Alamo Voters, the Choice is Now Up To You Alamo Today -- October 2008 Sharon Burke, Alamo Incorporation Movement By now you have heard that Contra Costa LAFCO voted 4-1 to approve the incorporation of Alamo to be put to the voters on March 3, 2009. This means Alamo voters now have a choice they have never had before, whether or not to incorporate their town as Contra Costa's 20th city. I wanted to answer some questions that came up in the hearing. There was no opportunity in the hearing format to respond to the following inaccurate statements: The town will contract with the county for 9 of 11 services so what is the benefit of incorporation over what we have now? This statement is not accurate. The CFA recommends only law enforcement and animal control be contracted with the County (although this is only a recommendation and the Town is free to contract with any sworn police agency). The CFA recommends that other municipal services such as building inspection, planning, engineering, code enforcement, street and landscape maintenance, etc. should be contracted to one or more of the many private engineering and planning firms offering these services, using a competitive bidding process, and overseen by Town staff. One of the primary motivators for incorporation is the desire to protect our taxpayer funds from the excessive benefits the County agreed to with its unions. These costs are killing the County; it has no choice except to use County employees and overhead to perform municipal services for Alamo. An incorporated Alamo can contract out these services to private suppliers. Orinda and Lafayette went through the same LAFCO process also and then got in trouble, why won't Alamo? Again, this statement is not accurate. Orinda and Lafayette went through a much simpler and less demanding process. No other incorporated city in Contra Costa County has been incorporated under the laws in place now, as the law governing incorporations was changed in 2000 and no city has incorporated since then. No other Contra Costa city has had the same fiscal scrutiny as the proposed Town of Alamo. State law was changed to provide for a Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis including future forecasts for town revenues and expenditures. After we started our petition drive but before turning in our application, No other Contra Costa city has had the same fiscal scrutiny as the proposed Town of Alamo. Contra Costa LAFCO revised its policies, and added new fiscal criteria for the Town of Alamo, in effect changing the rules after we had already started. The Town has met and exceeded all of these state and LAFCO mandated financial criteria, set using fiscally conservative guidelines. I have a copy of the 1983 Orinda Feasibility Study. It bears no relationship to the Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis for Alamo. It was written by a volunteer. Most of the report was aimed at simply identifying the tax revenues for Orinda. Only one year of expenditures is included with no forecast for the future. No road survey was included. No road fund analysis was made. No reserve analysis for ten years into the future was provided. No environmental analysis was made. The Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis for Alamo was written by a professional consultant in the field of municipal finance. CFA's that he prepared for the towns of Wildomar and Menifee were approved by their LAFCO and, resoundingly, by the voters at incorporation elections held in 2008. We'll have to get a permit in Alamo and then go up to the county and get it approved again and then back to Alamo. This statement is not accurate. The Town of Alamo will have complete control of the planning process. If Alamo approves a project, it is approved and will proceed. If Alamo does not approve a project, it will not proceed. In the past few years, the Alamo Improvement Association has recommended to the County that major projects The Alamo Improvement Association has recommended that major projects in Alamo not be approved and the County has overruled these recommendations in the past. in Alamo not be approved and the County has overruled those recommendations from Alamo since the County has ultimate control of planning. If Alamo incorporates, the County will no longer be involved in the planning and permitting process. Period. Only folks who live in Alamo and drive in our traffic will have input into the planning process in Alamo. The proponents have chosen the Fiscal Figures available from the year ending on June 30, 2007. They are not representative of the year ending June 30, 2008. This statement is not accurate. We as proponents have made very few decisions in the LAFCO process. The consultant was hired and supervised by LAFCO, not by us (although we were allowed to send one person to the interview panel). We could only meet with the consultant with LAFCO staff present or send questions or emails through LAFCO. The Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2007 audited financials are REQUIRED BY STATE LAW. The consultant began work in January 2008 and that was the latest fiscal year for which audited financials were available as required by state law. The level of detail in the CFA is such that it took over six months, from January 2008 to July 2008 to get specific financial data from the County and crunch the numbers to come up with the Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis for the Town of Alamo. The LAFCO consultant did obtain updated assessed valuation figures for Alamo for 2008-2009 from the County Assessor's office, Gus Kramer. Mr. Kramer reported that Alamo assessed property values increased 6% for 2008-2009. This is due to the pent up assessed value in Alamo homes. Most Alamo homes are assessed significantly below even today's depressed market values. (My personal home is assessed at less than 50% of its current market value, which is down significantly from a few years ago. So my property taxes still go up 2% each year even if I don't sell my home and this will continue until my assessment matches the market value). Even now, in this economic climate, when properties are sold in Alamo, the assessed valuations of the vast majority of homes is significantly increased to match current market values. Alamo could have a Municipal Advisory Council which would provide a voice for us with the county. Municipal Advisory Councils or MACs have been used by unincorporated areas to provide a voice for their concerns so we looked at this alternative for Alamo. We abandoned this alternative when the County acted two years ago to eliminate elected MACs, making them appointed bodies with no accountability to the voters. Moreover, in many respects the Alamo Improvement Association acts as a MAC for Alamo. The AIA advises the County on planning issues although, as with a MAC, its advice is not binding on the County as noted before. The AIA of course is a dues charging voluntary organization and not everyone in Alamo is a member. But membership is available to any Alamo resident with fifty bucks and at least its directors are elected by Alamo residents, unlike a MAC. Alamo could be a town like Kensington and Discovery Bay. Kensington and Discovery Bay are Community Services Districts. Their voters have enabled the additional tax that is necessary to fund such a District. A Community Service District can legally provide many services, almost everything except planning and building. An Alamo Community Services District would require a tax increase and would not receive Alamo generated revenues such as sales tax and vehicle license fees. Why shouldn't Alamo residents receive the benefits of the taxes they generate? Our vehicle license fees don't even go to the county now, they go to other incorporated cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. When we looked at the alternative of a Community Services District it didn't make sense to require a tax increase when we could form an incorporated town and use our own existing taxes to fund the town. We concluded, correctly I believe, that Alamo citizens will not vote for a tax increase. The economy is tanking, this is no time to form a city. A deteriorating economy damages the county much more severely than the Town of Alamo. The sooner we incorporate, the less the impact of a declining economy. The County is mandated to provide social services, and demand for those services increases in an economic downturn. The Town is not required to provide social services. The County's assessed valuation for property taxes were flat for 2008-2009, rising a miniscule 0.21%, while Alamo's increased 6% as previously stated. In a front page Contra Costa Times article Monday, September 15, 2008, the County's fiscal woes were outlined and it was reported that the County is considering even further cuts in the sheriff's department. Given the documented differences between the economics of Alamo and those of the County as a whole, and given the County's known fiscal crisis, staying with the County in hard economic times is hardly the safer approach. Next month's article will provide some more answers, there were too many statements made at the hearing for me to answer in one article!! If you believe in Alamo citizens like we do and you believe that Alamo can run its own affairs, please visit our website, www.alamoinc.org, and add your name to our supporters and our mailing list. We need your help and advice. Please be sure to let us know through the website if you have questions or concerns. We answer every question received promptly. If you do not have website access, please leave a message on our voice mail, 472-9650.