Comments on: Safety Improvements and Economic Incentive Program http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=safety-improvements-and-economic Dublin, CA (California) News & Online Community Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:50:03 +0000 hourly 1 By: Anonymoushttp://www.arounddublinblog.com/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic/#comment-1174 Anonymous Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.johnzukoski.com/arounddublin/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic-incentive-program/#comment-1174 Those are great points, Anonymous on December 4, 2008 9:06 PM. All many Dublin businesses need may simply be more reasonable lease terms that reflect the current market condition. Often property owners are out of state, so they are far removed from the realities of Dublin. I don't know what Mayor Sbranti or City Staff can do specifically in these contract negotiations, and I am not sure if the City needs to be as heavy-handed in its approach as Mayor Sbranti is suggesting. Why should we spend taxpayer money to bail out businesses that may not be profitable in the first place? Businesses fail because they don't have good business plans to attract customers in good times and bad. If you had watched the broadcast live, you would have seen just how enthusiastic both Assistant City Manager Foss and City Manager Pattillo were to Mayor Sbranti's idea. You can almost see how hard Assistant City Manager Foss was trying not to laugh in Mayor Sbranti's face. City Manager Pattillo has a business background, and she did not sound like someone who was supportive of Mayor Sbranti's ideas. Staff made it very clear any idea should come from Council, and Council made it very clear they are looking to Staff for guidance. This is a train wreck in the making. Mayor Sbranti does not have an MBA or a PhD in economics. As someone who has not spent a day in the private sector, he really should follow City Manager Pattillo's lead and keep Dublin in the black. That alone will be a great accomplishment, given the anticipated budget shortfall. Staff has enough to do as is, and they don't need to waste time chasing Mayor Sbranti's half-baked ideas for an economic stimulus plan. Leave that to our state and federal officials. Former City Manager Rich Ambrose has shown us for 25 years the tried-and-true formula for Dublin's success. As long as we spend within our means and market Dublin's great location, we will survive this economic downturn just like we have survived the many downturns before. Keep It Simple, Sbranti. Those are great points, Anonymous on December 4, 2008 9:06 PM. All many Dublin businesses need may simply be more reasonable lease terms that reflect the current market condition. Often property owners are out of state, so they are far removed from the realities of Dublin. I don’t know what Mayor Sbranti or City Staff can do specifically in these contract negotiations, and I am not sure if the City needs to be as heavy-handed in its approach as Mayor Sbranti is suggesting. Why should we spend taxpayer money to bail out businesses that may not be profitable in the first place? Businesses fail because they don’t have good business plans to attract customers in good times and bad. If you had watched the broadcast live, you would have seen just how enthusiastic both Assistant City Manager Foss and City Manager Pattillo were to Mayor Sbranti’s idea. You can almost see how hard Assistant City Manager Foss was trying not to laugh in Mayor Sbranti’s face. City Manager Pattillo has a business background, and she did not sound like someone who was supportive of Mayor Sbranti’s ideas. Staff made it very clear any idea should come from Council, and Council made it very clear they are looking to Staff for guidance. This is a train wreck in the making. Mayor Sbranti does not have an MBA or a PhD in economics. As someone who has not spent a day in the private sector, he really should follow City Manager Pattillo’s lead and keep Dublin in the black. That alone will be a great accomplishment, given the anticipated budget shortfall. Staff has enough to do as is, and they don’t need to waste time chasing Mayor Sbranti’s half-baked ideas for an economic stimulus plan. Leave that to our state and federal officials. Former City Manager Rich Ambrose has shown us for 25 years the tried-and-true formula for Dublin’s success. As long as we spend within our means and market Dublin’s great location, we will survive this economic downturn just like we have survived the many downturns before. Keep It Simple, Sbranti.

]]> By: Kathttp://www.arounddublinblog.com/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic/#comment-1172 Kat Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.johnzukoski.com/arounddublin/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic-incentive-program/#comment-1172 Tom, I also agree with your comment. The voters have spoken and the council should appoint John. I believe that deep down, they feel threatened by John. Otherwise, why waste so much time in putting together these interviews and having someone review the applications? This is pure nonsense!! <br/><br/>John deserves to be appointed and should be so. I already sent emails to the Mayor and council. Whether or not they will give a rat's toosh is beyond me. They are going to do whatever they want and disregard how the people of DUBLIN voted. Tom, I also agree with your comment. The voters have spoken and the council should appoint John. I believe that deep down, they feel threatened by John. Otherwise, why waste so much time in putting together these interviews and having someone review the applications? This is pure nonsense!!

John deserves to be appointed and should be so. I already sent emails to the Mayor and council. Whether or not they will give a rat’s toosh is beyond me. They are going to do whatever they want and disregard how the people of DUBLIN voted.

]]> By: Anonymoushttp://www.arounddublinblog.com/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic/#comment-1171 Anonymous Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.johnzukoski.com/arounddublin/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic-incentive-program/#comment-1171 United States has not ever been in this tough economic state. We may not experience the great depression times in the following years. One thing for sure is we will be in tight economic situation for the next couple of years. Economic Incentive is great as long as we don't compromise our city revenues to business ventures that is sure to fail. We need to be careful where we invest our city money. Investing on incentives for housing is a sure crap shoot investment that is doomed for failure. Fee deferrals and rapid permit processing are drop in the bucket incentives. Low interest business loans are great and risky. I won't finance business loans for developers. Developers need to invest more in our city as they made a killing during the hey days and now taxpayers are paying for their profits. Real business incentives are in the hands of commercial property owners. City Council needs to convince owners to lower their leases for 2 years in lieu future tax incentives. As Dublin residents, we need to patronize our own retail establishments. Dublin City Council needs to start prioritizing value added programs and start chopping less value programs. City revenues will be much smaller than previous years. Dublin needs to invest in infrastructure that are geared towards attracting more businesses or home buyers to our city. City contracts should be awarded to local businesses only. I do applaud Mayor Sbranti and the city council in looking for alternatives to entice businesses to invest in our city. In this tough times we are in, I doubt if there is any incentive under the sun that can be provided to entrepreneurs to invest. We just need to weather this recession we are in and keep our noses above water. One thing for sure is that deep budget cuts needs to be done now than later. United States has not ever been in this tough economic state. We may not experience the great depression times in the following years. One thing for sure is we will be in tight economic situation for the next couple of years. Economic Incentive is great as long as we don’t compromise our city revenues to business ventures that is sure to fail. We need to be careful where we invest our city money. Investing on incentives for housing is a sure crap shoot investment that is doomed for failure. Fee deferrals and rapid permit processing are drop in the bucket incentives. Low interest business loans are great and risky. I won’t finance business loans for developers. Developers need to invest more in our city as they made a killing during the hey days and now taxpayers are paying for their profits. Real business incentives are in the hands of commercial property owners. City Council needs to convince owners to lower their leases for 2 years in lieu future tax incentives. As Dublin residents, we need to patronize our own retail establishments. Dublin City Council needs to start prioritizing value added programs and start chopping less value programs. City revenues will be much smaller than previous years. Dublin needs to invest in infrastructure that are geared towards attracting more businesses or home buyers to our city. City contracts should be awarded to local businesses only. I do applaud Mayor Sbranti and the city council in looking for alternatives to entice businesses to invest in our city. In this tough times we are in, I doubt if there is any incentive under the sun that can be provided to entrepreneurs to invest. We just need to weather this recession we are in and keep our noses above water. One thing for sure is that deep budget cuts needs to be done now than later.

]]> By: Anonymoushttp://www.arounddublinblog.com/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic/#comment-1169 Anonymous Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.johnzukoski.com/arounddublin/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic-incentive-program/#comment-1169 Since someone mentioned Wallis, Grafton Plaza and Sorrento East, I thought I'd repost this comment regarding referendums and special elections for project that don't seem to be in the best interest of residents. <br/><br/>This post refers to an article in the Contra Costa Times for November 3, 2008.<br/><br/>Very interesting if you check out today's Contra Costa Times, there was an article about the Neiman Marcus project slated for Broadway Plaza. <br/><br/>The project was approved by the City Council and Planning Commission against popular sentiments of residents, issues were parking and density. They were able to do a petitiion drive to gather 4000 verified signatures that would have qualified them to place the project up for a special election. This prompted the developer/landowner to scrap their current unpopular plan and offered to redo it to appease resident concerns. <br/><br/>For a city of about $60K "WC" they needed 4000 signatures, Dublin at 43K would need less signatures. Don't know the actual formula though as to what is required to qualify a petition. <br/><br/>Maybe if we have enough passion here something similiar could be done to turn back Wallis Ranch (medium and high density), The Promenade (inadequate parking), Schaefer Ranch (12 estates to 140 cluster SFR), Sorrento East (High Density Apartments), The Grove (2nd Phase of more High Density), High Density Housing in General away from Downtown and BART. <br/><br/>I believe this could be disruptive and may cause some developers to shy away in the future if we become too political like say "Berkeley". But at the same time any future developer coming to town knows that they won't have a cakewalk regardless if City Hall rolls out the red carpet for them or not. Residents will be a second set of eyes to offset City Hall who sometimes loose focus of who they represent. <br/><br/>Walnut Creek though does have the luxury of having Neiman Marcus walk away and not hurt a bit as compared to Dublin where we can't afford the Promenade to walk away. <br/><br/>Just a thought!!<br/><br/>December 3, 2008 3:51 PM Since someone mentioned Wallis, Grafton Plaza and Sorrento East, I thought I’d repost this comment regarding referendums and special elections for project that don’t seem to be in the best interest of residents.

This post refers to an article in the Contra Costa Times for November 3, 2008.

Very interesting if you check out today’s Contra Costa Times, there was an article about the Neiman Marcus project slated for Broadway Plaza.

The project was approved by the City Council and Planning Commission against popular sentiments of residents, issues were parking and density. They were able to do a petitiion drive to gather 4000 verified signatures that would have qualified them to place the project up for a special election. This prompted the developer/landowner to scrap their current unpopular plan and offered to redo it to appease resident concerns.

For a city of about $60K “WC” they needed 4000 signatures, Dublin at 43K would need less signatures. Don’t know the actual formula though as to what is required to qualify a petition.

Maybe if we have enough passion here something similiar could be done to turn back Wallis Ranch (medium and high density), The Promenade (inadequate parking), Schaefer Ranch (12 estates to 140 cluster SFR), Sorrento East (High Density Apartments), The Grove (2nd Phase of more High Density), High Density Housing in General away from Downtown and BART.

I believe this could be disruptive and may cause some developers to shy away in the future if we become too political like say “Berkeley”. But at the same time any future developer coming to town knows that they won’t have a cakewalk regardless if City Hall rolls out the red carpet for them or not. Residents will be a second set of eyes to offset City Hall who sometimes loose focus of who they represent.

Walnut Creek though does have the luxury of having Neiman Marcus walk away and not hurt a bit as compared to Dublin where we can’t afford the Promenade to walk away.

Just a thought!!

December 3, 2008 3:51 PM

]]> By: Anonymoushttp://www.arounddublinblog.com/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic/#comment-1168 Anonymous Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.johnzukoski.com/arounddublin/2008/12/safety-improvements-and-economic-incentive-program/#comment-1168 I agree with you Tom regarding another application process instead of doing the right thing and appoint whoever the next most vote getter was. Whether it is John or whoever it was it is the only fair way. <br/><br/>This way it eliminates the impression of favoritism when the Council or Mayor has his or her choice exclusively. By picking the 3 runner up it eliminates any doubt as it is the will of the voters. I agree with you Tom regarding another application process instead of doing the right thing and appoint whoever the next most vote getter was. Whether it is John or whoever it was it is the only fair way.

This way it eliminates the impression of favoritism when the Council or Mayor has his or her choice exclusively. By picking the 3 runner up it eliminates any doubt as it is the will of the voters.

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