers to answer those questions, but Mayor David Hagele directed staff to have them ready for future meetings.
Though the report details contributions rates through 2037, there was no mention of when the pension liabilities will be fully funded.
“Depending on what happens in the market, that number, that $33.7 million, it could go up, it could go down, we could pay it down to zero and it would still go up,” McCaffery said, emphasizing why the funding plan was important beyond costs before offering a motion to approve.
Fired Up
The city also heard a report on last year’s activity at Healdsburg Fire Department from Fire Chief Jason Boaz.
Boaz began with staffing, stating that most of the time there are four firefighters ready to man an engine. The department has 13 regular staff members and 17 reserves. Boaz noted that all live within a relative close proximity to town, some within the city.
Boaz was optimistic on staffing overall, but did say it was difficult to retain reserve firefighters. Many reserves receive training that leads to fulltime employment elsewhere. Boaz said one of the best ways to combat this attrition is to keep spreading the word that the department is always looking for driven volunteers.
Responses for fires, which account for 4.5% of total calls, dipped slightly in 2018 from the year prior. The largest percentage of calls were for medical at 50.5%, which lowered to just under 800 incidents from just over comparing 2018 to 2017.
The remainder of incidents were hazard control at 6%, public assist at 8%, good intent calls — like a smoke alarm check or call canceled en route — at 22% and false alarm at 9%. The only of these statistics to increase was false alarm, with a slight increase.
In the two years prior (2015 and 2016) statistics had climbed or were flat in all categories.
Average response times in 2018 were 4:52 in the city limits; 8:55 for Fitch Mountain; and 11:43 for Sotoyome. Sotoyome is part of the group of north county fire districts called CSA 40, and Healdsburg fire is contracted to respond there.
It took a little longer to get to the north end of town vs. the downtown core, with an average time of 6:56 versus 3:45, though Boaz said the station is ideally located, since the more calls come from downtown.
Boaz also covered several other metrics in his report, including inspections and other specialty reviews.
Boaz also emphasized how the department reached out to the community through events such as the 12th annual Bucket Brigade Blood Drive, which the department took first place in among competing districts and departments. The department also took on three interns and took part in National Night Out, a safety fair and the Adopt a Furry Face Friend animal adoption effort.
Becoming Zero
City Council also adopted a resolution to become a zero-waste city by 2030.
The city will look to use less in general as well as educate people on the need for cleaned recyclables, among other efforts.
An upcoming ban on polystyrene will also aid these efforts, and will be similar to the ban in neighboring Sebastopol.
McCaffery asked if the ban would apply to polystyrene insulation products sold at hardware stores, as excess is often thrown away after cuts are made to fit the product into homes. It was not clear whether this would apply but it will be addressed in the upcoming ordinance.
