Candidate for
Member, City Council; City of Monterey

These are the specific ideas and principles I am running on:

(1) A professional and business-like management of the City's public assets. The City gave away millions of dollars to a limited group of private persons in letting sweetheart leases go to the special interests on the wharves. Several leases are up for expiration now or in the near future. It is imperative that staff be required to offer this public trust property for public bidding at fair market rates.

Also, the City Council should author a City Charter amendment that will require that all public properties be offered for public bidding by any interested party at fair market rates. That is the only way to prevent a loss of institutional memory and the backroom/sweetheart leases that have plagued the city since 1977.

(2) Approval and implementation of new specific and master plans. We (the PC) have worked very hard to develop excellent and farsighted plans for the waterfront and the downtown in the past two years. Yet none of the council has participated in forming these plans, and none are committed to their adoption. There will be considerable resistance to change when this comes up for final vote. I will "own" these plans and will work tirelessly to see that they come to fruition. We will turn the waterfront into a Park, instead of a tourist destination and parking lot. We must integrate the downtown with the waterfront. Monterey was for over a hundred years a waterfront town. Poor land use decisions in the 1950's to 1970's have segregated the waterfront from the downtown, which is the primary reason for its present moribund character. While not part of the plan, I want to see a vibrant nightlife as well to attract our younger adults. We are the only nightlife in the County, and I believe that regular opening hours to 2 am can be safe and lively with professional operators encouraged by the City.

(3) Transparent government. The current city administration has a policy of holding closed (secret) meetings for anything controversial that can be held behind closed doors. We then get the resulting vote, but without public rationale or input. Council members are not held accountable for these votes. That must change. Closed meetings are the reason why many business matters affecting the city are allowed to proceed without careful public scrutiny, and the result is, among other things, the fiasco we have on the waterfront.

(4) Active management of the budget. This city council has been entirely passive about budgetary management. Whatever the administration proposes, the council rubber stamps. Despite the apparent heat and light about "priority based budgeting", the budget is exactly what Fred Meurer wants it to be rather than what may be in the best interest of the public. I will challenge assumptions and inadequate staff work to see that the public indeed has some choices about what gets funded and what not. No longer will the staff be able to schmooze the Council with unsupportable recommendations. e.g. we have never been told how much it costs of public money to maintain the wharf or to give away "free" parking.

(5) Employee/Pension compensation. We have an executive staff that is grossly overpaid by the standard of a city of 26,000. Over 9 city employees make $200,000 or more annual salary, a luxury that cannot be justified. We need a rollback of executive salaries that reflects an up or out mentality. If public executives want to make those kinds of salaries, they should have to move to bigger cities that can afford them. Modest turnover is good for an organization and we need to attract younger managers who want to earn their stripes to move up the employment ladder elsewhere.

Public Pensions are unsustainable. It is not enough to merely put "new" employees on a sustainable path. We must move to a "defined contribution" program with equal contributions from the city and the employee, and a voluntary 401(k) type retirement plan.

(5) A new city manager will be selected next year. We need expertise on the council to define and evaluate new candidates if we are to move on from the management style of Fred Meurer, which has become entrenched in the past twenty years. His hand selected successor should not be permitted.

(6) Historic assets. The City should be in the forefront, with a leadership role in renovating and reopening our historic adobes and assets. Public/private partnerships should be engendered to adopt specific buildings or to operate them as for profit businesses. This will not only enrich our culture, but give added excitement for visitors to Monterey and an economic boost to the downtown.

The possibility of a City sponsored non-profit to gather tax deductible donations should be explored to secure long term funding for annual civic events such as the 4th of July parade, fireworks, Christmas Posada, and Tree lighting. These essential community events should not be subject to the vagaries of general fund revenues or budget director preferences. It could also fund some of the significant capital expenditures for our historic assets to bring them up to earthquake standards that are required before these buildings can be opened to the public.

This is a summary of what I see as the pressing issues to be addressed in the coming campaign. It is time that the City has some a Leadership, for a Change.