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Resident's Q's & A's
The following are our answers to the questions raised at the OC LAFCO Townhall on March 12th: add the attached LAFCO Incorporation Workshop.
LAFCO INCORPORATION WORKSHOP
RPC’s RESPONSES TO ISSUES RAISED
March 16, 2008
The following issues were raised by opponents of incorporation at LAFCO’s Incorporation Workshop on March 12, 2008. Many of the issues and concerns we feel were based on incomplete or inaccurate information. For the benefit of the our neighbors, we have set forth below each issue our responses to each issue.
1. RPC 2007 Survey Flawed (Falsely stated that remaining unincorporated not included as option)
Response: At least two residents alleged that the Survey sent out in August 2006 by the Rossmoor Planning Committee was “flawed” because it did not include the option of remaining unincorporated (one person even stating that it included the Super City option as one of the four choices). This statement is completely wrong. The four options included on the survey were: 1. Expanded RCSD (remaining unincorporated); 2. Incorporation; 3. Annexation by Los Alamitos; and 4. Annexation by Seal Beach. Moreover, we clearly stated in our Pros and Cons that Option 1 was to stay unincorporated. In fact, under Option 1’s Financial Impact, we noted that the option included the County’s transfer of funds for law enforcement, which we believed to be true at that time. This made Option 1 considerably more attractive. Unfortunately, subsequently, the agreement of the County to transfer law enforcement funds was cancelled when the Sheriff reneged on its agreement.
2. How Can The CFA Be Accurate if Rossmoor’s First Full Year Budget is $5,267,993 While Los Alamitos’ Operating Budget for Last Year Was Nearly Twice As Much At $10,033,417?
Response: The commentator, not a resident of Rossmoor, stated that the services
assumptions in the CFA for Rossmoor must be wrong because Rossmoor and Los
Alamitos would be similar sized cities and Rossmoor’s budget couldn’t be half of
Los Alamitos. Actually, it could. Though we share many things with our neighbor,
Rossmoor has many differences also. From a budget standpoint, we need to
point out only two differences to make the point: Law Enforcement and Recreation.
Los Alamitos’s 2006-7 budget line item for law enforcement was $4,823,073. The
CFA’s line item for Rossmoor law enforcement for the first full year was $1,458,955
(based on the Sheriff’s quote for increased services, 7x24 dedicated coverage,
enhanced service over what is currently provided). Los Alamitos has one of the best
parks and recreations departments for any city its size. Its 2006-7 budget for this
item was $1,317,735. In the CFA, Rossmoor’s first full year budget, based upon
current expenditures, is less than one tenth of Los Alamitos’s ($125,399). Rossmoor will be a “contract city,” contracting out most of its services. Los Alamitos is a full service city, performing their municipal services directly. We believe the service assumptions in the CFA reflect accurately Rossmoor’s needs.
3. CFA financial findings/conclusions questioned.
Response: This issue was also raised by a number of residents. We believe in general that the CFA is comprehensive and conservative. Also, it is largely consistent with our previous Consultant’s study completed in June 2006 which showed that incorporation would be viable with the vehicle license fee revenues. And, it is fully supported by comparisons with comparable cities, in particular Villa Park.
4. Road figures understated.
Response: Several commentators noted that they thought road maintenance seems like it should be a much higher cost. The CFA based their costs on actual past County expenditures and the Consultant concluded that major road repairs would not be required for 10 years based on the recent community wide work by the County.
5. 7% UUT at $16 per household per month understated.
Response: The amount of Utility Tax per household at 7% depends on each household’s unique factors, including number of residents, square footage, pool or hot tub, and other individual uses of electricity, gas and water. We will conduct studies to determine what the impact would be under various scenarios.
6. UUT will drive people (particularly long term residents on fixed income) out.
Response: This is a difficult issue. As a general rule, the utility bills for homes without children are smaller. And given Rossmoor’s upper middle class community, it is hard to believe that an additional $10 to $30 per month (roughly the cost of 3 to 8 gallons of gas) would drive people out of the community.
7. Why do we want more bureaucracy?
Response: This is often heard criticism of cityhood is completely misinformed. A city brings government decisions closer to the resident. It replaces an existing governmental entity (the RCSD) and eliminates the County bureaucracy (a much larger, more remote governmental agency as a municipal services provider), so the net is a significant reduction in bureaucracy.
Action(s): Education. Address on the website and in news articles.
8. “If it aint broke, don’t fix it.”
Response: Another often heard criticism, based upon incomplete knowledge of the facts. Rossmoor is a great place to live but is not perfect. But, we currently are not getting the level or quality of services we are paying for. We believe that Rossmoor is a great place to live and the best way to protect it is to make it a city and control our future.
9. We are incorporating for a single issue, law enforcement, which is fine anyway.
Response: Several commentators mentioned that the only reason proponents wanted to incorporate was to improve law enforcement, which they felt was just fine the way it was. There are many advantages to incorporation, including better code enforcement, planning, animal control and of course law enforcement. And law enforcement and traffic enforcement in Rossmoor are still significantly worse than our neighboring cities. That is because our sheriff patrol also must cover Sunset Beach and because the CHP, with limited resources, has the primary authority for traffic enforcement in Rossmoor. The latest figures from the Sheriff show an average response time for Priority One calls in 2007 (a total of 18 Priority 1 calls) of 7 minutes, 32 seconds, including four burglaries in process that took 10 minutes, 18 seconds; twelve minutes, 58 seconds; 13 minutes, 20 seconds; and 18 minutes, 47 seconds to respond.
10. If Rossmoor City suffers a catastrophic loss, how does it cover? Won’t the homeowners simply be required to pay the bill?
Response: This question reflects misunderstanding of how cities work. There are many similar cities in Southern California that are smaller than Rossmoor with less sales tax revenue. Cities join under umbrella insurance policies spreading the risk of large liability lawsuits so no individual city suffers. These insurance costs were built into the CFA. For natural disasters, no small or even medium size cities build reserves for such disasters (earthquake, terrorist attack, etc.) which are largely covered by Federal and State aid.
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