At the Feb. 13 Signal Hill City Council meeting, Salvation Army representative Melinda Lankford introduced the new Salvation Army facility at Spring Street and Long Beach Boulevard. The site focuses on helping youth, seniors and families and includes a gymnasium and athletic field.
Because the council eventually realized that providing appropriate direction on fee changes warranted more time and consideration, it agreed to conduct a separate budget workshop on fees with department heads present.
City fees
Finance Director Scott Williams shared the results of a user-fee study that the council had authorized in October 2016 and explained that “fees” refers to charges for specific services, not taxes.
Williams said the user-fee study revealed that the City is often subsidizing expenses for services— such as copying official documents, providing licenses and permits, and conducting inspections— because it is not charging users the full cost of the service.
The study identified and accounted for the “fully burdened” cost of each City service, including total labor and overhead, finding, for instance, that certifying a document costs $18.85 but the City is currently only charging $10 for that service.
After Williams’s initial presentation, Deputy City Manager Hannah Shin-Heydorn provided a revised list of the 155 new, revised or increased fees to get council direction and approval.
But when the council began to go through each line item with staff, members realized they needed a guiding policy. For instance, charging the full cost for some services (such as document certification) seemed appropriate, but other services seemed to justify subsidizing because they incentivize behaviors such as safety and election participation.
“We haven’t had a discussion of if we want to change the fee structures,” said Mayor Edward Wilson. “Even the assumptions of how did we get to ‘fully loaded’ we haven’t even talked about as a council.”
Maria Harris, a Signal Hill resident, also spoke up in support of the affordability of City services by all of its residents.
“I would really like to emphasize the importance here of the ability to pay,” she said. “The ability to pay is not mentioned in the criteria and the principles upon which this particular schedule is developed.”
Vice Mayor Tina Hansen moved to table the discussion and resume at a future fee-budget workshop, even if it means revenues from the new fee schedule would not be initially reflected in the next fiscal budget.
Wilson also supported the idea so the public could better understand why fees for each department were changing or increasing and provide input.
“We’re going to have to raise fees, so that’s not the question,” Wilson said. “It will be how much do we think we should raise [them].”
Other business
In other business, the council authorized the city manager to enter into a zero-interest loan program with Southern California Edison (SCE) called on-bill financing that would reduce the City’s initial outlay to pay for upgrading 81 safety lights on traffic signals to LED.
According to City Manager Charlie Honeycutt, the program would allow the City to finance $10,594.57 of the project cost so that it will be paid through future energy savings created by use of the LED safety lights.
The initial out-of-pocket cost of the $27,560 project will thus be approximately $6,600, after an SCE rebate of $10,372 and the financing program.
The council also conducted second readings and approved zoning-ordinance amendments affecting the new dog park at California Avenue and Spring Street and correcting a clerical error on where emergency shelters are allowed.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new dog park is scheduled for March 17 from 2pm to 4pm.
Presentations
The council heard presentations on the City’s new website design, a new Salvation Army facility, a police award and a new appointment.
Deputy City Manager Hannah Shin-Heydorn updated the council on the City’s new website design by government-website designers CivicPlus.
The new website, scheduled to launch in the last week of June, will use a more visual approach with more intuitive menu options based on the most frequently used City services, per data analytics. The City can continue to update the website based on those needs because of an embedded program that tracks how it is used.
“There’s a full array of data and statistics we can pull,” Shin-Heydorn said.
Melinda Lankford, director of the local Salvation Army’s capital campaign, updated the council on the progress of the Salvation Army’s new facility at Spring Street and Long Beach Boulevard.
“We are in our 112th year in this area,” she said. “We’ve [!] found that the four greatest needs are homeless veterans, at-risk families, at-risk youth and at-risk seniors. [!] We are now in the process of building and adding onto our facility to meet those needs.”
Phase II of the building process, she said, will include a gymnasium, playground and athletic field.
“If you know of anybody who wants a great Spring Street advertising opportunity for a mere million dollars, I will name this field after them,” Lankford said.
Police Chief Christopher Nunley reported on his department’s receiving the National Night Out Award from the National Association of Town Watches (NATW) for outstanding participation.
Nunley stated that the department’s National Night Out took place in August 2017 with a carnival theme. The department was one of 24 out of 7,000 nationwide participants that received a plaque for outstanding participation.
“We’re very proud of National Night Out because it’s really become a big event,” Nunley said. “The crowd [!] was the largest we’ve ever had. [!] The best thing that comes out of National Night Out is that neighbors can come out and get together in an environment that is inviting.”
Mayor Edward Wilson, along with Finance Director Scott Williams, introduced Angelina Garcia as Williams’s newly appointed deputy. She had been serving as accounting manager since May 2017.
“I’m very fortunate to work at such a remarkable city,” Garcia said. “I really appreciate the opportunity, and I hope to serve you well.”
The next Signal Hill City Council meeting will take place Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 7pm in the council chamber at 2175 Cherry Ave.
