Previous mismanagement leaves projects throughout the city at risk.
The organizational changes that have been proposed by interim City manager Charles Long and approved by the lame-duck City Council this week illustrate just how troubled the city was under previous leadership. It should be noted, however, that the council, too, is part of that leadership, and only two of five will be replaced next month following the results of last week’s surprise election of challengers John Delgado and Myrna de Vera over incumbents Joe Eddy McDonald and Kris Valstad.
Just how unstable the city was prior to reorganization efforts remains to be seen, but the biggest issue that residents now face is the possibility that the city simply may not be able to afford to build all the promised projects the city has been planning and presenting to the community for years. That includes the long-promised train station, which was planned to break ground next April, but will likely suffer further delays.
Long mentioned his concerns over the city’s financial state in his third weekly report published last Friday, lamenting that the city’s “five-year projection of capital projects totaling $233 million does not show sources of funding.” That sounds like a problem.
The first task for the newly-appointed Finance Director, Liz Warmerdam, will be to develop a five-year projection so the city can evaluate “how to allocate [the city’s] resources over the long term.” In her introductory remarks to the city council on Tuesday evening, Warmerdam stated that it was her intent to bring the Finance Department into “a more prominent position in the city” and to have a more integral role in directing “how and when” projects occur.
With a seemingly endless list of ambitious projects consistently advertised by the city as being “just around the corner” at the annual Community Update event—including the Waterfront, New Town Center, Sycamore Crossing, Hilltown, the annex, the redevelopment of the former Walmart property and the vacant parcel adjacent to Victoria by the Bay, as well as smaller in-fill projects, such as the Palm Center Auto Center project—the city has only done itself a disservice by creating an undesirable scenario of failing to deliver on its promises. And it is now apparent that those promises may be unrealistic from a financial perspective.
The massive reorganization being implemented by the city is meant to improve how the city plans, manages and pays for projects. In hindsight, the previous organization could best be described as a house of cards, and although it is easy, and even appropriate, to place blame squarely and solely on City Manager Nelson Oliva—currently on indefinite medical leave—for not addressing the fiscal aspects of the planned projects, it is also the city council’s responsibility to question the city manager on those issues. That does not appear to have happened.
Residents now await the fallout of the reorganization and its impacts on projects citywide. Will the Waterfront development be at the top of the City’s priorities, as the city has contended it always has been? Will the city continue to pursue the purchase of the Hilltown property, which would place further financial strain on the city’s redevelopment projects?
Long has already hinted that the city will abandon the Palm Center Auto Center project, which is either a positive sign that priorities are being straightened or a negative one that signals the city’s inability to fund scheduled projects. Time will tell, and it will be uneasy.