City to join county dispatch JPA
Greater efficiency, better interagency communications and a bigger voice – that’s what the City of Sonoma gains from its entry into a countywide dispatch system.
After a discussion that included input from Sonoma County Sheriff Bill Cogbill and Sonoma Police Chief Bret Sackett, the council on May 21 unanimously approved the joint powers agreement which includes Cotati, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Windsor, the county, Santa Rosa Junior College and REDCOM, the county’s fire/ambulance dispatch system.
The agreement replaces the Sonoma County Law Enforcement Consortium, formed in July 1997 to secure grant money for a countywide, integrated system for dispatch, records-sharing and mobile communications. The new contract – dubbed the Sonoma County Public Safety Consortium – also allows the program to continue at a greater overall savings to the member agencies, while giving each member an equal vote in plotting the consortium’s progress.
“Don’t underestimate the power of your vote,” Sackett said, adding that non-participation wasn’t in the city’s best interest.
Sonoma’s slice of the fiscal pie for 2008/09 is estimated at $85,388, up 13 percent from last year due in part to Santa Rosa’s bowing out of subsidizing JPA management in favor of hiring an independent, dedicated system administrator. Cogbill said his staff is taking a close and continuing look at the JPA budget – “One of our big issues is saving money”– and added that an annual increase of three to four percent would be more likely. Answering council member August Sebastiani’s question as to whether or not the city could back out should costs climb too high, Cogbill said any JPA member could quit at any time – but backing out of the dispatch system itself, which provides rapid communication sharing, would be more difficult.
City Manager Linda Kelly, noting concerns about the rising costs, said she’d bring regular reports to the council.
Back to drawing board for arts ordinance
Following a somewhat complicated vote May 21, the Sonoma City Council agreed in concept to pay for public art – without asking for a share from private developers.
At issue was the city’s under-construction Public Arts Ordinance, called for by the General Plan and last seen in the council chambers in May 2007. Sonoma’s Cultural and Fine Arts Commission is still working on the law’s guidelines, which include selection criteria, maintenance requirements and related issues. But as the draft ordinance also provides for funding, commissioners were eager for council approval.
“This is not a creative document,” CFAC chair Kathy Swett told the council, explaining. “It’s based on what has worked in the past in other cities.”
But while council members seemed happy with the overall intent – differing largely on whether or not to pass a law without guidelines – not everyone agreed with how to pay for it. The draft calls for three specific funding sources: an annual city share equal to .25 percent of the General Fund, or $25,000; another one percent of city-owned development projects costing more than $250,000; and an additional percent of private developments in excess of $500,000.
Option number two gained a unanimous approval, but only council members Stanley Cohen and Steve Barbose favored the private-development alternative. Cohen also cast the sole dissenting vote against the General Fund allocation.
The revised draft will return, with guidelines, at a future meeting.
In other actions,
the council:
• Set June 18 for a public hearing regarding the dissolution of three special assessment districts (Sonoma Landscape and Lighting, El Prado and Fryer Creek Village) which the residents had said outlived their usefulness in terms of benefit.
• Directed staff to return with an ordinance placing the City Clerk and City Treasurer under the authority of Sonoma’s City Manager rather than the council – as is the case with all other city employees. Still unresolved is whether or not, or how, this would affect the office of City Attorney, who operates as an independent contractor.
• Adopted, with Mayor Joanne Sanders dissenting, an ordinance annexing and prezoning to Low Density Residential a one-acre parcel at 20144 Fifth Street East.
• Extended to 2012 a contract reimbursing the county for all municipal election costs. The previous contract, enacted in 2004, expires this year.
• Adopted a policy, pending since September 2006, governing the display of decorative banners around Sonoma Plaza.
