18 Dec 2023

The Council Has a Major Mess to Fix and They’re Running Out of Time

by | posted in: Housing Element, Housing Element 2023-2031, Latest News, Town Council | 0

An Executive Summary of our letter below to the Town Council.

The staff report for Agenda Item 15 is inaccurate in that it fails to disclose that on November 16, 2023, Staff submitted a November draft of the revised Housing Element to HCD for official review in violation of Government Code Section 65585. We find it hard to understand why Staff would intentionally not disclose this. In our opinion, the lack of transparency and full disclosure has been a consistent theme for the past two Councils led by former mayors’ Rennie and Ristow.  They spanned the development of the Housing Element and were the enablers of Town Manager Prevetti. The cumulative effect of this behavior has led to a growing loss of confidence in Staff and the Town’s latest consultant, Veronica Tam, by the public.

29 Nov 2023

Pushing the Planning Commission to OK the Housing Element 4th Attempt For Certification

by | posted in: 2040 General Plan, Housing Element, Housing Element 2023-2031, Latest News | 0

By now the Planning Commission should be fully aware the Town failed to comply with
AB 215 and filed the November draft HE prior to completing the mandatory 7-day public
comment period. We have attached HCD’s May 30th comment letter and specifically
draw your attention to Comment D as well as the general discussion regarding AB 215
requirements in HCD’s cover letter. We have also attached two emails from Ms. Whelan
dated November 20 and 21 which provide additional background and confirm the
Town’s failure to comply with Govt Code Section 65585(b)(1).

18 Nov 2023

What is Senate Bill (SB) 330?

by | posted in: 2040 General Plan, Latest News, SB 330 | 0

Effective January 1, 2020, and through its expiration on January 1, 2025  SB 330 (Housing Crisis Act of 2019 – Government Code Section 65941.1) expands or amends Sate legislation, including the Permit Streamlining Act and Housing Accountability Act, with the broad goals of facilitating increased production of new residential units, protecting existing units, and providing for an expedited review and approval process for housing development projects through submittal of a “preliminary application.”

5 Nov 2023

Unfunded Employee Benefit Liabilities as of 6-30-23

by | posted in: Finance, Latest News, Unfunded Liabilites | 0

In order for the Town to understand the value of future pension benefit payments, actuarial
valuations are performed each year for the pension plans. The CalPERS actuary estimates the
payments that will be made for all potential retirees from each plan in each future year. The
actuary calculates the present value of future benefits the plan will be required to pay to its
current participants: those still working who will retire in the future, retirees, and those who
have terminated employment but have not yet begun drawing benefits.

The 2022 valuation reports provide the determination of the minimum required employer
contributions for fiscal year (FY) 2024/25. In addition, the reports also contain important
information regarding the current financial status of the plans as well as projections and risk
measures to aid in planning for the future

28 Oct 2023

California’s denser housing ‘solutions’ are failing badly

by | posted in: Housing, Housing Element, Latest News | 0

A Brief Summary of this article made by LGCA: 

California’s denser housing ‘solutions’ are failing badly.
The number of homeless people has increased even as more dense housing has been built.
The number of Californians who are housed but unable to buy homes far exceeds the unhoused populace.
Median home prices have continued to rise.
California needs to find new ways to address its housing shortage and homelessness problem.