Santa Rosa's Stimulus Plan Requests $110 Million

[Tars]

This from The United States Conference of Mayors' list of "Mainstreet Economic Recovery" wants lists, for Santa Rosa, CA (https://www.usmayors.org/mainstreeteconomicrecovery/stimulussurveyparticipantsdata.asp?City=Santa+Rosa&State=CA). Total Requests from the Santa Rosa Mayors' Office : $110 million.


<table class="pagesSectionBodyTight" style="width: 632px;" align="left"><tbody><tr class="surveyTableHead" valign="bottom"><td>City</td> <td>State</td><td>Program</td><td>Project Description</td><td>Funding Required</td><td>Jobs</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>CDBG</td><td>ADA Compliance</td><td align="right"> 2,000,000 </td><td align="right">15</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Energy</td><td>biomass to fuel project</td><td align="right"> 75,000 </td><td align="right">5</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Energy</td><td>solar installation</td><td align="right"> 1,000,000 </td><td align="right">10</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Public Safety</td><td>school resource officers</td><td align="right"> 550,000 </td><td align="right">5</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Public Safety</td><td>interoperability project</td><td align="right"> 1,000,000 </td><td align="right">8</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Streets/Roads</td><td>6th St. Undercrossing</td><td align="right"> 1,100,000 </td><td align="right">10</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Streets/Roads</td><td>Bicentennitial Turn Lanes</td><td align="right"> 750,000 </td><td align="right">10</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Streets/Roads</td><td>Mendocino Avenue Adaptive Traffic Control Project</td><td align="right"> 750,000 </td><td align="right">10</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Streets/Roads</td><td>Spring Street Sewer & Water Improvements</td><td align="right"> 2,000,000 </td><td align="right">15</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Streets/Roads</td><td>College Avenue widening and Class 2 Bike Lanes</td><td align="right"> 1,100,000 </td><td align="right">17</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Streets/Roads</td><td>Hearn Avenue Widening</td><td align="right"> 1,400,000 </td><td align="right">25</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Streets/Roads</td><td>Stony Point Road Widening & Reconstruction Hwy 12 to Sebastopol Road</td><td align="right"> 3,000,000 </td><td align="right">35</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Streets/Roads</td><td>Overlay Project</td><td align="right"> 6,200,000 </td><td align="right">41</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Streets/Roads</td><td>Bike and Ped Path</td><td align="right"> 4,500,000 </td><td align="right">45</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Streets/Roads</td><td>farmers lane extension</td><td align="right"> 40,000,000 </td><td align="right">264</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Transit</td><td>Farebox Modifications</td><td align="right"> 800,000 </td><td align="right">12</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Transit</td><td>Rapid Bus Corridor</td><td align="right"> 850,000 </td><td align="right">12</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Transit</td><td>transit mall improvements</td><td align="right"> 1,000,000 </td><td align="right">15</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Transit</td><td>Transit Operations -Restore State Funding loss</td><td align="right"> 2,400,000 </td><td align="right">16</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Transit</td><td>Transit "Green" Retrofit</td><td align="right"> 2,300,000 </td><td align="right">18</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Transit</td><td>Technology upgrade</td><td align="right"> 3,000,000 </td><td align="right">23</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Transit</td><td>hybrid bus purchase--13</td><td align="right"> 8,450,000 </td><td align="right">38</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Water</td><td>reclaimed water pilot program</td><td align="right"> 2,000,000 </td><td align="right">13</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Water</td><td>seismic upgrade of water facilities</td><td align="right"> 2,250,000 </td><td align="right">15</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Water</td><td>sewer and water replacement</td><td align="right"> 3,000,000 </td><td align="right">20</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Water</td><td>discharge compliance project</td><td align="right"> 5,000,000 </td><td align="right">33</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="white"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Water</td><td>geysers pipeline project</td><td align="right"> 5,000,000 </td><td align="right">33</td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#cecece"> <td> Santa Rosa</td><td> CA</td><td>Water</td><td>various sewer/water replacement</td><td align="right"> 8,500,000 </td><td align="right">54</td></tr> <tr class="surveyTableResults"><td colspan="4" align="right">Totals:</td><td align="right">$109,975,000.00</td><td align="right">817.00</td></tr></tbody></table>

[lifequest]

Funny how the largest request ($40 million) was for the Farmer's Lane extension which opens up more land for development. Another chunk is water system related expenses...they just raised water rates for the third or fourth or fifth year in a row. Guess that isn't providing enough revenue... Whatever they spend for customer service staff could be cut - the last time I tried to get assistance they blew me off so I had to go straight to the city council - by contrast they were very helpful.

The city decided to spend about $3 million recently to purchase another office building to centralize staff...paying way more than the building is worth in today's real estate market.

I'm scratching my head :hmmm:

[Hot Compost]

The city decided to spend about $3 million recently to purchase another office building to centralize staff...paying way more than the building is worth in today's real estate market.

I'm scratching my head :hmmm:

I would say that there are some corrupt people in the Santa Rosa City Administration, including the police.

the niece of a friend recently had her car stolen. this occurred when her house was broken into - she had her car stolen and her money stolen.

she did the logical thing - she called the police.

they found the car. they also started billing her $45 a day for an impound fee. it came to $800 after a week and a half.

she didn't have it, so she kept saving.

the SRPD sold her car, and kept the proceeds.

what it feels like to her, her aunt, and me, is that her car was stolen twice - first by the burglar, then by the SRPD.

i raised this issue with the recently retired city attorney, who i know from the pool. i guess i should keep his comment private, but i got the impression that he got tired of defending the city in cases where their behavior was indefensible, not nice, however you want to put it.

the SR courthouse square re-development is another boondoggle. currently it is a nice area that is FREE - not pay to play.

TPTB have managed to get it declared a blighted area. they will spend $9 million tearing it down, and building something new. when they are done, it will be "Pay to Play".

from talking to a few people about it, i get the feeling that one of the motivations for the scheme is to "keep out the riff-raff". i have spent plenty of time at Courthouse Square and it is nice - one of the least blighted areas in the city.

i was told that the $9 million is coming from "Private funds", so, not directly out of public coffers.

[lifequest]

Your friend's niece's experience was a real nightmare...I wonder if they followed their own policy (don't know how many days it sits in the impound lot before they take action) by auctioning her car. If not she has cause to sue - say in Small Claims Court. A lot of city departments act by their own rules and sometimes have to be brought under control.

I forgot about the Courthouse Square boondoggle...thought it had faded away once and for all. Reunifying it and relocating roads and all that. Which reminds me of the parking policies that punish coming downtown and instead direct people to the malls. When I worked downtown they ticketed me nearly 10 times at $25 each since the meters ran fast and were seldom repaired. Being a pain (persistent but not mean of course) I contested all of them and won on all except one.

Had some coins get jammed in a meter once and all it took was walking in the door of the Parking Department before they handed me however much I said I lost.

Despite the complaints its still a liveable town...