Saturday, August 04, 2007

From In The News and More: Important to GT Readers

California Sex Offender's Registration and Regulation
Does The City of Grand Terrace need to add Regulation
or Just INFORCE THE LAW?
Eminent Domain:
The Castle Coalition Presents
the CastleWatch Month in Review

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. FROM HARDSHIP TO VICTORY: CASTLE COALITION CONFERENCE 2007
2. ELECTIONS & EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE: PART 1
3. MASSIVE DISPLACEMENT
4. EMINENT DOMAIN REFORM INTRODUCED IN U.S. HOUSE

1. FROM HARDSHIP TO VICTORY: CASTLE COALITION CONFERENCE 2007

Nearly 50 property owners from both big cities and small towns across the country gathered together on the weekend of June 8-10 to learn how to move from hardship to victory in their battles against eminent domain abuse.

http://www.castlecoalition.org/CastleWatch/articles/7_27_07.html

2. ELECTIONS & EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE: PART 1

Across the country, local officials are learning that abusive exercises of eminent domain have the potential to enrage and inspire voters in a way that few other issues can. In this three-part series, we will look at some recent examples of local officials being voted out of office for their pro-eminent domain abuse stances.

http://www.castlecoalition.org/CastleWatch/articles/7_19_07.html

3. MASSIVE DISPLACEMENT

When it comes to urban renewal, cities have at least two options:they can work from the grassroots level up with residents and community leaders to improve neighborhoods or take a top-down approach by declaring entire neighborhoods blighted or in need of redevelopment in order to rebuild whatever they see fit. The City of Camden, N.J., faced with that decision, has taken the latter approach in neighborhood after neighborhood.
http://www.castlecoalition.org/CastleWatch/articles/7_13_07.html

4. EMINENT DOMAIN REFORM INTRODUCED IN U.S. HOUSE

Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) have introduced the Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2007 to stop taxpayer funding of eminent domain abuse. This bipartisan bill would counter the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court's infamous decision in Kelo v. City of New London.

Stop Eminent Domain Abuse with the
Castle Coalition's FREE Survival Guide http://www.castlecoalition.org/survival_guide/index.html

"Not for Sale," the Castle Coalition's new DVD on how to fight eminent domain abuse
http://www.ij.org/freedommarket/scripts/product.asp?prodID=51

Respectfully,
Chris Grodecki
Editor, CastleWatch
AQMD board rejects power plant fees
10:33 PM PDT on Friday, August 3, 2007
By DAVID DANELSKIThe Press-Enterprise
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_power04.3ac511e.html
Regional air quality officials on Friday rejected the idea of charging high fees to utilities, such as Riverside, that want to build power plants in smoggy areas.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District board opted instead to charge all electricity providers the same fee for "pollution credits" needed for power plants.
Before the 8-3 vote at the district's headquarters in Diamond Bar, Riverside city and business representatives argued charging more for pollution credits in Riverside would be unfair because most the pollution in the city blows in from Los Angeles and Orange counties.
More fees would bring higher energy costs and that would hurt job growth in Riverside, said Michael Beck, Riverside's assistant city manger.
"Local jobs reduce commutes, which reduces pollution for all," Beck said at the meeting.
Riverside Public Utilities Director David H. Wright said by telephone he was pleased with the decision. He said he and other Riverside officials had met with air district staff about a dozen times in an effort to get alternative rules.
The decision will save Riverside about $900,000 on a new 96-megawatt plant it expects to have operating in 2009. The plant will give the city the juice it needs during peak-use times on hot summer days, when the greatest number of air conditioners are running. The plant is expected to be used about 60 to 75 days a year, Wright said.
The plant will be similar to a natural-gas-fired "peaker plant" that began operating in June 2006. The new plant will be near the city's wastewater treatment plant off Jurupa Avenue above the Santa Ana River. It's expected to cost $80 million to $100 million to build, Wright said.
Reach David Danelski at 951-368-9410 or ddanelski@PE.com


Vote could speed 11 new Southland power plants
The AQMD allows developers to buy credits to offset pollution released by the facilities. Critics call the plan a sellout.
By Janet Wilson, Times Staff WriterAugust 4, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-power4aug04,1,5333693.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Southern California air quality regulators approved rule changes Friday that could speed the construction of 11 or more power plants across the region — a decision that could bring an estimated $419 million to public coffers.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District board, in an 8-3 vote, gave power plant developers the opportunity buy credits to offset the pollution that would be released by the new facilities. The credits were originally intended for schools, hospitals and other emergency agencies.
The vote came after months of lengthy, contentious hearings — including six hours of testimony Friday — and appeared to satisfy neither environmentalists nor plant developers.
"It's outrageous. Our air district has assumed the role of polluter proponent. They seem to have forgotten they are the air quality district, in charge of protecting public health and the environment," said Tim Grabiel, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.Dozens of community members picketed outside the board's headquarters in Diamond Bar before the meeting. Many testified that their potentially affected neighborhoods were already suffering from asthma, lung cancer and other respiratory ailments from industry.
But Mike Carroll, an attorney representing half a dozen of the proposed power plants — including a fiercely contested 943-megawatt facility in Vernon — said the conditions placed on credits by the board could make it too costly to build some of the plants.
"I have a lot of ambivalence," he said. "We are happy the board recognizes the need for additional power generation…. However, they put so many restrictions on us … it could potentially kill the project.
"The plants also need approval from state energy regulators. Other communities where plants are proposed include Victorville, Carson, Industry, El Segundo, Grand Terrace, Riverside and Sun Valley.
The board is considering using the profits to fund alternative-energy incentives and studies on pollution health risks, but put off that decision.
Developers would be required to pay $92,000 per pound of coarse particulates they would emit and $34,000 per pound of sulfur oxide. Both substances contribute to air pollution that plagues the Los Angeles Basin. Plant owners also would be required to buy enough pollution credits to offset cancer risks at a higher rate than is required under federal or state law, Carroll said.Former state Sen. Martha Escutia, who lobbied board members in favor of allowing the Vernon power plant to buy the credits, praised the decision. "It's basically a vote to ensure energy reliability in the region," she said. Board members voting in favor of the credits sale agreed with her and AQMD staff that new plants would help prevent electricity outages and might replace older, dirtier power plants.
"As our region continues to grow, we will need more clean energy to prevent rolling blackouts," board Chairman William A. Burke said. "Today's measures will help minimize the impact of new power plants, especially in low-income, environmental justice communities and other areas already subject to high levels of air pollution."
But board member Jane Carney, an attorney from Riverside who voted against the rule changes, said, "There is no current evidence I've heard that there is a need for [large] plants….
There is no crisis." Representatives from two state agencies testified that there was no immediate need for additional power, but that there could be in coming years as older plants break down or are retired.The nonprofit California Independent System Operator found that about 10,000 megawatts are needed in the Los Angeles Basin, and that about 12,000 megawatts are available. The California Energy Commission found that about 400 additional megawatts will be needed annually in coming years.
New power plants are "needed as a preventive measure.
Even though we may not be in a power crisis today, it takes at least four to five years to plan for and construct a power plant, and thus we can't afford to wait until we're in a crisis to take steps to increase generating capacity," said AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood. A backdrop for the hearing was the battle over what type of electricity will replace coal power, which is being phased out under state law. Natural gas-fired plants are a proven technology but still emit greenhouse gases; wind, solar and other renewable sources are less reliable but cleaner.
"These rules will allow more annual carbon dioxide emissions than what is generated by 107 countries around the world," said Angela Johnson Meszaros, an attorney with California Communities Against Toxics. "The impacts of these rules are staggering in terms of human health, local air quality and global climate.
"Under the rules, she said, AQMD will allow more than 35 billion pounds per year of carbon dioxide emissions — the greenhouse gas believed to be the biggest contributor to global warming.Even some who voted for the credit program expressed concerns about the Vernon project in particular, and the use of power from fossil fuel in general.
"Don't think you guys are the heroes here….
I think you're trying to create a cash cow for your city that will impact the health of your neighbors downwind," Chino Mayor Dennis Yates, a board member, said to Vernon officials, noting that the city stood to reap hefty profits by selling surplus power.
janet.wilson@latimes.com
Inland city managers getting big pay
$200,000-PLUS: Hefty paychecks are the norm for administrators who serve as cities' CEOs.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_manager04.3c7c781.html
11:29 PM PDT on Friday, August 3, 2007
By NAOMI KRESGEThe Press-Enterprise
Indio shocked cities throughout Inland Southern California two years ago when it raised the standard for city-manager pay by hiring Glenn Southard at $240,000 a year plus benefits.
Other cities quickly followed, and a salary of more than $200,000 a year is now common for Inland city managers.
In July, Southard broke another Inland pay ceiling when Indio's City Council agreed to pay him $300,000 a year, plus an immediate $30,000 bonus.
"Two years ago that would have been unheard of," said Bill Garrett, executive director for the California City Management Foundation, a professional association where Southard is a trustee. "The numbers are just going nuts."
A Press-Enterprise survey of 32 cities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties showed average pay has doubled in the past decade for city managers, far outpacing the raises given to other city employees. City managers are the behind-the-scenes leaders who supervise day-to-day city business and take orders from elected city councils.
Fifteen surveyed cities paid their managers more than $200,000 last year. Five years ago, none of them paid as much.
The average full-time Inland city manager made about $195,000 in 2006, federal W-2 forms show. The tax records included not just base salary but also end-of-year sick and executive leave and vacation payouts that could add tens of thousands of dollars to salaries.
Rapidly rising pay is tied to an expectation that city managers will bring in new development and revenue to offset their salaries, city officials said.
"I haven't cost the city of Indio anything, really. I've brought money in they didn't have," Southard said.
Asked what major projects he had completed since coming to Indio, Southard didn't provide specifics. He said he had paved a significant amount of roads, helped the city become more financially stable, expanded the parks system and sought retail development.
Union leaders say city workers know and care how much their city managers are paid, and it's difficult for employees to understand why they are asked to accept a 3 percent cost-of-living increase -- or no raise at all -- from a city manager who just got a double-digit raise, said Tom Ramsey, a supervising labor-relations representative with the San Bernardino Public Employees Association. The union represents more than 15,000 people throughout San Bernardino County.
"I don't want to diminish the responsibility and authority of city managers, but I represent the people who have to get out and work in 116-degree temperatures pouring blacktop," he said.
Unlike compensation for the civil servants they supervise, city managers' pay isn't negotiated by unions or set according to the cost of living. Instead, it's driven by market forces -- and the willingness of city councils to pay more is driving it up, said Steven Frates, a senior fellow at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College.
"The city-management business is pretty much straight-up supply and demand," Frates said.
Councils put a high premium on city managers who have proven they can attract the development dollars cities want, Frates said.
One of the longest-serving city managers in the area, former Highland manager Sam Racadio, said salaries have risen so dramatically because some city councils have been willing to get into bidding wars. Racadio was the third highest-paid manager in The Press-Enterprise survey, with $250,533 in pay, including the value of his car allowance, deferred compensation and leave payouts from his June 2006 retirement.
"Once one or two get a salary increase, that raises the bar for others, and the salaries begin to rise as city councils compare their managers with others in the area," Racadio wrote in an e-mail last week.
Survey Results
California city-manager salaries are the highest in the West, according to a survey conducted last year by the International City/County Management Association. The association's survey found their counterparts in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington made an average of $128,883.
The association survey relies on cities to report how much they are paying, said Evelina Moulder, the director of survey research. Only 12 California cities reported paying their city managers more than $200,000 in the national survey.
The Press-Enterprise survey showed the actual pay of city managers was higher than the national survey reflected.
In addition to total pay for managers, the newspaper reviewed city managers' contracts, employee salary schedules, population data and budget summaries for the budget year that ended June 30. The results were compared with data from five and 10 years ago. The survey did not include deferred compensation, which could add additional tens of thousands of dollars in pay available upon retirement.
Desert Hot Springs did not provide survey data despite repeated requests for public records. The city's former city manager, Jerry Hanson, left his job in 2005 amid community anger that he had been paid almost $323,000 the previous year when the city gave him an advance on a promised severance payment.
The survey showed Indio's Southard was the top-paid city manager last year among surveyed cities, earning $298,949. City managers from Indian Wells, Highland, Riverside and Fontana rounded out the top five.
Riverside's manager, Brad Hudson, was hired at a base salary of $225,000 at about the same time as Southard. Hudson did not return three calls for comment.
City-manager pay has increased about 53 percent, on average, in the past five years, and has doubled on average in the past decade. By comparison, city maintenance workers saw their pay increase about 32 percent, on average, in the past five years while senior planners saw their pay increase about 26 percent in the same time period.
Small cities appeared just as likely as their larger neighbors to have dramatically increased their executives' pay.
Six of the 10 cities that paid their managers the most have fewer than 100,000 residents. Number two on the list, the wealthy golf-course community of Indian Wells -- where the average family makes more than $119,000 a year and is likely to live behind gates -- has only about 5,000 residents.
Changing Job?
Some experts and top-paid city managers contend the dramatic increase in salaries is the product of a gradual change in a city manager's job responsibilities. City managers in the past spent their time planning for new roads or reviewing financial documents, they said, while today they've added other duties: negotiating with developers or bringing new-car dealerships or hotels to town. They aim to attract business, and with it, more revenue.
The shift began after Prop. 13 in 1978 limited how much municipalities could increase property taxes, Garrett said. Where city managers in the 1950s and 1960s were often engineers, almost every manager today comes from a social science background and has a master's degree in public or business administration, he said.
"I think they're all underpaid," said Fontana City Manager Ken Hunt, who made the fourth-largest salary last year with $246,390.
Hunt's Fontana City Council raised his base pay on June 20 to $240,000. But Hunt said that's a fraction of the money flowing to the brokers, bond underwriters and other consultants who work on the public-private partnership deals he helps oversee.
"As a CEO, you're the one truly responsible for making all of that stuff happen. There's a lot of people making a lot of money on the work you're doing," Hunt said.
Southard and Bernheimer made a similar argument, saying chief executives at a similar-size business would make more than city managers.
A Forbes Magazine national survey released in June found that chief executives -- of companies as well as in the public and private sector -- made an average wage of $144,600 last year.
Frates, the Rose Institute fellow, said how much a private-sector executive could make is irrelevant. Private-sector pay is based in a different market, with different skills and goals, he said, and many city managers wouldn't be good private-sector managers.
"It's a different art form. In a private sector, everybody agrees what the barometer for success is: it's the bottom line," Frates said.
Conversely, he said, many private-sector executives don't have the skills city managers need -- like an ability to reassure residents or to take the blame when city councils don't fulfill a promise.
Domino Effect
Every time a council reviews a city manager's salary, they look at what's competitive in the marketplace now, said Indian Wells Mayor Rob Bernheimer, whose city manager made $269,990 last year, the second-highest pay in the survey.
These days, Bernheimer said, it seems the norm is more than $200,000.
Murrieta expects to pay that much for its new leader, Mayor Doug McAllister said. In the midst of its second city-manager search in the past five years, the city is paying former Temecula city manager Ron Bradley $25,000 a month -- which would total $300,000 a year -- as an interim until a new full-time manager can be found.
"We are willing to pay what we need to get the right person," McAllister said.
Nowhere in recent years has the domino effect of rising city-manager pay been more clear than in the Coachella Valley, where salaries quickly rose after Indio hired Southard in 2005. Council members and observers said other cities felt they needed to keep up.
Southard was the first in the Coachella Valley to make more than $200,000 a year in base pay. Last year, six of seven cities surveyed in the valley - not including Desert Hot Springs, which didn't respond - paid their managers more than $200,000.
"Most of those managers that got raises thanked me," Southard said.
Bernheimer, the Indian Wells mayor, admitted that Southard's salary has had an effect. But he said Indian Wells also wanted to reward City Manager Greg Johnson for keeping the city financially healthy and for running the city like a business.
"At all levels of city compensation, we've gotten rid of the step system for pay and moved to a system based completely on performance, with incentives, reviews, compensation based on performance," Bernheimer said.
Bernheimer said pay wouldn't necessarily continue to rise with Southard's latest raise.
Indio Councilman Mike Wilson, who has clashed with Southard and voted against the raise on July 3, predicted the opposite.
"Quite frankly, our colleagues in other cities aren't happy because they know they'll have to pay more out because Indio has done what it's done again," Wilson said.
Staff writer Rocky Salmon contributed to this report.
Reach Naomi Kresge at 909-806-3060 or nkresge@PE.com
What's a city manager?
Who: The top executive of a city, responsible for overseeing budgets, negotiating with unions and pursuing development deals. Reports to the City Council.
Education: Usually a master's degree in public administration or business administration.
Benefits: A company car, executive leave, vacation and sick time, plus severance deals increasingly worth 12 months of pay and benefits.
Risks: Likely to be fired if things go wrong. Average city manager tenure nationwide is seven years, and California city managers reported an average term of 3½ years in a 2003 survey by the California City Management Foundation.
Source: California City Management Foundation, International City/County Management Association
Posted by GrandPaTerrace at Saturday, August 04, 2007