Feb 27 2006 Council Actions Required
Stephen Millard's Letter
Emailed to Mayor Peggy Delach, Mayor Pro Tem Meline Juarez, Councilman Kevin Stapleton, Councilman John King, Councilman George Chadwick
The last few editions of the Covina City Council have talked for over five years about establishing ‘Goals & Objectives’. However, there has never been a Council majority in that timeframe with the talent, determination, and courage to see that such an action actually gets accomplished, probably because it would represent a firm commitment to the people. Instead, all that has been provided to the Public is hyperbole. Consequently, the list provided below contains some of the items that need to be addressed if Covina is going to prepare itself for the future in a businesslike manner, move forward with increased professionalism, and ensure that ‘open government’ is an actuality rather than just a catchy phrase. Hopefully, this identification of some major areas of concern will prompt the Council to finally do something substantive other than continuing to overwhelm the voters with indecision, rhetoric, and lack of credibility.
The members of this Council, with one exception, all gained office by making promises that have yet to be kept, and have offered little in the way of specific suggestions to improve Covina. As elected officials you have a responsibility to the residents – fiduciary as well as otherwise – to perform your duties in a competent manner. This Council needs to immediately begin taking some proactive steps to make Covina a better community instead of just politically posturing like a bunch of talking heads. The items enumerated below represent a starting point for your consideration.
City Council – Actions Required to Improve Covina
Preliminary List - 27 February 2006
1. Establish a priority list for expenditures advising the Community as to how this Council intends to prioritize the expenditure of additional revenues. This should be broken down to the expenditure component level (e.g. listing Public Safety as the number one priority is an unacceptable generalized statement – the people deserve to know whether those expenditures will be used to hire additional personnel or for improved technology, or just for added compensation costs).
2. Prepare a long-range financial plan that identifies not only anticipated revenues, but also all of the cost centers and the city's projected expenditure levels for each of them by year for the next five to ten years.
3. Refine the recently approved Five-year Pavement Management Plan, and initiate similar plans for sidewalks, sewers, water mains, buildings & other infrastructure; and then prepare a unified ‘Infrastructure Master Plan’.
4. Direct staff to prepare an integrated implementation plan for the TCSP, including a return-on-investment analysis.
5. Prepare an analysis relative to the reasons for the recent substantial increases in liability/workers’ compensation payouts.
6. Ensure that the ‘Fiscal Impact’ section of the agenda item commentaries contain a broader scope of factors, and that there is detailed cost data and rationale to support them.
7. Utilize the compatibility of the IFAS accounting system with the Internet to allow residents to access Covina’s financial data at any time from their home computers.
8. Have the Municipal Code updated and available online as a searchable Adobe Acrobat file that allows segments of text to be copied.
9. Implement a follow up system that will track Council directives to staff against timelines.
10. Direct the creation of a Policy & Procedures manual.
11. Initiate activities to update Covina’s General Plan, including a needs assessment and revised EIR.
12. Direct staff to implement a system whereby candidate campaign contributions are available online so that residents can be better informed.
Emailed to Mayor Peggy Delach, Mayor Pro Tem Meline Juarez, Councilman Kevin Stapleton, Councilman John King, Councilman George Chadwick
The last few editions of the Covina City Council have talked for over five years about establishing ‘Goals & Objectives’. However, there has never been a Council majority in that timeframe with the talent, determination, and courage to see that such an action actually gets accomplished, probably because it would represent a firm commitment to the people. Instead, all that has been provided to the Public is hyperbole. Consequently, the list provided below contains some of the items that need to be addressed if Covina is going to prepare itself for the future in a businesslike manner, move forward with increased professionalism, and ensure that ‘open government’ is an actuality rather than just a catchy phrase. Hopefully, this identification of some major areas of concern will prompt the Council to finally do something substantive other than continuing to overwhelm the voters with indecision, rhetoric, and lack of credibility.
The members of this Council, with one exception, all gained office by making promises that have yet to be kept, and have offered little in the way of specific suggestions to improve Covina. As elected officials you have a responsibility to the residents – fiduciary as well as otherwise – to perform your duties in a competent manner. This Council needs to immediately begin taking some proactive steps to make Covina a better community instead of just politically posturing like a bunch of talking heads. The items enumerated below represent a starting point for your consideration.
City Council – Actions Required to Improve Covina
Preliminary List - 27 February 2006
1. Establish a priority list for expenditures advising the Community as to how this Council intends to prioritize the expenditure of additional revenues. This should be broken down to the expenditure component level (e.g. listing Public Safety as the number one priority is an unacceptable generalized statement – the people deserve to know whether those expenditures will be used to hire additional personnel or for improved technology, or just for added compensation costs).
2. Prepare a long-range financial plan that identifies not only anticipated revenues, but also all of the cost centers and the city's projected expenditure levels for each of them by year for the next five to ten years.
3. Refine the recently approved Five-year Pavement Management Plan, and initiate similar plans for sidewalks, sewers, water mains, buildings & other infrastructure; and then prepare a unified ‘Infrastructure Master Plan’.
4. Direct staff to prepare an integrated implementation plan for the TCSP, including a return-on-investment analysis.
5. Prepare an analysis relative to the reasons for the recent substantial increases in liability/workers’ compensation payouts.
6. Ensure that the ‘Fiscal Impact’ section of the agenda item commentaries contain a broader scope of factors, and that there is detailed cost data and rationale to support them.
7. Utilize the compatibility of the IFAS accounting system with the Internet to allow residents to access Covina’s financial data at any time from their home computers.
8. Have the Municipal Code updated and available online as a searchable Adobe Acrobat file that allows segments of text to be copied.
9. Implement a follow up system that will track Council directives to staff against timelines.
10. Direct the creation of a Policy & Procedures manual.
11. Initiate activities to update Covina’s General Plan, including a needs assessment and revised EIR.
12. Direct staff to implement a system whereby candidate campaign contributions are available online so that residents can be better informed.
posted by duff | 11:50 AM
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