2012-09-25 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

fields in SA if they have access. Other OCRBL spoke in support for additional • fields and provided letters requesting fields. • PARK CELL TOWER REVENUE STATUS UPDATE o Gerardo Mouet indicated the city council requested at a previous meeting an update of the cell tower revenue. A list of 19 cell towers in city parks was provided to the PREY committee, along with its annual revenue. Mr. Mouet provided a history of the cell towers and indicated in June 2009, when the city was in financial trouble, the city council approved the revenue of its current cell towers (15) be transferred to the general fund budget. This amounted to $344,175 annually to the general fund. Since then 4 additional cell towers agreements were approved and funding was not sent to the general fund. On October 1, 2012 another cell tower agreement will be presented to the City Council for approval. o Councilmember Sarmiento further added that funds generated at parks were to stay with the park that generated the revenue. This was represented to the neighborhood at the time the cell tower proposal was presented to the community. Is the additional funding needed to balance the general fund and can it be used or redirected to deferred maintenance to fix things in the park? o Francisco Gutierrez indicated the additional revenue are not being used to balance the general funds. o Councilmember Martinez indicated in FY 2009/10 when the cell tower revenue was directed by the city council to go to the general fund, was it a • one-time transfer? o Francisco Gutierrez indicated it was a policy direction to continue using cell tower revenue funds balance the general fund. o Councilmember Martinez indicated we need to find another way to balance the general fund and keep our commitment to the community. Need to recommend funds be moved back to parks deferred maintenance. o Councilmember Tinajero indicated it makes it more difficult to balance the general fund, but deferred maintenance revenue is needed to fix things in parks. Our park restrooms don't have stall doors and some of the restrooms need to be completely redone. Some of the best restrooms are in Thornton and Riverview Parks. o Councilmember Sarmiento indicated solvency is a priority for the city not to file bankruptcy. We need to solve the city's financial crisis first. Once this is done we need to locate funding to backfill the cell tower funding if we are to move cell tower revenue back to deferred maintenance. To do this we need updates on our financial situation. o Francisco Gutierrez indicated the city prepares quarterly financial assessments and we can provide this to the city council on a quarterly basis. After review there may be a way to divert funds back to parks. o Mr. Mouet indicated if funding was redirected to parks we need to spend it wisely. o Councilmember Sarmiento motioned: Apply funding of the 4 new cell towers • to the 4 sites and added the 5th site to the motion. Councilmember Sarmiento PREY Regular Meeting - MINUTES 2 September 25, 2012