Page 3 - The Friday Fyer • June 12, 2015

JUNE 12, 2015 THE FRIDAY FLYER A-3 Can City budget support fire services? . . .
FROM PAGE A1
people per truck ten years ago to four people per truck in 2016. (Some people might quibble about the details of this assertion, but the fact remains that costs will likely increase significantly.)
The City continues to seek ways of increasing revenue, but prospects are dimming. The Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) owns land within our City limits many of us had hoped would be opened for development. De- velopment would create a significant source of new income. The legislation to release these lands remains bottled up in the U.S. Congress over a year after it was introduced.
The City continues its lawsuit against Riverside County for breach of con- tract. Though we will likely prevail in the court case, revenues gained from dispute resolution might save our City for a couple of years, but they will not solve our problems. Many of us had hoped that court-mandated mediation with the County might lead to long-term solutions. But mediation has failed, and relations remain strained with a majority of County Supervisors.
It is time to make some tough deci- sions. It is more likely than not that the City will run out of money to pay the bills in less than five years. We need to plan for that eventuality and have an hon-
Tim Brown in the Fiesta Day Paraade.
est discussion about where we go from here. The obvious alternatives are to in- crease taxes, disincorporate and become part of Riverside County, assimilate into Lake Elsinore or Menifee, or wait for bankruptcy and hope a judge will force concessions from Riverside County and the State of California.
This discussion cannot be delayed. In the next year, the City Council will be asked to make long-term commitments for fire and police protection. In my opinion, it is immoral, if not illegal, to enter into a contract without reasonably assured prospects of paying the obliga- tion. If we procrastinate, it is possible we might actually have to increase taxes just to be allowed to disincorporate.
There are no good alternatives and no simple solutions.
– increase the utility tax. Maybe to 11 percent (or thereabouts) with escalation provisions.
One recent estimate noted that the recently passed utility tax would have to have been approximately 11 percent with escalation provisions, rather than the approved 3.9 percent, to pay for this recent round of cost increases and forth- coming State mandates. The election for the utility tax passed by a handful of votes. It is unlikely an 11 percent tax would have been approved or will be ap- proved in the future.
– start the process of disincorporation and/or assimilation.
Before considering disincorporation or assimilation, the people of Canyon Lake need to think hard about the dis- advantages of and complexities of this course of action.
My guess is that the majority of peo- ple living in the Lake think it is cool to have our own city and not be associated with surrounding communities. There is probably some property value benefits in cityhood simply for the cool factor. There is also some benefit in having a direct voice in regional quasi govern- ment groups who coordinate and plan water issues, roads, buses and ecologi- cal initiatives.
The future of Station 60 is as clear as Mike Clary's intentionally blurry photograph of Engine 60 in the Fiesta Day Parade.
In my opinion, the most important reasons for being a City are enhancing safety services and controlling land use planning and protecting the POA.
Complexities also need to be thor- oughly considered when evaluating the possibility of disincorporation / assimi- lation.
By law, jurisdictions cannot assume the liabilities (debt) of an assimilated jurisdiction. According to CALPERS (the manager of California’s public pension plans) Canyon Lake owes about $1.6 million in unfunded pension liabilities. That liability might be sig- nificantly reduced in final negotiated accounting, but it would be $.3 million at an absolute minimum. This means that the City of Canyon Lake would have to pay Riverside County or Lake Elsinore or Menifee $.3 to $1.6 million to take us over.
It takes a vote of the people and about
two years to get disincorporation or as- similation approved by a State agency called the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), which would have veto rights to say with whom we would merge (be assimilated). For in- stance LAFCO could theoretically insist we be assimilated into Lake Elsinore rather than Menifee.
The City currently is chartered with providing police and fire protection ser- vices. Safety services would be out of our control, and police protection might be reduced if we were to be assimilat- ed or disincorporate. (Unincorporated Riverside County has the equivalent of about one 24/7 officer per 50,000 people, while the City of Canyon Lake, with a population of approximately 11,000, is theoretically covered by the one 24/7 officer.)
CONTINUED PAGE A4

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