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Jeff Wan |
- We received a report on the mid year budget. There were a few increases in spending that were authorized by Council (painting/carpeting at City Hall, and a new riding lawnmower), but other than that the results at mid year were in line with expectations. There were various puts and takes, the most significant being increases in contractor spend that was offset by lower compensation expense due to staff vacancies.
Excluding the general fund appropriation ($230K) that was approved with the adoption of the budget, overall the City is projecting a deficit of approximately $110K at year end.
- We discussed a potential pilot program for sidewalk repairs. Sidewalks in front of residents property are the responsibility of the property owner, however the sidewalk if primarily on City property. As a result, if sidewalks create a hazardous situation, the City is potentially liable along with the homeowner. Combine this with the fact that sidewalk repair is often very expensive, the City is seeking ways to mitigate risk and assist homeowners in fulfilling their responsibility.
There was general consensus that the City was not interested in subsidizing the cost of sidewalk repairs directly. We considered a few different options that included the City facilitating the repair and billing the homeowner, as well as exploring joining other neighboring cities' sidewalk repair program that utilizes a network of qualified professionals. A larger program may provide benefits of scale. Ultimately the Council gave direction to staff to seek more information and report back.
- Most of the discussion was around the pavement assessment report we received. Overall Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of the City is approximately 73. The scale is out of 100, and is divided into four general condition categories. Pavements in “Good” condition have a PCI above 70, pavements in “Fair” condition have a PCI between 50 and 69, pavements in “Poor” condition have a PCI between 25 and 49, and finally pavements in “Failed” condition have a PCI below 25. Here are examples roads with different PCI values:

While a score of 73 is considered "good", it also reflects consistent and steady declines over the last 10 years.

The table above shows the current score of 73, with a score of 85 in 2016. This table also illustrates the work that has been done on City streets. We typically do work every two years in order to get slightly lower costs with larger scale. The work scheduled in 2020 was postponed due to COVID.
Picking the streets to work on is a bit counterintuitive. At first it may seem logical to pick the streets that are in the worst condition. However, rehabilitating these streets is also the most costly. With limited funds, the entire pool could be consumed with 1 or 2 streets, leaving the rest of the streets in the city to continue to deteriorate through normal wear and tear. As a result, it is often more cost efficient to do maintenance on a streets in better condition, as maintaining current conditions is less expensive in the long run, and more areas of the city could be improved.
The City uses a program called StreetSaver. This program is designed to maximize PCI overall in the City based on the amount of funds available. Because it costs more to rehabilitate streets in poor condition often StreetSaver will not select the streets in the worst condition for maintenance and rehabilitation work.
Given the steady decline in PCI overall, it is important to determine what level of funding is necessary to maintain the current road conditions. Each year we receive approximately $1M in our share of gas tax, and other state and local funding. We accumulate these funds and every other year pick streets to do maintenance on in order to improve the road condition and the overall PCI.
Based on analysis, in order for the City to simply maintain a PCI of 73 that it currently has overall, the City would need to spend approximately $13M over 5 years, or $2.6M/year. Our funding is approximately $1M/year.

Unless the City is able to spend a significantly greater amount on street maintenance and rehabilitation, the conditions of roads in the City will continue to decline. At our current rate of spending, this is the projected outcomes on overall road conditions:

Total general fund revenues for the entire year are projected to be just under $6M. As we enter the budget planning process, we will need to begin a discussion with the community regarding what level of overall services, quality of streets, and maintenance of the City is desired, and what we are willing to pay for.
A link to the detail by street PCI for both the 2025, and 2023 years can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sUUWREdNL1FC1iccvXJghYzsAv5IhBd4/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=103891531140515892067&rtpof=true&sd=true
- The Oakhurst Geological Hazard Abatement District (GHAD) Board also met and adopted a resolution declaring the intent to increase the overall assessments in the District in accordance with Prop 218. Ballots will be mailed to properties in the district no later than 4/18. There will be a public hearing on 6.3.25 to determine the results of ballots received. More to come on what this means for the GHAD.
Thank you, Jeff, for recapping the council meetings in detail. I am thrilled we now have four council members who take their positions seriously and aren't there to push an agenda, see how often they can have their picture taken, or stuff their faces at crab feeds, claiming they are doing city business. Clayton is finally moving forward.
ReplyDeleteJust a quick comment on Jeff's comment about not prioritizing the worst pavements first. Yes he is right they are probably the most expensive to fix. But it is the nature of the beast, and I say this from numerous years of experience in evaluating pavement for shopping centers and other like developments, the problem will only get very very exponentially worse. But as is this the habit of our Council members, they will eventually say whoops no funds and us folks we (the Citizens) will be left in a no win to deal with it. Its their pattern.
ReplyDeleteits The voters who decide how much funding we get via taxes. You might be one of the ones who wants parcel taxes and sales taxes. Try passing them! Contrary to you what you might believe, there is a limit to how much other people’s money you can confiscate and spend.
DeleteI sure hope that won't be the case
DeleteThere have been calls for $400 parcel taxes and 1% sales taxes. If both had been passed under the old majority, the money would have been wasted on needless staff and other things only for them to come back to us to ask for more for the roads! It's endless. There is one citizen out there pushing the idea of $1,600 to $4,000 in parcel taxes. A harsh realty is coming for all of us. Government at all levels is good at spending money. But eventually you do run out of other people's money to spend. The GHAD is another example. It's becoming obvious that the folks who live there want the rest of us to pay more parcel taxes to fix their problems. Of course, no one talks about how the GHAD turned into the disaster it is now. Everyone wants unlimited government services, perfect roads and twice the staff without ever considering that we are a small town with limited revenue sources. Good luck to those who think we can tax our way out of this!
DeleteFirst of all, as one of the folks that live in the GHAD we don't want anyone else paying for these services except those of us who are and have been paying this assessment for over 25 + years. Your statement is blatantly false. However, we have and continue to want the funds that were collected to be used for the purposes that were originally intended; that is for the maintenance of the GHAD infrastructure and any repairs as needed. Instead these funds have been and continue to be used as a slush fund to fund outside consultants and staff even as recently as this year when the funds were used to hire a consultant to come up with the new assessments that represent upwards of a 500% increase. And, still even with that new funding there are no guarantees that the work that was supposed to be done originally will be caught up and no reason to believe that they will not slip back into the practice of sponging the funds away for other admin and non-GHAD activities such as weed abatement which is the City's Fire management responsibility (this is their planned prosed changes). This neglect and deception has been the pattern of the GHAD for almost 25 out of its 30 year existence. (there were a couple of years when we had interim City Managers and responsible staff that apparently screwed up and did the actual work) but this was not the norm. I took a picture today of a V-ditch and drain inlet that is part of 3 tiered system protecting some homes. It is totally blocked including the inlet pipe that sis supposed to send the water downhill. Hasn't been maintained or cleaned out in a least 10 years since I have been walking this area. Sorry I can't figure out how to post but will be sending it to Mr. Wan and possibly he can figure it out since he posted the failing pavement that is throughout the City in the original post. .
DeleteI agree, most of the GHAD money is used to complete annual cookie-cuter, boilerplate reports instead of doing the necessary maintenance.
DeleteI agree. I'm in the GHAD as well, and the only time in my 16-17 years here was when there was a slide a few years ago, and they HAD to do something. It was in the middle of the street and a neighbor's pool.
DeleteBased on the number of streets in Clayton that need rehabilitation, and the lack of funds to complete the work, it would probably be a good time to take repaving Mountaire Parkway again (after just completing the work 5 months ago) off the table. Seems like common sense to me.
ReplyDeleteAgreed!
DeleteStop wasting tax dollars and leave Mountaire Parkway alone. People just need to learn how to slow down, it’s that simple. Also, enforcement would be a good idea. Give a few of these SOBs a ticket and they’ll slow down.
ReplyDeleteRe-paving Mountaire Parkway again just to put in a bike lane that nobody uses is nonsense. Come on city council, get real.
DeleteI agree with the above comment, start giving citations and the entitled/all about me crowd will slow down. Hit them in the pocketbook.
ReplyDeleteI am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I am pretty sure that Clayton does not have a bunch of money to throw at re-paving roads every year. I am all in for the city to throw some of this money at free beer Fridays at the Clayton Club.
ReplyDeleteHope to see you at the Clayton Club next friday
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