City Hall
by John M. Zukoski on July 19, 2010 | 
9 Comments | Topics: City Hall · Development
Economic Development Director Linda Maurer is confident that Dublin is making its way out of the recent downturn. Auto sales in the First Quarter of 2010 compared to First Quarter of 2009 show a significant increase. Commercial space vacancy rates, currently 17-18%, appear to be on a steady decline. The Dublin Corporate Center, off the corner of Tassajara Road and Dublin Boulevard, is continuing to land new tenants like Perquest and Tria Beauty. Maurer indicated that many restaurateurs have expressed interest in the site formerly occupied by Stacey’s at Waterford, but the current owner has been reluctant to share any detail other than that the plaza is looking to attract a high-end restaurant to complement the other shops.
Thanks to the reduced water and sewer hookup fee, Charter Properties is very close to signing another lease with an upscale restaurant at Grafton Station. If a deal can be struck, the restaurant owner would likely need to appear before the Dublin Planning Commission to request a conditional use permit for outdoor seating and other exceptions.
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by John M. Zukoski on July 15, 2010 | 7 Comments | Topics: City Hall · Development
The City of Dublin now has another incentive with which to attract new businesses – a 25% water and sewer hookup fee credit. Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) has often been criticized for charging new businesses outrageously high hookup fees. Restaurants moving into new buildings routinely pay from $200K to $400K in fees just to get water and sewer service. Many have pointed to the exorbitant hookup fee as a primary deterrent that has prevented many restaurants of distinction from moving into Dublin.
In response to this criticism, the City of Dublin and the DSRSD have created a program that offers new restaurants with a credit of up to 25% of their standard hookup fee. Under this program, the City of Dublin will make available 66 previously unused Dwelling Unit Equivalent (DUE) credits that were acquired as part of the Civic Center and Dublin Senior Center site purchases. A DUE is equivalent to the water and sewage needs of an average single family home.
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by John M. Zukoski on May 10, 2010 | 29 Comments | Topics: City Hall
Dublin’s City Council approved $1.5M of public safety, parks and recreation, and administrative cuts last week as part of an ongoing effort to reduce the City’s projected 2010-2011 operating budget deficit. These reductions will bring City Hall closer to bridging next year’s projected $3.1M-$4.6M deficit. The rest of the deficit will be covered by Dublin’s economic stability reserve, a rainy day fund.
Roughly $750K in reductions will be from the police and fire services budget, which means less overtime for police officers, the elimination of an office administrative position in the police department, deferred purchases of furniture and equipment, and fewer police officers. While these cuts are substantial, Dublin is still spending $1M more for police and fire services in 2010-2011 than the prior year.
Another $550K of cuts will be in Dublin’s Culture & Leisure programs. These cuts include cancellation of Day on the Glen, reduction in parks and recreation staff hours, and fewer library hours. Starting in a few months, the Dublin Library will be closed on Fridays and open for fewer hours during the other days of the week. In addition, Dublin’s 2010 Summer Concert Series will also be cancelled.
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by John M. Zukoski on April 28, 2010 | 21 Comments | Topics: City Hall · Restaurants
The City of Dublin recently relaxed its restaurant parking standards and brought them more in line with the parking requirements for other cities in the Tri-Valley. The new parking standards apply “common sense” logic towards determining the number of required parking spaces. Under the legacy parking requirement, Nothing Bundt Cakes in The Shops at Tralee, for example, required 19 parking spaces, because the storefront has 1,900-square-foot of space. Of course, Nothing Bundt Cakes customers typically only need a few minutes to complete their transactions, and the shop typically has no more than a handful of customers at any given time. Similarly, Papa John’s take-out pizza had a 12 parking space requirement under the old rules. The new rules significantly reduce the number of required spaces for both businesses.
The new parking ordinance frees up spaces allotted to current restaurants that can now be used for incoming restaurants. The reduced requirement will provide a competitive boost for shopping centers that have limited parking such as the Ulferts Center, Grafton Station, The Shops at Waterford, and Dublin Corners (home to Tomatina). Restaurants will now be able to operate in Dublin without having to jump through as many hoops as before to be granted the special parking exceptions.
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by John M. Zukoski on April 13, 2010 | No Comments | Topics: City Hall · Opinions
The economic recession has already had a significant impact on the City of Dublin. The City of Dublin anticipates that its budget will be greatly affected not just for the next year but also in the years to come. With a projected deficit of up to $4.6M for fiscal year 2010-2011, Dublin is seeking input from residents as it tries to balance the budget.
If you received your Summer 2010 Dublin Guide this past weekend, you may have noticed a community survey with a handful of questions on the back of the Guide. Residents can choose to fill out the paper survey or complete the survey online. If you don’t see a short survey, that means Survey Monkey has already received a completed survey from your computer. The City of Dublin will use the data collected to determine the best approach to balancing the budget.
In terms of cost reduction, this survey will help identify the services residents are willing to forgo and those considered absolutely essential. The survey results will also help the City in crafting the optimal marketing strategy for the new local tax that is likely to appear on the upcoming November ballot. If residents indicate, for example, that maintaining the current level of police and fire services is top priority for Dublin, the City may position the new local tax as the only way to keep residents and business owners safe. Additionally, the City can draft the ballot measure such that proceeds from the new local tax would be earmarked for specific uses like police and fire services. The ballot measure will probably do little to address the underlying cause of Dublin’s skyrocketing police and fire expenses.
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by John M. Zukoski on March 30, 2010 | 53 Comments | Topics: City Hall · Opinions
The City of Dublin, CA, is expected to have a $1.2M general fund deficit in 2010 and a more sizable $3M-$4.7M deficit in 2011. Dublin’s budget trainwreck is due to the fact that people are buying fewer cars and consumer goods in Dublin, our assessed home values have decreased, and Dublin’s Police and Fire expenses have continued to skyrocket at a breakneck pace. Dublin gets about half of its revenue from property taxes and about a quarter from sales tax revenue. The rest of our City’s funding comes from a variety of sources such as impact, permit, and use fees.
Dublin’s property tax receipts are projected to dip a little more than $1.5M in 2010, compared to that in 2009. Although this decrease is significant, property tax receipts will still be higher in 2010 than they were in 2007. While Dublin’s property tax funding has decreased gradually, our sales tax revenue has fallen off a cliff. Dublin averaged roughly $14M per year in sales tax revenue during the 2004-2008 period. Dublin’s Finance Director Paul Rankin now expects 2010′s sales tax revenue to come in at just over $10.5M, which is about a 25% decline from the average during the boom years.
Dublin’s precious impact fee pipeline ran dry in 2009 and has not started to flow since that time. During the housing boom years of 2004-2008, Dublin was pulling in roughly $12M per year. For 2010 we are only expecting about $2.7M in impact fees.
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by John M. Zukoski on March 19, 2010 | 31 Comments | Topics: City Hall · Local Issues
The City of Dublin, CA, has been working diligently to prepare residents for a new City tax on the next ballot measure. The proceeds from the new tax will be used to fill the projected annual budget gaps resulting from Dublin’s sustained period of declining property and sales tax revenues and increasing police and fire expenses. For 2010 alone, Dublin is expected to pay an additional $1.74M for police and fire services, while general fund revenues are projected to plummet a hearty 13.9% for the same period.
Cities like Dublin have the power to impose a variety of taxes. These taxes can be either general or special, depending on how the money will be used. General taxes only require a simple majority of voters for approval, while special taxes require two-thirds of voters. Special taxes must be used for the specific purpose for which they are imposed.
Dublin has two likely options to consider in an effort to bridge the projected budget shortfall. The projected budget shortfall can be filled with either an increase in sales tax rate or an additional parcel tax.
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by John M. Zukoski on February 28, 2010 | No Comments | Topics: City Hall · Sustainability
The City of Dublin, CA, recently joined the CaliforniaFIRST program to assist in financing energy projects for private property owners. Coordinated by California Communities and launching in Summer 2010, the CaliforniaFIRST program will provide residential and commercial property owners with a lower-cost option to finance renewable energy, energy efficiency, and water efficiency improvements on their properties. Dublin property owners can borrow $5K to $75K for projects over a 5 to 20 year period. Property owners will be able to repay the loan through a parcel-specific assessment on their property tax bills. California Communities will issue bonds to provide the financing for these projects.
Qualified residents can benefit from the CaliforniaFIRST program in many ways. CaliforniaFIRST will likely offer property owners a lower financing rate than they otherwise would get through private financing companies. Additionally, payment for the CaliforniaFIRST loans will be collected along with the property tax, so property owners will enjoy the convenience of making semi-annual payments for their energy efficiency projects. The CaliforniaFIRST financing program is also unique in that assessment obligation transfers with the sale of the property, so the loan does not have to be paid in full as part of the property sale process. In fact, CaliforniaFIRST will assess a 5% prepayment penalty to discourage property owners from paying back their loans early.
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by John M. Zukoski on February 25, 2010 | 32 Comments | Topics: City Hall · Opinions
The City of Dublin, CA, recently conducted a survey amongst 400 likely voters to gauge their support for a new city tax. The survey questions were prefaced by the fact that Sacramento borrowed $2M from the City this year to bridge the State budget deficit; however, what the survey did not mention is that the City of Dublin was able to get all $2M back from the California Communities Prop 1A financing program. In exchange, California Communities gets the interest that the State would have paid to Dublin for the $2M loan.
The survey found that residents are most concerned about losing police and fire services as a result of budget cuts. The respondents noted that if a new temporary City tax were approved, fire stations, police services, and emergency response operations should be first in line to receive the extra money. Most residents noted that they are largely unaware of the many steps taken by the City of Dublin to balance the budget, the impact the state seizure of local funds had on City operations, and the choices the City will face without a new City tax. Residents don’t see us taking cuts internally,” Councilmember Kasie Hildenbrand said to Robert Jordan of Contra Costa Times. In the same article, Councilmember Hildenbrand warns that “the cutbacks may become much more apparent.”
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