PVE Community Newsletter

Serving Lunada Bay, Malaga Cove, Montemalaga and Valmonte

PVE’S IRRESPONSIBLE New Tax Places our Safety, Fiscal Stability and Parkland at RISK READ IT

SAFETY IS DE-PRIORITIZED:

This mega-tax will cost residents an average of $43,000 over the term without requiring any standard of safety services; no 3 minute response time, no trimming for a defensible barrier, no hydrant flow/pressure testing - No Safety Requirements - NOTHING.

Council continues to ignore County Fire’s 2021 warning LINK our hydrants ae not tested. City staffing is not restored to 5-day work week.

FISCAL STABILITY WORSENS

This $200 million mega-tax does not require any funding to address the runaway pension debt and interest. The mega-tax Use clause (3.36.060 D.) allows taxes to be redirected from Safety to develop new government “facilities” that are unnecessary and do not make us safer.

The Petition, if signed by 10% of voters, bypasses Prop 13 and FORCES the Mega-tax with only 50% Voter Approval LEGAL

The standard 66% voter approval is reduced to only 50% if 10% of voters signed this Tax Petition. The Tax Initiative Committee is NOT informing signatories this is the impact of their signature. SENIORS CAN NOT OPT OUT, even it if forces them from their homes.

THE MEGA-TAX FUND ALLOWS EXISTING PLANS TO DEVELOP OUR PARKLAND

This mega-tax forces Residents to foot the bill for development of our protected parkland (Lot O) and even pay the legal costs if residents challenge Council in court. If Council succeeds in their Lot O (letter of intent) Parkland Development (VIDEO1 VIDEO2 VIDEO3), they open Pandora’s box by subjecting all of our Parkland, including the Coastline, to future development.

A BETTER WAY:

Our City needs to replace Measure E, which is expiring. They have justified increasing the current tax (Measure E) to $7 million, not their $16.4 million proposal.  PreservePVE fully supports a $7 million tax with additional funding to maintain the City Hall Complex and to pay the full cost of pensions each year to prevent debt escalation.  This solution aligns with Resident's responses in the City's survey LINK.  This will provide the fiscal stability residents need and deserve. We understand the urgent need for funding our City and hope the Council places a tax measure on the ballot ASAP.

DO NOT sign this HORRIBLE and MISLEADING Tax Initiative to Override Prop 13 READ IT

We Need a Tax, but NOT This Tax

ACCOUNTABILITY

RESIDENT ACCOUNTABILITY: the tax explicitly places liens (3.36.110.B) on Residents’ homes for untimely payments or if seniors on fixed incomes can not afford the largest City Parcel tax in CA which will force them from their homes.

CITY ACCOUNTABILITY: NONE, other than an obligation to SPEND the money ambiguously described as “Safety”. But, there is no requirement that any safety services are actually provided. So, no stated safety services are mentioned such as police patrols, dispatch services, 3 minute response time, hydrant testing, trimming for a defensible barrier. NOTHING

The tax text allows Council to repurpose the funds to building their new Fire and Police stations, rather than safety services (Letter to County of intent).

Why isn’t Council Addressing our Safety Needs and Priorities?

Cost to Homeowners: $43,000

Cost per home varies by home’s square footage. PVE’s average home size: 3,500 sq ft

Average homeowner cost: $43,000 over the term of the tax

This is the largest City Parcel tax in CA. For What?

A BETTER WAY

COMPONENTS TO A SUCCESSFUL TAX:

1. Safety Services must be explicitly included, so residents know what they are paying for. The City’s own survey LINK of residents should guide the priorities and requirements of this tax.

2. EXPLICITLY PROHIBIT Parkland Development: and prohibit the use of any taxes to protect the City or Council members personally from resident lawsuits if violated.

3. Eliminate the Poison Pill: existing language allows the Union to force the City into bankruptcy if Union terms are not met. Union members deserve to be paid market rate. However, a tax proposal is not the place to limit a future Council’s ability to negotiate when a forced bankruptcy can be imposed by the Union.

4. Fiscal stability needs to be achieved and measured

   • The tax amount should correlate to what additional funding is needed over and above Measure E ($5 million a year). To date, the Council has justified $7 million.

   • PreservePVE recommends additional funding to maintain the City Hall complex and fully fund the cost of pensions each year to eliminate the runaway debt and interest.

5. A legitimate tax can pass with the standard 66% voter approval, rather than circumventing Prop 13. The City survey showed overwhelming support to continue Measure E. A tax that aligns to Residents’ priorities, as reflected in the survey LINK, will get support for justified increases. And, it can be a tax most of the Residents can afford rather than forcing our elder on fixed incomes out of their homes, for a tax that is needlessly bloated and unjustified.

PreservePVE Supports a legitimate Tax that aligns to Residents’ priorities and keeps our Police, while kept affordable so Seniors on fixed incomes are not forced out of their homes

If 10% of Voters Sign the Tax Petition it Allows the Mega-Tax by Bypassing Prop13

Residents are being purposely mislead that signing the tax petition merely allows the tax to make it to a ballot.

THIS IS NOT TRUE

The Petition, if signed by 10% of voters, allows the tax to bypass Prop 13 (66% approval) to FORCE their Mega-tax with only 50% Voter Approval LEGAL

Residents Await Justification of Tripling Taxation

It has been 9 months since the April 15th Town Hall when Mayor Lozzi acknowledged VIDEO she heard loud and clear residents’ request to understand what justifies the tripling of taxes and committed it would be published on the City tax Q&A webpage.

To date, the City has not published this information LINK such as a list of bullet points of how the money will be spent. Residents should have a chance to weigh in to see if they agree it is necessary.

What is all this money for?

A Resident’s feedback:

What concerns me is the perpetual building of monuments when basic services remain unaddressed, like hydrant testing. Was anyone fooled when the City falsely claimed to flow test hydrants LINK and then included a link to “inspections” that did not include flow tests LINK. New Fire and Police Stations do not make us safer, so why is development a priority for the council?

We need fire hydrants that that are tested to provide the required water pressure, fire abatement that doesn't poison us and our environment, public records that are easily accessible, and a budget that is based on reality versus continued escalating debt. Either our city is incompetent, or it is simply seeking any opportunity to construct yet another monument and mislead us into funding it.

Did we really only have ONE copy of our official zoning map that was lost, and must we now reconstruct it? We cannot be that gullible. Why aren’t records available on the city website for residents to access, and why must they then wait weeks for staff to find them?

As a cautionary tale, RPV built a monument, the community center at Ladera Linda, and now has debt they regret, especially given their significant, ongoing landslide costs. The irony is that their community center is adjacent to the landslide area and that the safest way to get there is to enter from San Pedro.

As Council continues their pursuit of their Parkland development, it is not difficult to see the risk this places on our Coastline Parkland. Let's demand that our basics be served. After all, our money is at stake.

Yes, but it is tiny LINK. Most of the fire fighters have passed away since 1986, when PVE dissolved the Fire Department and outsourced to County. This froze the Fire-Fighter pension debt so it could not increase, so it is almost all paid off.

Police Pension Costs are higher:

After 1986, PVE retroactively increased Police (not Fire Fighers’) annual retirement benefits from 60% of salaries to 90% + other pensionable benefits + 2% annual COLAs. The retroactive increase meant that a 20+ year police officer was entitled to 30% more in retirement benefits. Officers are fully vested at age 50. Based on: 80 years is the life expectancy of a 50 year old male:

• Originally: At 60%, an officer retiring with compensation of $150,000 would expect to be paid $4.5 million over the next 30 years.

• The retroactive increase provided this average officer $3 million more in retirement benefits totaling $7.5 million.

That is an additional cost of $3 million per average officer, that neither the employees or our city paid into the system creating massive pension debt. CalPERs falsely represented their investment returns (of the money PVE has paid into the system so far) will fill the gap. Obviously that is not true, leaving PVE with a $20 million dollar debt and climbing.

Our Police deserve to have the commitments upheld that they are promised, so PVE needs to put this money aside so it is there when they retire.

Council has been unwilling to pay the full pension expenses our officers earn each year, which is several million annually. This has caused Pension debt to grow to $20 million, with interest costs over $1 million and predicted to reach over $2 million. It just keeps increasing. This is irresponsible. Worse, the new tax does NOT stop debt increases.

Fiscal Stability requires funding compulsory costs of running our city, so any responsible tax must include full pension costs, rather than the minimal contribution used now causing Debt growth.

Residents overwhelmingly want to keep our police and have a Fiscally Stable city. This means Council needs to support a tax that includes the full cost of the police and their pensions, rather than hiding the facts and purposely causing another concurrent tax stack later.