It has been 17 years and 88 days since the city’s pledge to build the West Branch Library.
Please note: Before discussing the city council workshop meeting of Tuesday, March 24, 2015 I wanted to alert you to a very important series of meetings. The first was on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 at Glendale’s Civic Center. By law every ten years every city must revisit and update their General Plan. This effort is called Envision 2040. The city website says, “Every city and county in Arizona is required by state law to prepare and maintain a planning document called a general plan. A general plan is designed to serve as the jurisdiction’s ‘constitution’ or ‘blueprint’ for future decisions concerning land use and resource conservation. All specific plans, subdivisions, public works projects, and zoning decisions must be consistent with the City’s General Plan.” I encourage you to take the time to attend one of 6 district meetings that will be held on this topic and to offer your opinion on what Glendale should become in the future.
Now on to the workshop. Here is the link to the slides used during various staff presentations: Budget Workshop Powerpoint .
It was a full agenda: Budget strategy, property taxation, human resources (employee salaries and benefits); review of FY16-25 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), review of General Fund Sub-Funds Restructure.
Since the last blog dealt with the Capital Improvement Plan, a follow up is in order. During the staff presentation Mr. Freidline, Public Works Director, stated the number of parking spaces planned is 4,000 at a cost of $14,000 to $16,000 per parking space. At $14,000 per space the bill is $56 million dollars. At the high end of $16,000 per space the bill is $64 million dollars. Who is smoking what when staff allocates $46 million dollars over three years in the CIP? Councilmember Bart Turner has proven himself to be the most effective of all councilmembers. He is articulate, asks the right questions and since the beginning of his service has proposed several very effective actions. The rest of council…not so much.
Mayor Weiers and Vice Mayor Hugh are generally silent; Councilmembers Aldama and Chavira are the Bobsey Twins of the “thank you;” Councilmember Sherwood only speaks when an item aligns with his personal agenda; and Councilmember Tolmachoff’s questions tend to be irrelevant. Keep an eye on Councilmember Turner. His reasoned approach to issues will serve him and the citizens of Glendale well.
In fact, it was Councilmember Turner who said, “The Westgate parking garage is the elephant in the room.” It is that and more. One item never mentioned during this discussion is the AZSTA/Cardinals/Glendale agreement and the stipulation that requires the city to build the parking garage and what exactly triggers that obligation. The public wants to know. It’s strange. The city website has posted all kinds of contracts online going back to at least 2000 but not this one from 2002. Why isn’t it available publicly?
Among other questions, Councilmember Turner asked if the city will build another Taj Mahal immediately or if the garage could be built in phases. He also asked for the number of spaces currently available to the city to meet its agreement requirement and also inquired as to how new development in the Westgate area will impact (and perhaps improve) parking availability. Good questions. They demand answers before this council approves the CIP with the Westgate parking garage for $46 million dollars.
Another CIP item to appear before council was an amount not to exceed $500,000 for an automated library book dispenser. It would be placed in Hero’s Park in the now abandoned skateboard concession stand. The funds would be used to purchase the dispenser, retrofit the concession area and add more of those pesky, costly parking spaces. Mr. Strunk, Director of Parks, Recreation and Library Services, stated that this dispenser is not intended to replace the over arching need for a library in West Glendale. Clearly it is not. The largest dispenser available can only hold 3,800 books. Wasn’t there dismay in the library community when there was the possibility of downgrading Foothills library to a collection of 35,000 books? The dispenser will only accommodate 1/10 of a Foothills collection. Mr. Struck did not speak to the manpower that will be needed to service this dispenser. After all, someone will need to gather up the books and transport them to the dispenser as well as picking up returned books daily. As Mayor Weiers observed there is also the issue of security. The location is very dark and very lonely. Maybe they can install a half dozen strobe lights…Or a large, very tall, well lit digital billboard would work well too (courtesy of DM).
Why has the stop gap proposal of a library book dispenser popped up all of a sudden? Could it be the renewed request by West Glendale residents for the West Branch Library? Do not think that this action will diminish the need for and the growing demand for the West Branch Library.
Another item of interest on the agenda, especially for City of Glendale retirees, is the increasing cost of medical insurance premiums to that community. As an example, my monthly payment for medical insurance through the city for my husband and I is $1,117. As of July 1, 2015 that will increase to $1,280. That is a monthly premium increase of $163 or $1,956 a year. Yet the slide on premiums for retirees over 65 shows a monthly increase of $88 or $1056 a year. Hmmm…it looks like Jim Brown, Director of Human Resources, was only off by $900 a year. It’s almost to the point that retirees’ entire monthly pension check will be used exclusively to pay medical premiums. Glendale retirees are worried. They took a big, big financial hit last year with a major increase in the premium and now it seems as if the plan is to continue, only incrementally.
Last, although not discussed at this workshop but a week earlier, is the council action to approve Finance Director Duensing’s plan to wipe out its debt repayments to the city’s Enterprise Funds. Glendale, in order to pay the NHL a management fee for the arena, borrowed $15 million from the water and sewer Enterprise Fund; $40 million from the landfill Enterprise Fund; and $5 million from the sanitation Enterprise Fund. When asked how the Enterprise Funds could make up for the loss, Mr. Duensing said, “you could do rate increases, you could defer maintenance, you could cut your operating losses.” Oh really, Mr. Duensing? The repayment to those Enterprise Funds was a firm pledge of a previous council. It was their solemn intent to repay those funds over time. To erase that debt in some kind of accounting trickery is beneath contempt. Is this Glendale’s future? To erode the intent and word of a council to the point where it becomes meaningless? At what point will we, the residents, no longer believe council’s word?
© Joyce Clark, 2015
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I applaud Bart Turner for his due diligence in questioning in detail the items that come up. He obviously does his homework. I am in his district and very happy I voted for him! I don’t think I understand the health insurance issues as once you are 65 its mandatory you go on Medicare so are they picking up a n expensive supplement to the medicare? I can’t believe a parking space can cost that kind of money anywhere! Outrageous. I would spread blacktop in the fields and hire a shuttle! Could have lots of them for that kind of money and keep people working! 🙂
Westgate Parking Garage $14,000–$16,000???? Are they lined in gold!A dispenser for library books at the SkateBoard Park–don’t kid yourself! That is an attempt to not take space at the Media Center!
How much do employees pay for their medical insurance?
According to the data in this following link. The figure is well within the national median figure.
http://www.parking.org/media/overview-of-the-us-parking-industry.aspx
Legend, The data you used says median parking space costs $16,000. As we both know that means half of all spaces cost less and half cost more.
Maybe….
One real pricey garage can offset 2 not so pricey ones Or vice versa…. one real cheap one can offset two just over the median. So you can’t really presume the Bell Curve is in effect here. 🙂
Also note the data in the report is using 2010 numbers. Safe to say the median number has gone up since.
Point is… at $14-16K per space they are in the ballpark with their numbers. Better would be to know the details of what the project consists of. OR…. find another recently built project and compare them.
All I can say is “What has happened to Glendale?” What are these people thinking – I sure can’t run my household budget that way and yet the Department heads and some Council Members seem quite willing to use the Glendale taxpayer funds as an open checkbook for whatever pet project with no accountability back to the taxpayers as to why they are spending these huge sums of money. The West Gate Parking Garage is a perfect example. If the Tanger Outlet Mall took up parking spaces that Glendale had promised by agreement, then maybe Tanger should build the Parking Garage. Whatever happened to common sense????? Although I am not in his district, I think everyone is quite impressed with Bart Turner, his research and his questions – it is about time we have someone who is willing to ask for justification as to Glendale is spending my hard earned taxpayer dollars on what seem to be hairbrained and ill thought out projects.
I have to admit that I did not vote for Bart Turner, his campaign crew put stuff inside of our mailbox which is against postal code. My spouse and I did not like that little intrusion. HOWEVER, he did win and for that I am thankful, although I think Randy Miller would have done well as well and was more aligned with our beliefs about certain COG projects, but I don’t believe he had the necessary experience to get us where this city needs to head.
I am sick to death of corporate welfare and the belief that the COG is totally responsible for giving them money left and right. The NFL even though they claim to be non-profit (*SMH*) is one of the biggest scams this country has seen. I am tired of their temper tantrum’s that the COG owes them for this and that, they obviously DO NOT CARE about their fans who are footing the bill for these costly parking spaces. I know this was agreed upon by a completely different council, but is there not some way that the current council can re-negotiate the total cost and maybe have the NFL or the Bidwells split the cost?
ANOTHER thing (sorry I am ranting)….This tax that was supposed to sunset in 2017…WHY OH WHY does the COG feel that it is OKAY to extend it and have their constituents continue to pay for their mismanagement of our money….there I’m done. I hope this council pulls their head up and starts to realize what they are doing….
Bart Turner is one of the smartest Councilmembers & truly looks out for the citizens! I also think it is important to remember that Councilmembers typically only know what they are being told by upper Management unless they take the step to talk to staff and in the past from what I have heard that was frowned upon! I do not think that Glendale’s financial situation has turned a corner! Glendale is deep in debt & in my opinion just a hair short of bankruptcy.