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Police K-9 Demonstration May 15

May 12, 2011 Leave a Comment

On Sunday May 15, 2011 Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) and the Broadway Plaza Retailers presents “Animals on Broadway.”  Animals on Broadway is a free community event where people and pets join together and spend the day celebrating the joy of being each others’ best friends.  Activities include a pet walk, dog wash, wellness fair, music, and vendor booths showcasing pet items.

The Walnut Creek Police Department supports this event and the department’s K9 Teams will be putting on two demonstrations.  ARF and Pet Food Express are helping raise funds for the police K9 Unit with the goal of adding another K9 team to the department.

The Walnut Creek Police K9 Unit has depended heavily on community support to supplement funding for the K9 teams.  In the past, this support has paid for a second K9 team, training and equipment.  The Walnut Creek Police Department K9 Officers and Cadets will staff a booth at the event to answer questions.  The K9 demonstrations will take place at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.

For more information, go to
http://www.arf.net/about/events/aob/index.php

 

Sunday, May 15, 2011 10:30 – 4 p.m.

Broadway Plaza – Walnut Creek

Pet Walk Registration 8:30 – 10 a.m.

Pet Walk  10:30 a.m. Sharp

Pet Wellness Fair 11:00 – 4 p.m.

Vendor Booths 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Walnut Creek Police K9 Demonstration 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Filed Under: Budget, Events

Are Walnut Creek Police Overpaid?

May 9, 2011 Leave a Comment

Unless you have been living in a cave for the last few months, you have undoubtedly been reading about the debate over public safety salaries and pensions at the state and local levels.

Here in Walnut Creek, the starting annual salary for a Walnut Creek Police Officer is $75,076 (City of Walnut Creek – May 2011).  Depending on your perspective, this may seem rather conservative or outrageously generous.

In truth, the base salary is only one part of what is known as “total compensation.” We need to look at the complete picture before we can come to an informed final conclusion. Other compensation factors include medical benefits, public employee retirement benefits, and several others. Once tabulated, a total compensation figure by itself doesn’t mean much, without anything to compare it to. To truly see the complete picture, we should compare the total compensation amounts of public sector and private sector workers.

As it turns out, the Center for Economic Policy Research recently performed just such a comparison and determined, “When matched by age and education – state and local workers on average earn 4 percent less than their private sector counterparts.”

The UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment has similarly found that public sector workers are neither overpaid nor overcompensated. This study determined that “an apples-to-apples comparison, or one that controls for education, experience, and other factors that may influence pay, reveals no significant difference in the level of employee compensation costs on an annual or per hour basis between private and public sector workers.”

On average, California Public Sector workers are more highly educated than the private sector counterparts.  This same UC Berkeley report estimates only 34 percent of California’s private-sector work-force holds a four year degree. In Walnut Creek, over 80 percent of our Police Officers hold a four year degree and a large percentage also hold a Masters Degree.  This translates directly to a quality police department that is able to provide top-notch service to our community.

Although we are starting to see a complete picture, our analysis would not be complete unless we also took time to look at how our total compensation compares to other Officers at neighboring municipalities. We must recognize that being a police officer is not a job for everyone and most would not consider such a profession, due to a variety of factors. The potential for danger and difficult shift work are often among the many factors mentioned.  This creates a recruitment and retention issue, in that we only have a finite pool of individuals who are qualified to serve in and are interested in public service.

In the October 2009 edition of “The Nutshell” Walnut Creek city leaders stated, “The City provides one of the most modest pension programs available and does not provide medical insurance for retired employees.”

In 2007, Walnut Creek lost over 13 officers to other local jurisdictions. Many of these officers indicated that they sought employment elsewhere, because they were seeking a more competitive compensation package.  Much like everyone else in our community, our officers are simply trying to raise a family and live in a decent community, with good schools for their children.

It has been estimated that it costs the city approximately $100,000 to recruit, hire, and train each new officer. Therefore, the staffing loss in 2007 cost the city approx. $1.3 million dollars. What is not included in this cost is the over one hundred years of experience that walked out the door with these employees and the training costs associated with that experience.

Unfortunately, poor decisions in an unregulated Wall Street market and poor lending decisions in the housing market have caused this financial crisis. When city hall took a holiday from contributing to the public employee retirement system and redirected these funds to other special projects, our ability as a city to survive this unexpected economic downturn decreased considerably.

Meanwhile, our dedicated police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other government workers have been vilified in the media. They have been incorrectly labeled as the cause of this financial problem as part of a well orchastrated misdirection by highly paid Wall Street Executives and Politicians.

In conclusion, we don’t believe that our police officers are overpaid. We believe the total compensation package for our employees needs to remain competitive with both other localities and the private sector. Our residents deserve a quality police department and services they can rely on in a time of need.

Although it may be politically trendy to jump on the bandwagon against public employees, an informed and independent factual analysis shows a different perspective.  It’s time to stop scapegoating our public employees!

It’s in the best interest of our entire community to maintain a quality police department.  A safe community is an important part of keeping Walnut Creek as a place where everyone wants to live, work, and play.

Filed Under: Budget, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Blue Ribbon Task Force Update

May 4, 2011 4 Comments

When the Walnut Creek Blue Ribbon Task Force on Fiscal Health was formed, the WCPA took a wait-and-see attitude towards the recommendations made by the task force.  See our initial comments here.

Although the task force is still just getting up to speed, it appears the subtle shift we noticed at the beginning has morphed into a formal direction from Mayor Silva.  Mayor Silva’s direction is clear,  focus on generating money.  Notwithstanding this conceptual flaw,  we are still hopeful the Blue Ribbon Task Force will produce a meaningful work product and propose some viable solutions for consideration by our leaders.

As Justin Wedel noted in his recent Patch article, Mayor Silva and City Manager Ken Nordhoff have repeatedly directed task force members to focus on finding new sources of money, rather than looking at spending priorities or proposing budget cuts. This has been a source of disappointment for many of  task force members, who hoped to do more.

Although we understand and agree that spending priorities are ultimately the responsibility of our elected leaders, we hope all our leaders are open to input from the citizens they serve and from the recognized experts they painstakingly selected to serve on the task force. Why have a task force if you don’t want to hear their informed opinions?

In truth, the law severely limits the number of ways a city can “find new money”. The expertise of the task force is hardly required to implement one of these simple options, that have been around for years.   Therefore, looking at revenue is only half of the equation for fiscal health and we have many more options when it comes to spending. Prioritization of spending is at the top of this list of options.

It is our understanding the overwhelming majority of  financial experts on the Blue Ribbon Task Force agree that it is down right silly to focus solely on income,  not to look at how the city spends it’s money, and our priorities. Why hamstring these experts from making a full analysis of our cities fiscal health?

In the end, our elected leaders will make the final decision to adopt or reject the conclusions of the task force members. So what’s the harm, let’s at least give the task force members the freedom to make the specific recommendations they deem necessary. After all, they are the experts and it’s the job they signed up for.

A fresh set of eyes on the problem might find just the solution to our financial crisis. Let’s have the courage to hear what they have to say.

Please contact your city leaders here and urge them to open up the task force discussion to both expenses and income.  Allow the experts they selected, from all areas of Walnut Creek, to do their jobs and look at the complete financial picture of our city.  After all, it’s what is in the best interest of the residents of Walnut Creek.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Budget, City Council, Featured Tagged With: , , ,

What if you called 9-1-1 and there was no one to help?

May 1, 2011 1 Comment

Imagine for a moment a city where there were no Police Officers working to respond when you call 9-1-1.  A timely response to emergency calls is essential. Without it, criminals would have a free pass and could take advantage of anyone they choose. Eventually the word amongst criminals would spread and the result would not be a pretty. But what about non-emergency calls?  Are these any less important to the people involved?

Although we are still able to respond to emergency calls, there will very likely not be any Officers available to answer the non-emergency calls to the Community Policing Unit this summer.

Staffing shortages have continued to plague our police department and Chief Bryden has announced internally that two of the three sworn officers assigned to the Community Policing Unit  will been transferred out to patrol duties. This adjustment for the summer months will allow us to meet minimum patrol staffing levels.

Fortunately, Chief Bryden has made patrol staffing a priority.  We are all working to minimize the “felt impact” of these shortages to the community and to ensure that we can still respond when someone places an emergency call to 9-1-1.  Although these internal changes may not be immediately “felt” by the public, these shortages are most certainly felt internally by our employees and have a significant impact on day-to-day operations.

Chief Bryden has made a commitment to keep our patrol division staffed at what is known as, “at minimums.”  To keep minimum staffing in patrol, we have had to make cuts to other important units, like the Community Policing Team, Traffic Team, and Investigations Bureau.  All of these are being staffed below their staffing minimums to cover for these patrol staff shortages. We have no “extra” Officers, in part due to the city council freezing five sworn officer positions. We are well below the “best practices” levels for a city of our size. Unfortunately these concerns have fallen on deaf ears with city leaders.

We believe the residents and business owners in Walnut Creek deserve more than, “the minimum.” Unfortunately, we are not able to provide the first class service our community deserves, without the needed staff and resources of these behind the scenes units, like Community Policing.

Who cares? How does this affect me?

What you may not realize is that one of the issues the Community Policing Team Officers address is the local homeless encampments.  Studies have estimated our homeless population at over 70 people, who reside in a number of encampments, which often out of sight and out of the minds of most of our residents; many of whom don’t realize all of what we do. These encampments are not something that we can just ignore.

Recently a fire at one of these encampments spread out of control and damaged a local office building. Read more about that fire and some of the associated comments here. Another story about a different fire related to a homeless subject camping can be found here.

In addition to the significant fire danger these encampments pose during the summer “dry brush” season, many of these encampments are also in watershed and wildlife habitat areas. This raises some pollution issues and also adds to a labor intensive clean-up process.

As part of a Homeless Task Force, the Police Department is required to notice the subjects of their illegal encampment and give them time to comply. Once the required waiting period is over, the clean-up effort begins.  Previously, a city worker stepped on a hypodermic syringe during one of these clean-ups. The needle punctured his boot and went into his foot. All something the average person would probably not consider.

After a clean-up, most of the subjects living in these encampments simply re-locate to another nearby location and the process starts all over again. Some uninformed people think that the homeless can easily be handled by patrol staff, however they are not aware of this continual cyclical process and the extensive follow-up and coordination required for each clean-up. It’s much more than just telling someone to leave.  Having a Community Policing Officer work to relocate the person in a shelter or suggest some other resources is much preferred.

Unfortunately, with the staffing shortages in the Community Policing Team this summer, the issues of the several large homeless encampments are likely to go on without regular enforcement.  The one person in the unit will only able to do so much work with the homeless, while countless other duties pile up.  With fire season upon us, this is threat to public safety and an example of how budget cuts are affecting the community.

 

Please contact city leaders and ask them to make public safety staffing a priority. It’s in the best interest of the residents of Walnut Creek.

 

 

Filed Under: Budget, City Council, Crime

WCPD Short 25 Cops?

April 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

The FBI recommends a staffing level of 1.5 Officers per 1,000 residents, based upon an analysis and average of staffing levels for local cities in the Western United States. As of 2008, the nearby city of Brentwood adopted this recommendation as part of their city ordinance (Section – 2.28.030). Making this ratio a matter of law was a conscious decision those city leaders made, to ensure their rapid growth did not surpass the ability to provide quality services to their residents.

Much like Brentwood, Walnut Creek has undergone significant growth in the past several years and we have approx. 1,400 new residential units in the planning stages for development in the near future. Instead of adding Officers to keep up with demand, city leaders recently froze 5 sworn Officer positions.
Interestingly enough, Walnut Creek has a city ordinance (Section: 10-1.602) for spending per 1,000 residents on recreational opportunities and an ordinance for public art spending on new developments (Section: 10-10.102), but we have no such similar requirement to match police staffing to our growth. Therefore, it probably comes as no surprise to anyone that we have fewer Officers now than we did 20 years ago.

By looking at the chart below, we can see that by our city council placing a priority on parks and art, as a matter of law, that police staffing levels have suffered. Based upon the latest 2010 population numbers, we should have a total of 100 sworn officers to meet the 1.5 Officers per 1,000 residents FBI recommendation.

Although we certainly agree that parks and recreational opportunities help make Walnut Creek special, a safe community is also important and a significant quality of life issue. According to this recommended ratio, we are short 25 sworn officers, with our current authorized staff of 75 Officers.  This gives us one of the lowest police staffing ratios in the county.

With residential burglaries up 33% last year and our active downtown nightlife, these additional resources would certainly be helpful. Please join us in urging city leaders to make public safety a priority and help keep our neighborhoods safe.

 

Download (DOC, 30KB)

Filed Under: Budget, Business Community, City Council, Crime, Featured, Neighborhoods Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Council to discuss the “Free Ride” Trolley

April 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

Tonight the city council will discuss funding the downtown shuttle in Walnut Creek. For a number of years the city has paid for this “Free Ride” Trolley, via Measure J funding. However that funding source has since ended. To continue the free service as it exists today, the Contra Costa County Transit Authority (CCCTA) requires reimbursement of approx. $200,000 a year in expenses.

As the city continues to grow, the WCPA recognizes the value of the Trolley towards relieving downtown traffic/parking congestion, towards attracting shoppers, and benefiting the many residents and employees who commute to work in the core downtown area. Therefore, instead of funding the Trolley using scarce city dollars, the WCPA encourages the formation of a partnership with the greater downtown business and developing downtown residential communities. This public-private partnership between the CCCTA and the greater downtown community is a common sense way to pay for this valuable service. It would also implement a long-term structural change for a city budget that is already stretched thin.

Another alternative to expending city monies for the Trolley, may be to explore the grant funding options for transitioning from the existing diesel busses, to energy-efficient electric busses. Perhaps these grant funds could be also be used to pay for the CCCTA subsidy, while the partnership with the downtown community is established.  It is clear the city is unable to continue to fund the trolley using city funds. Therefore, the WCPA calls upon the greater downtown community to support a service that caters to them.

We look forward to hearing the results of tonight’s meeting and hearing support for this partnership from the downtown community.

 

To read tonight’s Council agenda report click here.

To learn more about alternative transportation in Walnut Creek click here.

Filed Under: Budget, Business Community, City Council

Did we sign a blank check for new pools in Walnut Creek?

March 28, 2011 Leave a Comment

Pictured is the city's $23 million dollar pool design

In July 2010, the City of Walnut Creek opened it’s brand new $36 million dollar library, complete with expensive designer Knoll Womb chairs and Sonoma Stone Cast sinks. The city also awarded a $200,000 commission for a “signature” art piece in the library entrance. Although we certainly value the importance of a new library in Walnut Creek and recognize it’s value to our local culture, we question if we needed what some have dubbed the, ”Taj Mahal” of libraries.  This is especially troubling during an economic recession.  If you have visited the new library recently, you have probably also noticed many of the bookshelves are still sitting empty. If the Librarians are still having trouble filling all the shelves, this is truly a massive structure.

In the years just before the library opened, the city declared a financial emergency and struggled to overcome a $20-million-dollar shortfall. This was the first time in the history of the city that this occurred. Over 30 city employees were laid off and several positions were “frozen.” Already lean operating budgets were cut to the bone and we are now just starting to see the effects of these changes on our neighborhoods. This is after the voters did not pass two bond measures to fund the library and the then council decided to proceed anyway. Our surplus funds for a “rainy day” are now gone and we are still in a fiscal crisis. We are struggling day-to-day, to keep the city budget balanced and employees are asked to do more with less.

In March of 2011, the city revealed four new designs for the city pools at Heather Farm and Larkey Parks. One of the four designs costs an estimated $24-million-dollars. Add $3 million more for the Larkey Park pool upgrade.  At the Heather Farm Park we currently have two pools, but you will see four pools in the new design. You might also notice some extravagant items, like the outdoor video arcade. Add to all this the price tag of the projected city subsidy costs of up to $400,000 a year. Is this really in the best interest of the residents in this economy?

Although recreational opportunities are important, we are going down the path of extravagance during a recession yet again, with no identified funding source. At a recent community meeting, residents were given the option to pick which of the four designs they liked best, without regard to cost or a discussion about the lack of funding sources. It appears some city leaders are under the impression they have been given another “blank check” to purchase these new pools.

These same leaders appear to be unaware of the collateral damage that occurred to the other city services and to the residents we serve, in the wake of the last extravagant project.

While we don’t contest that the city pools are due for repairs or possible upgrades, we question the timing of such huge expenditures. Some of our leaders appear to be charging along on this project, full steam ahead, regardless of our financial perspective.

Other local cities all over the state are reducing pool operating hours, or closing pools completely, to help balance the budget. For example, big cities like Sacramento and small ones like Norco have recognized the need to close pools to save money. (See the Sacramento closure information here.) Mid-sized city leaders also came to a similar conclusion about the City of Stockton pools.

The WCPA believes that while pools are important, during times of financial crisis, a city pool is not an essential government service. This community already has countless private pools and swim clubs, that are low to no cost options, for our residents until the economy improves.

Of the five sitting council members, only two have publicly questioned the proposal for such a significant expenditure.

In this Walnut Creek Patch Article, Council member Kish Rajan’s comments were summarized as follows :

Council member Kish Rajan, in an email, said he sees the facilities as important to our community. Rajan, who has three children who swim, said he admires “outstanding local programs of the Masters and Aquanuts. “I am well aware of the benefits of having excellent swim facilities in Walnut Creek.

However, he said, “it is very important to note that there is currently no plan to pay for the options that are being explored and presented in the meeting on Tuesday.”

“As valuable as these facilities are, there are many important infrastructure needs in Walnut Creek,” he added. “In economic times that remain challenging and uncertain, it is important for us to keep these pool discussions in the proper perspective.”

Council member Kristina Lawson has also expressed similar concerns over this pending project. Frankly, it’s refreshing to see that two council members have adopted a common sense attitude towards this project. Again, we here at the WCPA also see the value of a quality aquatics program, yet we feel public safety and other existing infrastructure needs should be made a priority over these new projects.

Please contact the other three council members: Mayor Silva, Mayor Pro-Tem Simmons, and Councilman Skrel to voice your concerns about moving forward with such an extravagant project, with no identified funding source.

Perhaps this is why the focus of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force has been limited to “finding new sources of money,” rather than having them also review and prioritize spending.  


Filed Under: Budget, City Council, Events, Featured, Neighborhoods Tagged With: , , , ,

Grant Funding in times of Financial Hardship

March 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

The WCPA believes that city leaders got it right, when they decided to use grant funding to implement a solar panel project at city hall. Read more about the project here. The use of grant funds, as opposed to scarce general fund monies, is a smart way of implementing “nice to have” projects like this one, during tight budget times.

The WCPA certainly supports being a “good neighbor” by taking advantage of solar energy, as opposed to using more traditional energy sources to power city hall.

With that said, we are concerned about what appears to be the goals of some to expand this program beyond the grant funded panels, in this economy. A number of additional proposed panel sites were folded into the city capitol improvement plan (CIP), with an added cost of $6,965,000.  Although in an ideal world, this would be a nice project to complete and costs would be somewhat mitigated over 25 years of energy savings. The reality is with our current economy, we simply don’t have the funds pay for these luxury projects. The city has a number of existing infrastructure needs that are currently unfunded and existing infrastructure should be a priority for city leaders. Why build new projects when you can’t maintain all your existing projects?

Hopefully all these issues will come to light before any general fund monies are spent on this project. It should be noted that although the inclusion of this project in the CIP is not an authorization to spend general fund monies, it is a clue as to the direction the city is headed.

We applaud the use of grant money to go green, but urge caution when considering using general fund money for such a project. Us residents have a number of other pressing needs.

Filed Under: Budget, City Council, Neighborhoods