Dear Mayor, Council, Staff, and Community Members,
During Tuesday's City Council Meeting, City Manager Bret Prebula’s justification for postponing action on a downtown parking permit program was disappointing if not downright embarrassing to the people in attendance. While a comprehensive parking study could provide useful data, implementing basic parking restrictions does not require significant resources or outside consultants. It was quite obvious that Bret has a different agenda for Clayton and all of us (including the City Council) need to wake up before it's too late. It was very apparent by Bret’s word salad and his long-winded excuse on the cost to implement a full-blown parking permit program, that his vision for Clayton is not aligned with 95% of the residents.
https://share.repd.us/og/clayton/en/4631. He wants more of the Olivia-type projects to come to Clayton. Whoever hired this guy needs to take action now.
Rather than delay, we need to take simple, common-sense steps now. For instance, a simple signage program with some teeth might be the answer. Additionally, increasing parking citation fees would discourage illegal parking without requiring new staff or processes. Our $20 fee is not enough of a deterrent. A modest increase could reduce repeat violations, freeing police resources for other priorities such as patrolling downtown and other areas such as Stranahan and surrounding neighborhoods.
We cannot accept continuing to ignore an issue that will affect so many. I hope we can work together to take decisive action. The community is counting on leadership to address challenging issues, rather than evade them. Bret, I would have assumed you had learned from your lack of action on the Olivia oversight problems, but it seems you did not.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Gary Hood
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Brett was obviously not a city manager. From what I’ve been told, he was only a finance manager for the City of Benicia. Our city Council needs to do a better job before hiring any future city manager.
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