League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Alameda County, CA February 2, 2010 Election
	John Chiang Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Piedmont

The questions were prepared by the LWV Piedmont and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. Discuss the current process of utilities undergrounding project development in Piedmont and how to make it more effective.

The City of Piedmont has documented the process of forming a private undergrounding utility district so I will not repeat it here.

The Piedmont Hills Undergrounding Utility District $1 million cost overrun has got to be one of the worst nightmares or challenging issues the City Council has faced in a very long time. There was no right answer and the Council had to decide on the least bad alternative. The Council made the unanimous decision that we needed to complete the project to mitigate the damages, among other reasons, and to seek recovery from the engineers whom the City relied upon.

The Audit Committee of the City Council will be conducting a post-mortem and recommendations will be made as to how to structure private undergrounding utility districts in the future so that the total cost, including cost overruns, of the project will be borne by the homeowners in the private undergrounding utility district and not by the City.

2. What role do you think the citizen commissions should play in the city government decision-making process?

The existing city "Commissions" (Planning, Park, Recreation, Civil Service) play a very important role today in their advisory capacity to the City Council, and only the Planning Commission has quasi-judicial powers that have been delegated to them. The City Council relies upon the expertise and recommendations of the respective Commissions. However, the ultimate decision rests with the City Council. For Planning Commission decisions, there are procedures in place for the City Council to modify or overturn a decision or recommendation.

The City also has review and advisory "Committees" (e.g., CIP Review, Municipal Tax Review) whom make recommendations to the City Council for their consideration and decision.

The existing standing Commissions and Committees are operating effectively. The Council can choose to establish limited life special purpose citizen committees or task forces (e.g., Environmental Task Force) to address specific issues in the community.

Commission and Committee members are appointed by the City Council and the City Council always reserves the right and does make the final decision, after getting input from the Commissions or Committees and the public.

3. The Blair Park Sports Center is a controversial project that is under consideration by the City Council. Please address the decision making process, including public input, regarding Blair Park.

The City of Piedmont thrives on public/private partnerships (e.g., Coaches Field, Dracena Park) which I encourage and support. There is no question that there will be a decline in the availability of sports fields for our youth in the coming years, especially when we lose the current availability of the Alameda sports fields.

The Blair Park proposal has been brought forth by a group of residents who have donated a significant amount of their time and financial resources to assist our City in developing additional sports fields, a noble cause and effort which I applaud.

There is much work that is needed before any decision is made by the City Council, foremost being the Environmental Impact Study and Report (EIR). Any judgment is pre-mature before the completion of the EIR study. The public has been given opportunities to comment before the City Council and on the draft preliminary EIR scoping report and public scoping review sessions have been held with much community input and comments from attendees.

Once the EIR Report is completed, there will be many more opportunities for public input as it's reviewed by the Planning, Park, and Recreation Commissions.

4. Piedmont faces serious challenges to its budget with reductions in revenues and continual increases in expenses. Discuss possible cost containment and revenue accrual measures that would keep the budget balanced in the years to come.

Piedmont has not been exempt from the country's worst economic downturn or crises since the depression. We have experienced declining revenues and increasing expenses. The unanticipated legal fees and construction cost overruns related to private undergrounding utility districts unfortunately has reduced the City's reserves (as noted above in response to another question, the City has instituted legal actions to seek recovery on the cost overruns). Putting aside these unanticipated costs, the City has nearly a balanced budget (overtime of public safety personnel due to absences has not helped).

The Council was wise in setting aside reserves during the good times in the past few years to cover unanticipated expenses or declining revenues. Approximately 70% of the City's revenue sources are property related and about 75% of the City's expenses are personnel related. The residents of Piedmont are accustomed to the great services that they receive today.

Given the City's heavy reliance on property related revenues, we have to continue to look for additional grant and revenue sources (although this could be a challenge given the State of California's financial condition), avoid tax increases, and ways to reduce expenses. There is only so much we can do in reducing expenses given the high level of personal expenses (75% of the City's budget), without considering furloughs and potentially increasing employee contributions to benefit plans, or reducing city services, which is the last thing I would advocate.

We also need to do long range strategic planning.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Word limits for answers are 400 words for all 4 questions. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: January 25, 2010 15:37
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