2005-003 CRA - Laserfiche WebLink

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. Explore revenue ralsmg opportunities including the institution of a Community Facilities District to create a funding source for infrastructure improvements and operations enhancements necessary to support new large development projects; · Finalize the residential development standards on both a city-wide and historic neighborhood basis; · Conduct planning studies for Santa Ana Boulevard and the East First and Fourth Street Corridor; · Reinforce the City's internal systems by improving data systems with funding for the City's strategic technology plan; . Continue the implementation of our Total Quality Service philosophy; · Provide a leadership role in enhancing the region's domestic preparedness by implementing the second year of the Urban Area Security Initiative grant awarded to Santa Ana as the Core City to ensure that all fIrst responders have adequate equipment and systems to prevent, respond to and recover from, acts of terrorism, · Facilitate the relocation and construction of the Fourth District Court of Appeal Facility in the Civic Center by fInancing, designing, and constructing a 300 space three-level parking structure in the City Hall Super Block Parking Lot, and · Partner with the Orange County Transportation Authority in its efforts to extend the expiration of Measure M, the half-cent local sales tax dedicated to funding street and transit improvement projects. Financial Overview The City continues to address the challenge of meeting demands that exceed resources in a financial environment that has been dominated by the actions of the State in two major areas: increasing retirement costs and diverting local government revenues. Over the past two years the City has been required to absorb previously unanticipated signifIcant increases in costs due to the poor management of investments by the state-run retirement system. The direct impact of these investment losses by the State was an increase in expenditures in the General Fund of $11.8 million in 2004-2005 and an additional $4.1 million for the 2005-2006 fIscal year. As a comparison, the actuarial prepared by the State in 2001 stated that the projection of surpluses in the City's accounts would support the retirement system without requiring a contribution to the fund for 67 years for the general employees and 32 years for our safety employees. To ameliorate a portion of the impact of this action by the State, the City has requested a recalculation of the rate based on changes in the term of the payments to the system, which has resulted in a reduction of $1 million for the coming year. Further, the State's approach to addressing its own fiscal crisis continues to diminish the City's resources through reductions in revenues and increases in expenditures. In an effort to resolve a projected $17 billion structural budget defIcit in 2004-2005, the State again targeted City revenues as a part of the solution to its problem. In response, the councils and staffs of cities throughout the State worked together with the League of California Cities to take the actions necessary to place a measure on the November ballot that would protect local government revenues from being diverted by the Resolution No. eRA 2005-003 Page 10 of 22 3