At its Tuesday, Feb. 9 meeting, the Signal Hill City Council heard a proposal to amend the Municipal Code Section 13.04.130 to raise water rates by 8 percent a year for the next five years.
Beginning in fiscal year 2016, the rate increase would help the City maintain adequate funding to accommodate operating costs and the water depreciation reserve.
The specific rate increase was generally agreed upon by Signal Hill residents in a series of community-outreach workshops on Jan. 12 and 27. An alternative rate schedule that would increase the rates 18 percent the first year and 4 percent annually for four years thereafter was introduced as well, but it received far less support.
Signal Hill Public Works Director Steve Myrter presented a slideshow with analysis of past costs and upcoming projections to validate the need for such a raise.
In response, Signal Hill City resident Maria Harris questioned whether monthly payments referenced in the proposal were predetermined rates or examples and why the raise is needed if the minimum monetary reserve for water distribution is being exceeded.
Residents need to be cautious of their money “being pecked away by a little bit of this, a little bit of that,” Harris said before proposing a maximum limit for the reserve to quell the potential for future rate increases.
After Harris was told the figures were examples and increasing the amount of money in reserve is necessary to allow for anticipated operating costs, Councilmember Edward Wilson raised questions of his own.
Wilson asked whether subsidy programs exist to supplement the cost of water for low-income residents, and, if so, whether they could maintain subsidizing higher costs to protect access to water.
“We could live without gas,” Wilson said. “It would be difficult, but we could do it. We can’t live without water.”
Wilson was reassured that such programs do exist, currently subsidizing water by $6 per month for qualified residents, and would be able to maintain subsidizing any potential increases.
Mayor Larry Forester, Vice Mayor Lori Woods and Wilson all voted to approve the motion to set a public hearing for the amendment to be held on May 10, 2016. Councilmembers Tina Hansen and Mike Noll were absent on excuse.
The hearing will present the rate proposal to the public and open the chance for residents to petition the increase. If a simple majority of residents, measured in terms of one vote per land parcel, oppose the increase, it will automatically be blocked from implementation.
If approved, the increase will become effective on July 1, 2016.
Park assessment update
In November 2015, City staff presented a number of potential park-improvement projects in accordance with the Parks and Recreation Commission to consider as submissions to the Los Angeles County Parks Needs Assessment Update.
These assessments are being made and compiled to prove the necessity of maintaining levels of funding initially set in place statewide by Proposition A.
Since November, staff have been hosting community workshops to survey residents on the projects they feel most deserve attention and funding. The results from each session were compiled into a list of 10, ranked in order of most to least important to the residents.
Renovating Hilltop Trail was most prioritized by residents, with the creation of a new skate park least prioritized.
Vice Mayor Woods requested that the skate park project be removed from the list and replaced with a project that did not receive enough votes to break the top 10 but has still been brought to the public.
She recounted a past attempt at building a skate park that was so underused the City of Long Beach took it over as a project of its own.
With the substitution generally approved, the council unanimously approved the list to be submitted for the update.
It was noted, though, that the City of Signal Hill will still conduct a survey on its own to consider alongside the general resident polls and can amend lists after the initial submission.
Police staff approval
At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Forester and Signal Hill Police Chief Michael Langston introduced three additions to the Signal Hill Police Department.
Gregory Friend, Paul Johnston and Andrew Lopez were pinned in front of the city council and family members, but Chief Langston made it clear to the council that there need to be more hires brought into the department.
He requested approval to hire one additional recruit in anticipation of vacancies to be caused by pending retirements. The department has not yet been at full staff this year, and as such, the budget will have enough funding to cover the additional salary without requiring supplementation.
Wilson asked if there is a contingency plan to protect funding in the event of a vacancy not opening as anticipated.
Chief Langston said that an average of 1 in 3 recruits do not finish the police academy and make their way into a position, so recruit numbers will almost surely be less than projected, and the retirements are absolute.
In a 3-0 vote, the hire request was then granted.
The additional hire would tentatively begin in March 2017.
Emergency app
At the request of Mayor Forester, Emergency Operations Coordinator Richard Johnson gave a presentation on the In Case of Emergency phone application.
Johnson explained that in 2005, a British paramedic had an idea to help make medical and emergency contact information more readily available by listing “ICE” in front of contact numbers and keeping record of important medical information under a heading of the same name. That way, in the event one were to become incapacitated, first responders would be able to see valuable information.
As phone technologies have advanced, though, and lock screen protections have become the norm, the “ICE” program has been updated.
Johnson encouraged residents to search for free downloadable apps that hold important phone numbers and information that can be accessed from the lock screen of a phone.
Mayor Forester noted that his sister had introduced him to the program while on vacation in Florida and he felt it was worthy of being shared with the general public.
Alcohol approval
Signal Hill Historical Society requested authorization to serve alcohol at a fundraiser event scheduled to take place on Feb. 26 at the Signal Hill Community Center.
Specific criteria, including hiring private security to monitor the event and providing proof of the organization’s nonprofit status, were met in the application and led to an easy approval from the city council.
Budget workshop
Every year, the city council meets to host a public budget workshop for the community. The date was voted upon by the present members and set for June 1.
