Special Community Budget Meeting 04-01-2026

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[1:29] Okay.
[1:35] Thank you, Maritza. Okay, so we'll get started. We'll jump right into the presentation.
[1:41] All right. So as I mentioned, this presentation was done a few weeks ago on a Monday evening on March 23rd. I'm just going to provide a brief overview of the General Fund budget. We don't have all our numbers together at this point as well. Go go over the schedule and the calendar right now. The city manager, the finance department, all the city departments are having meetings, looking at everyone's budgets. And our goal at the end is to ensure we have a cohesive, balanced budget with the resources we have.
[2:16] Right here, we're just going to talk about what our budget calendar is like. This is traditional every calendar year. So if you start back in July of last year, July 25, that's when we adopted the current fiscal year budget we're in today. In November, we come back to the city council with what we call our general fund first quarter report. So any amendment changes, we give the council kind of an idea of early with just like three months of data, what we're seeing, any concerns with our revenues coming in, any expenditures that may be fluctuating. In January, brought forward what we call the budget kickoff for this proposed fiscal year that we'll be working on, that we're currently working on, and the council approves that schedule as well as approves our guiding principles that we use in our budget process.
[3:13] March, March 16, actually, we had a mid-year budget report, brought a good status of how the general fund budget is going. It's really status quo, no significant revenue changes or expenditure changes looking right now as well. We had some minor cleanup appropriations, but no major changes to that. And we'll go over some specific figures in a moment. April or the end of March is what we're doing today around this community budget meeting. And then May is where a lot of things will start happening. We'll have our budget study session on May 11th, a Monday night here at 7 p.m. That'll be the first public viewing of the proposed budget.
[3:58] The city manager will present that to the city council for both operating and capital improvement. And then on May 26th, that's the Tuesday after Memorial Day, we'll have the adopted budget hearing meeting. It's a special meeting that has to do with, usually we would take it to the first council meeting in June. However, there is no first council meeting in June because we have a resolution that anytime there's an election, we don't have a council meeting the night before. So that's why the importance of adopting a budget, you know, prior to that. And then that's when the city council will adopt the budget.
[4:43] Just some important documents that drive our budget process, the budget documents themselves. They set forth approved programs, operations, anything and everything we want you to know.
[4:58] Then we have the policy budget and summary that's for both proposed and adopted. And we'll go over the specific five sections in a minute in detail. The first is our introductory section. That's where I always remind people we have our city manager's budget message that really is the themes, summarizes our revenues, expenditures, has our pie charts, our policies that are going on that fiscal year. So I always say that's one of the best things to look at if you're looking at the comprehensive document. We have a user guide section that gives like some a wide variety, like some statistics, some historical data, definitions of all our funds, kind of the one stop shop, some statistics of the city, the number of community centers we have, things like that. Financial summaries, that's going to really get you dive deep into the numbers of every city fund in the city. So if you really want to see every detail by line item, by fund. And then we also have a complimentary revenue section. So just on city revenues that dives even deeper.
[6:12] Authorized staffing is exactly that. It shows the amount of staffing that's authorized by the city council, the number of full time positions we have throughout the city listed by department and has historical data of that as well. And then we have our capital improvement program budget, which is a totally separate document. But we do have a small summary section in our operating document that talks about all our ongoing CIP projects and ones, the new funding that may be included in the forthcoming proposed budget. And then we have our fund departmental budget section. So that's going to get you every general fund department with some narrative information, some historical data and then line item detail and then all our non general funds, an overview of them as well.
[7:00] So, as I said, we don't have our twenty six, twenty seven general fund budget done. Still working on it. But this is the twenty five, twenty six amended budget. So on March 16th before city council, this is what was presented.
[7:16] We have it listed by our major categories. So on the revenue side, that's the first top portion. That's about one hundred and sixty four million. We have property taxes at about fifty four million sales and use tax at about forty two point eight. And then utility user tax at twenty two point five. I highlight those three as we call those our big three revenue sources. Those are the meet almost 80 percent of all our general fund revenue are those three line items. And then other taxes and other sources are a variety of accounts that if you go back to that revenue section detail, I talked to in our budget document, it would list out, you know, the not hundreds, but probably fifty seventy five accounts throughout the city that go into detail. Then on the expansion side is where you'll see the one hundred and sixty nine point eight million dollar budget. You can see personnel makes up the largest amount of that budget at seventy five point seven controllable expenses. So those are a lot of our contracts with different vendors and such. The required expenses at forty two point six. The majority of that's our contract with L.A. County Fire. I believe about thirty seven million of that is just for that. And then allocations and utilities. Twenty seven million. That's cost we allocate out to other funds in the city to pay for direct city services. And then, of course, utilities are exactly that. Your electricity, your water and your gas. Recovered costs are costs we recover from non general fund departments for administrative services. Capital is really low this year, but that's for some capital items, I believe some vehicles and then transfers to other funds is about twelve point seven. Seven point five million of that is the transfer to the Children and Youth Fund to highlight that. So as you can see, we're still at a deficit budget of about five point six million around what we adopted last July. That's a few minor changes on both sides, but we're still about there. So that's the importance of having reserves on hand when you have a projected five point six million dollar budget. But we really won't know how the fiscal year ends till after June 30th when all revenues come in and expenditures are spent.
[9:47] So on the expensive side, this is the same information I just showed you, but in a pie chart and by percentages. So you can see personnel, forty seven percent required contracts is twenty seven percent. Again, that's mainly our fire contract and then allocation costs and utilities make up seventeen percent.
[10:13] So the same information I just shared with you now by department, the general fund department. So you can see police makes up forty eight percent and fire twenty two. So that makes up seventy percent of our total general fund budget is to public safety, followed by public works and CIP.
[10:33] And then you can see admin support department. So that's finance, HR, admin, city council, administration, city clerk, those type of departments. And then you can see five percent of our general fund right now is going to children, youth transfer.
[10:52] So we do have some challenges for the coming fiscal year. As I mentioned, we already have a five point five million dollar deficit use of reserves.
[11:06] We when we put together the budget this time last year, we included a five percent reduction to all general fund departments, baseline budgets, which was about six million dollars overall that was reduced. That included a freeze of thirty two full time positions. Fifteen of those were sworn positions in the police department. And then we had set up some consolidated fiscal policies a few years ago where we put annual allotments, as well as any funds that if we receive a surplus in the fiscal year, we come back to see council and ask them to put them in what we call different buckets. A CIP reserve, an equipment replacement reserve, a section one fifteen trust. But we weren't able to put any monies in those with our deficit budget last year.
[11:56] And as you can see, the last time we did in twenty four twenty five, we were able to put two point three million in those those buckets to help us with ongoing needs.
[12:10] So for our revenues, some preliminary numbers, we do see we don't really see a lot of shift in revenues, except our property taxes are looking to go up as much as two million.
[12:22] And then our other taxes category for our franchise fee, about four hundred thousand. So that alone isn't going to help us have significant increases to address a lot of additional costs we're going to have with the next year. Next fiscal year, which I'll cover on the next slide. Or excuse me.
[12:50] So I talked about the fund balance a little earlier when we talked about the five point five million dollar deficit and the importance of having reserves on hand. Based on our mid-year report we took on March 16th and the use of reserves. We have about fifty three point five million. You can see the second to last line. Right now our fund balance has about fifty eight point eight million. If we end up using about that five point two, five point five range, we'll be down to the fifty three million mark. Now, we do have a policy that we'd like to have at least twenty five percent of reserves on hand. So we're still above that amount by like eleven million or so. But, you know, before we like to stay well above that and and have healthy reserves on hand at all times.
[13:41] We also presented a 10 year forecast at our mid-year in March. And what this is, is it takes our current twenty five, twenty six budget with the reductions in it. And then using a variety of factors, including revenue projections, economic factors, MOUs that we know are forthcoming. Other expenditures that we have identified, like contracts, L.A. County fire contract. We can try to project if we have enough revenues to support our expenditures. When we look at the twenty twenty seven number up here, the FY 2027, that's saying we put everything back in. So all the cuts we made, we assume are going to go back in, including our fire contract. And you can see we could have a deficit as much as fifteen point six million, which would significantly bring our fund balance down. And you can see this also factors in measure Y on this left hand group of data. What the second column is showing you is the proposed measure Z that's on the ballot in June and how those numbers would change if that was implemented.
[15:03] So, again, this information provided is preliminary. Just to give you an idea, help us with the discussion this afternoon. We will bring the proposed budget on May 11th before the city council.
[15:15] It takes many scenarios when we're putting together the budget. We'll also bring forward our non general fund budgets like our water fund, sewer fund, our housing federal fund grants, all those as well. They're looking good for this current fiscal year. And then we'll bring forward the twenty six twenty seven. One thing we want to note is the city's implement is in the current phase of implementing a enterprise resource planning system. So that's a financial management system of new payroll system, a new H.R. management system. So this could make our budget document data look a little different than years past. So we just want to give everyone a heads up on that and work with us during this transition. Some key meeting dates.
[16:04] May 11th, I've already mentioned that, and then May 26th is the adoption.
[16:13] So we're going to jump into the question and answer part of the this afternoon. But we want to share with last year, we did an online survey and live survey, and we want to just show some of those results.
[16:27] One of the questions asked last year was what areas should the city of Pomona prioritize? And the top three answers was infrastructure, recreation, community services and public safety. Excuse me. And then the second question asked was what type of programs would you like to see more of provided funded by the city of Pomona? And you can see the four top answers were job training and workforce development, neighborhood watch and public safety, teen mentorship and leadership development and then early childhood education.
[17:06] Another question asked at the survey was please rank the type of infrastructure improvements you believe should be prioritized. And in this order, we had road maintenance and improvements, water and sewer system upgrades and sidewalks and bike lanes.
[17:29] So with that said, just to kind of give you types of questions that were asked last year and just kind of a summary. Here's our first opening question is, given the physical challenges in the current 25-26 budget and the forthcoming 20-26-27 general fund budget, what programs should have minimal impact and or be funded at current levels?
[17:54] So this is the portion we're looking for involved from some communication, some comments, some involvement from those that were able to come out and join us this afternoon.
[18:06] What looking at the city budget, what Andrew just went over is kind of the process, the big picture, the numbers, some of the constraints that we're looking at this year. So given all of that, given your community perspective, any thoughts on where you think should be minimally impacted? Should we have to make reductions or make cuts based on our budget constraints that we're facing? Any thoughts on what that might be or what staff should look into as we consider proposing the budget for next year?
[18:45] Thank you. Talking about the fire department contract, how is that figured into the decrease of the funding? Is it going to change because I think we only have three years on the contract, right, before it changes? Good question. So we did just enter into an interim three-year contract agreement. Those costs for those next three years are factored into our 10-year forecast. Correct. That has been updated since adopting that interim contract.
[19:19] Going forward, what we would hope to look for and how that might change the long-term financial outlook is that what we would hope to do is both stabilize our fire bill and then also stabilize the funding that we use to fund that bill. Right now it comes out of general fund because it's contract city. We pay general fund to pay it, and our bill right now kind of escalates year after year because we're a fee-for-service city. What this interim agreement does is put in place a contract term for three years, and what we're hoping to do during that three years is become a fully-benefited district city, which then stabilizes the fire bill and then specifies a specific funding revenue source to fund that. So most districts are funded through a portion of your property taxes, and it's consistently funded through that mechanism or other similar revenue mechanisms. So that 10-year forecast would change, but for now, the three- and four-year has the contract factored in. So given that, because the contract is going to be changing and we're going to do something different for the funding, would it be even on the chopping block to minimize services from that because we might be in a deficit because of measure Y? So fire services could not be changed under the existing contract that we have, the new interim agreement. There's specific staffing levels that must be maintained, and that cannot be changed within our existing contract. It would have to be a whole separate contract agreement, so we are set on that agreement and those service levels. What we're asking here is the rest of the things that are funded through our general fund. If those had to be reduced or changed or shifted, where would the community like to see the least amount of change?
[21:15] I've been a resident here in Pomona since 1998, and I've always noticed on the city budget, the city has always had a revenue problem. The expenses always keep going, but the revenue always was a challenge.
[21:31] Granted, from what this point you were asking about the programs, obviously every program, everybody's going to say our program's important. Every program's going to be important. We still need roads, we need police, we need fire. It's always going to be that argument, right? But of course, the city's going to have to take the pain across the board probably, and all departments have to take that hit, not just one particular or the other. But the main question I have, though, is there any proactive effort with staff in the city into attracting more businesses to come in so that you guys could have, we could have sales tax revenue increase, our utility tax increases? Because those are the two variables that will help improve the revenue of the city, not so much the property tax, although property tax could help if we were to add more residents as well. But is there a proactive program that you guys are trying to attract businesses to come to our city so that we could improve our revenue? Thank you, sir. I think excellent question. And yes, this last year I established the Office of Economic and Business Development, specifically focused on, with an emphasis on small business, to attract business. This year we've opened Burlington, we've opened Popeyes, we have a Dutch Brothers coming to the city of Pomona. So we are actively and aggressively looking for attracting businesses to our city, in our downtown and throughout the city. We've established an accelerator program with some RDA funds, former redevelopment funds, successor agency funds, to help businesses bridge the gap between purchasing property, acquiring property, that they might not have the stacked funding to acquire, and also that is eligible for renovations to help get a business starting up to then be successful in the community, that may be in the form of grants and or small loans that are paid back over a period of time so that fund is continuously renewed and we have a revolving fund. Those are both very new efforts that were established in this last fiscal year. So we are taking a very aggressive approach and trying to spur economic development, retain our businesses, we have plans to look at some business facade improvements, particularly along Holt. But all of those come in conjunction with the issues that we also know we face, which is our homelessness issue, our additional graffiti that we see increased across the city. And if we want businesses to invest in Pomona and stay in Pomona, we have to make it a safe, hospitable place to be. So we are working on that in conjunction with it. And I will say in terms of your question about across the board, that isn't necessarily the case. So what we're looking at here is, and I say that because not all departments have parity. Our library, for instance, has already, we're not open full time, we're open barely just over half time, so some of our departments have already taken a brunt of reductions over the years and are already at a point of working with the bare minimum, the services department, while others may have more ability to give, but it's also just a matter of core services versus accessory services and what is extra and what is nice and what do we need to have. So while this year, this fiscal year, 25-26, we did do a 5% across the board cut to kind of share that burden across, that may not be this strategy taken in future years to come because as those cuts potentially get deeper, it's not as easy to share it across all departments equitably.
[25:15] Any other questions, comments? Yes, as a resident here in Pomona, I hear what you're saying about trying to bring business in and stuff like that.
[25:27] I personally think it would be a mistake if we cut any of the funding to the police department because like you're saying, you want people to come in and invest there, they're not going to invest where there's prostitution, they're not going to invest where there's gang-line shootings or gangsters, any of that stuff. And if we start minimizing the department even more, I think what are we down right now, 23 officers?
[25:52] We froze 15 with our budget cuts this last fiscal year and there are some vacancies, so it's approximately 23. Yeah, so I mean, I just don't see how we can be advantageous for somebody to open a business here when you look and you drive down the street, you see the blight of graffiti, you see the girls walking the street, you see the guys and the homeless and all that. The police department is, I think, one of those things that we really cannot afford to cut. Just my opinion. Thank you, I appreciate that. Strong things to consider.
[26:33] Yeah, you mentioned bringing small businesses into the city and I thought to myself, well, in the pot of sales taxes as a percentage, how much of that comes from online sales where the, you know, where the shopper is not going into a brick and mortar store? And another thing that was mentioned, homeless people, it's a challenge to draw business in when there's homeless people milling about loitering or whatever. And has any thought been, you know, made on making some systems for homeless people, you know, if there was like a community where there's like a tent city or something away from businesses that had services, had laundry and everything that a homeless person would need to have some kind of a life? Thanks, Don, for the comment. I think Andrew can answer the sales tax question. But on the homelessness front, we do have Hope for Home, which is a 400-bed emergency shelter, right? So Pomona has, as you know, the city with the most services available in our city for individuals in need.
[28:24] I think we have also county-funded projects with some of our motels, where some of those individuals have been housed, you know, I think two, three years now at one particular site. So I don't, while we continuously focus on housing, we provide housing options. You know, we have modular housing being built that can help to address individuals that are facing homelessness. All homeless individuals are not just on the streets. There are hundreds of individuals that have been identified through PUSD that are experiencing homelessness. So we do provide for a range of housing and are actively doing that. I will say, though, it is a challenge. A story I just heard this afternoon from staff is that we had continuously heard complaints from an individual that there was a homeless encampment in one of our businesses in the city. And so our staff went out there, we've continuously cleaned this site up, we talked with the business owner again, where are you at with filing your no-truss-pass signs that gives us the ability, PD, to go in and arrest and remove individuals that are loitering and have been deemed to not be welcome on this site and are trespassing. The response that we ultimately eked out of the manager and property owner is that they aren't going to be filling that out.
[29:45] They are essentially okay with it.
[29:50] That reduced the number of times that even the homeless camped out on their site while it was unsightly and they didn't particularly like it. But also they weren't having as many break-ins because people were essentially living on the property. So these are the issues that we are dealing with. It is a concern, the community sees it, we want the city to do something about it, we go to do something about it, and it has to be that mutual cooperation. So that's just one example. That literally just happened this afternoon. So it's an ongoing issue beyond just providing a site to be. At our shelter, Hope for Home, we have individuals that, even though they have beds there, want to be outside because there are rules at Hope for Home that some individuals do not want to follow. So we have encampments right outside the gates of Hope for Home, right down the street. So I hear your point, not to say that's not something we're exploring all options, but I think it's also what we've learned it's not as easy as just to build a site and they will come and that will solve all of the issues. Some of those issues still persist for some of the issues that I just explained. Thank you, Don. And then sales tax question. I can't get you the exact figures off the top of my head, but of our $42. 8 million sales tax, we have the measure PG, or the local sales tax part of that, so the majority of that or a large piece of that is online sales. One thing we can see in history is after COVID, we saw significant jumps in sales tax, and a lot of that contributed to online sales. Everyone got used to purchasing more stuff online. So those big jumps as much as, you know, $5 million in our sales tax, but I can definitely get back to you on some percentages. Yeah,
[31:50] we can email it to you. Do you know what's going on with the Tri-City Mental Health Agency and how they're helping with the homeless issue? Yeah, and we have our staff here as well. So Tri-City Mental Health, we are a member city, and they primarily provide many things in terms of programming, direct services, but in addition, they help as a pass-through through funding, particularly Measure A funding. So that's what's funding our modular units, projects that we have going forward to be built. So they provide funding to build housing. They provide programs and services.
[32:31] And they do provide funding for our beds at Hope for Home that keep those beds open. So they are a direct partner for us and our mental health provider.
[32:42] Thank you. First of all, thank you for holding these sessions. They're really important. I too have been a 30-plus year resident of the city of Pomona, and I've got a basic funding budget question. In February, the city approved $240,000 for four new vehicles. And last month, the city approved $170,000 for helicopter refurbish. We know and have known for a very long time that our police department is underfunded, and I'm in full support of the police department. Why would we be spending money on equipment? And again, I don't know how much it goes up or the effectiveness of it, but it seems to me like there are some things that, at least in my own home, some things have to wait if budget gets tight. And I just see expenses like that knowing we're challenged right now with our budget. And I just would like your thoughts on why we do that. Yeah, thank you for the question. And the $240,000 that you mentioned, were those police vehicles? They were, I don't recall, they were four, I forget the name of the car, it was in February. I think those were actually water fund. I think those two, that action was some water vehicles. Does that ring a bell, Chris? $240,000 for vehicles? Yeah, so two things. So the specific, I think, request funding allocation that you're referring to were water vehicles. And so that comes out of the water fund, which is a separate enterprise fund separate than city general fund. So these forecast comes out of a separate funding. But secondly, I think kind of the point of your question is, relates to deferred, what we call deferred maintenance. And so why spend on these things that may seem small and wait when we're saying we don't have money? Excellent point. And the answer is, we do.
[34:32] My department heads over here will certainly say and could point out a laundry list of things that we want, but we cannot have right now. We have roofs at our community centers with leaks that need reroofing, but we can't afford it, so we patch it. And the problem with the things at our library that are deferred at all of our city facilities, trucks, cars, particularly helicopters. So helicopter is a very expensive piece of equipment to maintain. And deferred maintenance on that is not a thing that you want to defer, because if you defer that, people could die. And so things like that that are life and safety, you put at the front of the list. So if things that are mechanical and that could malfunction while people are driving them or flying them are kind of in the category of necessity and need to happen first. So that's kind of why you see that action coming.
[35:28] Bigger picture of deferred maintenance is also it costs more in the long run when you don't address maintenance issues at the forefront. And so we really try not to defer maintenance because it's just something that could have easily been repaired and then a half quarter roof replacement turns into a complete roof replacement and structural issues in five, eight years because you didn't address it at the front end because water gets in and leaks and now you have major structural issues that you wouldn't have had had you addressed it at the front end and just patch it. But we don't always have the money to do just the small fix. But that's the danger of deferred maintenance. So we certainly do across all departments take that into consideration and have to weigh on a daily basis really and what goes into our budget of what needs to be done now, what's a life and safety issue, what are the council goals and priorities, what did the council really want to focus on and what can wait. So those are some of the aspects that go into that decision. Then we have another question. We can come back if you have more questions. I got one more, yeah. Okay.
[36:36] I just had a thought listening to that. That's two or three mentions of the police department.
[36:46] And right now the Pomona Public Library has a group, Friends of Pomona Public Library, they have a mayor's gala every year raising money for the public library. If you're feeling that the police need some help, form a Friends of the Pomona Police Department and hold a mayor's gala.
[37:20] Thank you, Don.
[37:23] Do you have another follow-up question?
[37:26] And then we'll do a last call for questions on this one and then we'll move on. Okay, thank you again. I know that in June the voters are going to be asked to vote on Measure Z.
[37:38] What, let's hypothetically say the measure passes. What is the long-term plan now after, again, hypothetically it does pass. I saw Andrew's spreadsheet up there and there's red into 2035 or 2036. So what's the next step, hypothetically speaking again, once that does pass? Yeah, thank you. And you are correct. Measure Z helps us come back into the green and the black for a couple years. Part of the job will also be to address the fire issue. So the fire issue, while it's an interim agreement, puts us in good standing, allows us to continue and work on it. There is still work to be done. And so part of that is to, again, ensure that we have a long-term revenue source to fund our fire services. So that will be next issue that we have to tackle to ensure our long-term financial stability. So without that piece, we're still kind of, you know, got some constraints coming up in the coming years. But I think that there is, on that front, there is mutual agreement from the city and from the county to want willingness to work together. That was a part of that negotiation, is willingness to work together to find that long-term solution. So I'm very hopeful that that will turn out very successful and provide us that long-term stability. But part of the good planning effort that Andrew has brought and that the city council has insisted that we do over the last few years is this 10-year forecast, which previously was not done the last time the city faced significant budget challenges. And the benefit of that is just that. You see what's coming so we can address it head on. So instead of it being a surprise, we're only looking two years out, everything looks rosy, and then all of a sudden it's not good. Having that 10-year forecast allows us to continue to keep at top of mind. We do have some challenges to look ahead to, so that way we can plan for it and we can address it. And we have a solid plan to do that. One more question. Can we anticipate more development in the city? Absolutely. Both for housing and construction, we have our development services department has continued to see permits come in. So overall, national economic trends have slightly declined permits nationwide, but we're still seeing consistent development coming in. And we still have plenty of parcels for redevelopment and development as well.
[40:20] So similarly, if additional funding became available, where should funds be invested? First. So this is thinking very positively. We got more funds to spend. Where would we expand? Where would we put more money towards? What would be the most important things for the community?
[40:44] I would recommend that the problem is that part of the history also with Pomona is that we have 400 miles worth of streets. Several streets that we have. And I know it costs approximately a million dollars a mile to repave a road today in Pomona. And the city keeps kicking the can and delaying doing those roads. So we have a lot of makeup to do. And that is something really important to do. And I'll tell you why. Because one of the obvious things that a city's responsibility is safety and roads and infrastructure. And if the city doesn't invest that right away, the people don't see that, they don't see that the money is being well spent. The unfortunate thing is, and it's not from the current administration, from the previous, you know, the reputation of the city itself, it's not been trusted with that. And so I think for you as a staff, as an administration, to prove to the community that, hey, when we do get money, we're going to put it in things that are really important, which is roads, which is police and safety and what have you. And of course, there was a mention about that nonprofit groups with the children. The reason why those people voted for that is because they thought the city has the money. Why not just fund that? Not realizing that, hey, you know, not realizing that, hey, we are tight and there's a lot of different reasons for that. And the people don't see that and they don't have that trust with the city. And therefore, they'll vote for these type of silly things. But the point I was going to make again, and I really think it's important for the community to see, is those type of things like the infrastructure and safety. Because if you don't have safety in our city and our infrastructure is not, you know, our sewer lines and our water lines and our roads are not being kept, you know, then nothing else matters.
[42:33] That I appreciate that. And we definitely take that comment of trust to heart. That is something since my time here is we've tried to rebuild and I think we've made a lot of inroads and then we have a very caring staff. But you're right, it is it's a constant issue to try to gain trust and then keep it. So thank you. Drive north on Gary, you might find some new road there. Drive west on Vinton from town, you'll find some new road there. Anyway, if we had additional funds, I would like to find a way for homeless people to be, I'm not going to say less visible, less visible I guess. In some way, you know, and to give them some connection to the city that like a job, you know, that so that if you do something for your relationship, you will love the relationship more. That's my thought. Thank you, Don.
[43:52] Any other comments on this question here? I think a lot of it also, you're talking about the way the people feel about how the city spends its money. Perfect example, you see all these islands that have gone up. We tore out everything. We laid concrete for the islands. Now we're going to have to water whatever vegetation we put in there. We're going to have to maintain it. It seemed like it would have been better to just pave the road instead of doing all that.
[44:24] Somebody's vanity thing that they wanted to have to beautify the city. I do understand that. But when we're hemorrhaging money, that does not make any sense.
[44:36] Just me. I appreciate that. And keep in mind, a lot of these road improvements, particularly on Gary, grant funded as well. So it's not all general fund dollars. A lot of it's grant funded. And they also serve a dual purpose of safety and reducing speed. By narrowing streets, you reduce the ability and tendency for drivers to speed. But I hear your point and take that into consideration. Thank you.
[45:07] Thank you. I guess to answer that question, it would sound like the way you were mentioning that you guys created an investment group to help businesses come in. It feels like that's probably going to be a priority in order to bring in those businesses first. So then the revenues come in, then I can actually be able to fund everything else as well. So I would probably think maybe not invest first, but definitely be a priority. So that's my thought. Thank you.
[45:41] Any other comments on this question? I think we've got one or two more.
[45:50] This is just to help us hear from you. What would help you better understand the city budget?
[46:03] I'd like to comment. The pie chart that you have is, I think, is very essential. I think it's also very critical when you show the budget that you give comparables to other cities in the neighborhood. Like, for example, comparable to Ontario or Pasadena or some of that nature. Just to show the people that, hey, because when they'll see the pie chart, they're going to say, well, we paid 45% police. That's the problem. We're paying too much money in cops. Well, most of the cities are doing that. And so I think it's really important for you to show that comparable for that because it helps the people understand, hey, this is where we're at. We're not as bad as some, but we could be better than others. So at least people feel more comfortable in knowing where the city could be in that position. But graphs also obviously helps. That pie chart helps for people to understand because sometimes when you just throw numbers out there, unless you're not in that business, if you're an accountant, it's easy. But, you know, most people just, they look at that. Charts and graphs helps them and help them understand that. I appreciate it. Do you think that that provides you more context? I'm sorry? Do you think the comparables to other cities helps you give more context? Yes. For example, I know Ontario might be too big, but... Well, that's the problem with comparisons is that sometimes why we're hesitant to do that is because it's never apples to apples, right? Some cities are fee-for-service contract cities for fire, for trash, for public work services, and we're not. So it becomes a little bit of a challenging, but I hear you if that is helpful to the community with maybe some caveats. No, and I agree. And that's why I'm aware that maybe Ontario might not be perfect. But you could just say, you know, a city our size with 100,000 people, now it's like maybe 150,000. And this is what a typical city in California spends on, and this is where we're at. And I know that kind of puts you guys in a little bit of a limelight, but it helps the people understand your challenges and why you got to make that happen. So I think that's important. I appreciate that. Thank you.
[48:10] To answer your question about the islands. If there's trees in those islands, when the trees grow up, it will reduce the heat island effect of sun baking down on pavement. So anyway, that's something to think about. What would help better understand a city budget? If there was some document that said, we're going to spend X number of dollars on sewers and water lines in the city. And that is because we have 2,000 miles of these pipes. They're such and such years old, and so our goal is to maintain that number of pipes. Our goal is to maintain this number of that or whatever, just so that our goals are part of the budget. That's helpful, Don, I think. And we just went over that, Chris and I, this afternoon. We're spending a million dollars a year to replace sewer, sewer line pipe. So that's information we have. I know Meg's been putting that together for our roads. And I think we'll be presenting that soon when we bring forward a plan soon. But that's helpful. So a lot of that data we have. Just being able to present it in a way that is helpful to the community. So thank you for that. Did staff have a comment on something over there? Oh, sorry. That's helpful. Thank you. Any other comments on what might be helpful to help understand the city budget?
[49:55] It might already be in place, but do you have the council district map where you can click on your district and see what projects are coming up?
[50:07] We do not have it by that level of detail, no. But that is something that is aspirational that we can definitely work towards.
[50:23] So just in closing, how do you prefer to give input on the budget?
[50:30] We just have some suggestions or some ideas. These aren't the only right answers, but just online surveys, town hall meetings and public forums like this, social media and digital engagement, public comment at city council meetings or a mix of all the above or something else maybe uniquely that maybe you know of. We'd love to hear that. We have that and then we have a few minutes left if there's any other comments or questions that we didn't specifically ask or that are on your mind or want to share, we're hoping to hear from you on that as well. We appreciate your taking the time this afternoon to come out and hear from us, talk with us. Open to hearing from you if anything else you wanted to say.
[51:16] One comment. Yeah.
[51:19] This is a small city, but we don't get a whole lot of people coming out to city council meetings. And a couple of neighbors have mentioned, why can't we get all that information at the district level? Maybe bring it down to city council and across the six districts have local meetings at public school or whatever. We might, I don't know, we might get more turnout of residents. A lot of people just don't come into downtown Pomona for whatever reason. They're working, go to school, whatever the case. But I know that it's a lot easier for a lot of people that I've talked to that say, gee, why can't, I live in District 5, why can't we have these meetings at Westmont? Where it's five minutes away and I can eat dinner really quick and go down there rather than go down to... So that's just a thought. Bring this information, which is great, down to the district level. Have the city council person take the lead in presenting that information or maybe one of you guys can attend as well. But that's just a thought. I appreciate that on budget specifically. I appreciate that and we definitely take it every year we try to re-evaluate, do something different with our community budget meetings and try. So that is certainly something we can work towards for next year as well. We did that recently. We did a road show for Measure Z informational meetings. We went out to each district and community centers and so for various things we do that. So we're happy to work on that for this as well. Thank you. Any other last comments while we have you here?
[52:55] If not, I'll give it to Andrew to wrap up. Thank you again so much for your time and attending this afternoon and turn it back over to Andrew. Yeah, so in closing, as Anita said, we appreciate everyone coming out, giving your feedback, having an open dialogue.
[53:11] And as mentioned, May 11th is the next kind of big date in the budget process. That's when the proposed budget will be delivered before the city council. So you're more than welcome to attend here in the council chambers. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. And again, thank you for your time this afternoon. Have a great day. Thank you.