League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Alameda County, CA February 2, 2010 Election
	Julie Watters 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 needs to revisit the entire under-grounding issue. If we are to continue the current policy of only supporting assessment districts that are privately funded, we should devise methods to ensure that the City never again has to contribute taxpayers' money to a district. In order to do that, we should have an outside audit to determine what exactly went wrong with the Piedmont Hills Under-grounding District. We should have a community wide discussion about the Council policy change that reduced the under-grounding vote requirement from 60 to 50 percent. In addition, we will be spending at least $200,000 in legal fees on the Hampton SeaView Under-grounding District lawsuit. We should have further discussion to determine the best approach given what we now know. This cannot happen again on any city contracted project.

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

Our City charter is clear: we have citizen commissions to ensure that all voices and opinions are not only heard but seriously considered. Commission members are appointed based on their qualifications for the commissions on which they serve. Piedmont has a proud history of using the expertise of its citizens to examine and make recommendations on civic issues. We should honor that tradition.

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.

Lack of process is a grave problem of good governance. Lacking was review by the Planning and Parks Commissions to provide their expertise and recommendations. Lacking was any official cost estimate for the project. This vetting should have been done BEFORE embarking on an expensive EIR requiring untold hours of staff time and resources. The lack of public input is evidenced by the fact that the project approved to proceed to the EIR stage is exactly the same as the project the proponents originally submitted to council.

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 an annual budget of $20 million for 3800 homes + one of the highest expenditures per household in California. According to the City Administrator's report, as early as 2007 (with still healthy revenues); if we add any new projects, we must reduce services or increase taxes. We need long-term financial planning + a five year plan. We need the Municipal Tax Committee to meet annually, not every four years. We need to replenish our reserves to at least meet the minimum recommended in our charter. We need to reallocate the CIP budget. We need to properly accrue for CalPers liabilities. Litigation costs are eating further into our reserves -- we cannot afford to make any more mistakes.

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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 17, 2010 07:59
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