Mayor Robert G. Wagner addressing January 17, State of the City luncheon.

Mayor's priorities include RV parking controls, school district formation, more Sheriff's deputies

Mayor Robert G. Wagner reinforced the city council's long-standing support for the formation of a Lakewood school district. "I affirm to you now," he said, "as I have from the beginning of the school district effort, that Lakewood residents deserve to vote on district formation." The Mayor also announced his plans to control recreational vehicle parking on Lakewood residential streets.

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City manager sees fiscal,
regulatory threats in 2002

City Manager Howard Chambers

City Manager Howard Chambers warned of threats from the state budget deficit and unrealistic state regulations for storm water quality to show that 2002 won't be an untroubled year. Chambers pointed to early indications that the state may once more try to take money out of local governments to cover an estimated $13 billion deficit in the 2002-2003 fiscal year. He also predicted the cost of storm water mandates may require a whopping $1,295 annual per parcel tax for Lakewood residents.

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'Homeland' security tops
Sheriff's goals for 2002

Lakewood Sheriff's Captain Robert Osborne

Lakewood Sheriff's Captain Robert Osborne discussed "homeland" security in remarks that focused on his efforts to keep the threat of terrorism from Lakewood. "Under the direction of Sheriff Lee Baca," Captain Osborne said, "a coordinated and expanded county Terrorist Early Warning Group is operational.

We also have expanded existing partnerships with our public safety partners in the Fire Department by updating and creating plans and protocols for responding to a wide variety of potential threats."

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E-Government

Assistant City Manager Michael Stover

Electronic government's primary goal is to put residents more in charge of your relationship with Lakewood government by providing unprecedented access to municipal information and services through our secure Internet connection. E-government is exciting, but it's no free lunch and planning for it requires that the benefits be weighed against its costs.

The good news is that we already have done a lot on our existing website at www.lakewoodcity.org. A city task force is now reviewing technology that allows more enhancements in the future.

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Boeing's PacifiCenter Project

Director of Community Development Charles Ebner

260 acres of what was once the heart of the aerospace industry in Long Beach is now obsolete and subject to Boeing's redevelopment planning. Most of the property is located in Long Beach with the western most 22 acres being in Lakewood. Boeing wants to replace the 5 million square feet of existing aircraft production facilities with a mixture of development types.

A project of this size will have positive and negative impacts. We are closely working with Boeing and Long Beach to insure that this valuable resource does not adversely affect our quality of life.

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Neighborhood & Mall Safety

Deputy City Manager Sandi Ruyle

Lakewood residents already feel safe shopping at Lakewood Mall, and there will be even more reasons to feel that way in 2002. Three deputies are on site at Lakewood Center seven days a week, from opening until closing. Regular patrol units will be called to transport mall crooks to the station. The SAO Unit never leaves the shopping center. On weekends, the Specially Assigned Mall Unit will be augmented by VOPS volunteers, Reserve deputies, and two more Sheriff's deputies hired by the Pacific Theaters.

Our neighborhood patrol program has been expanded to provide two deputies on different shifts to each of our nine neighborhood "beats." This allows PAVE deputies to meet with block captains, school officials, and neighbors during both the daytime and early evening shifts and work crimes on an extended basis. A full-time traffic car has been assigned to assist them with neighborhood speeders.

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Open Space Preservation

Director of Recreation & Community Services
Dave Rodda

The success of the Monte Verde Park project prompted city staff to look into the potential of developing the unsightly 16 acres adjacent to the south end of the park. This parcel is one of the few remaining recreation open spaces in Lakewood. I am happy to say through the efforts of the city's park development team, Lakewood was recently awarded a $1 million grant by the State of California from the Water Bond Act of 2000 to develop the West San Gabriel River Park.

Plans are currently being prepared to create a beautiful, passive-use, open space area with over 350 trees, a bike and walking trail and the planting of a wide variety of California native plant material. Our planned completion date is set for May 2003.

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Protecting Lakewood Revenues

Director of Finance Larry Schroeder

Lakewood draws its General Fund revenue from essentially five sources and several may be diverted by state government leaders. They are sales tax, user fees, vehicle license fees, property taxes, and interest income, which account for 80% of General Fund revenue. Much of this income is simply a "pass-through," or money collected to offset the direct cost of a service (such as trash collection).

Of the total unrestricted General Fund revenue received, 59% is used for law enforcement, recreation services, street resurfacing, and street lighting. These revenues are most at risk in the current state budget deliberations. Three revenues make up 74% of the unrestricted General Fund revenue. The sales tax is heavily dependent on the economy. Vehicle license fees of which 67.5% of our total is now subsidized by the State because of rate reductions the State ordered. Our share of the property tax is limited to 6 cents of every dollar of property tax collected.

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Safe and Affordable Drinking Water

Director of Water Resources Jim Glancy

We will replace aging water wells and integrate 105 Peerless Water customers into our water system. We also have improved security measures at our facilities.

We will again attempt to rein in the Water Replenishment District. They have made some improvements, but are still out of control despite their latest PR campaign that attempts to paint a very rosy picture. WRD has not reduced their bloated bank balance and, therefore, cannot reduce the water rates they charge the city of Lakewood and other water pumpers. WRD still holds $34 million in cash and investments, very different from the $10 million reserves, the maximum allowed by state law.

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Street Repairs & Storm Drain Permit Appeals

Director of Public Works Lisa Rapp

Over the last 18 months, we have been able to resurface over 70 miles Lakewood streets, most of which were local residential streets. There are even more projects in the works for 2002, providing that our funding sources from State and local taxes remain stable.

We want clean rivers and beaches. The problem is that the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board's new storm water permit for Lakewood lacks common sense and has staggering compliance costs. To protect taxpayers, we have appealed the Permit's costly requirements to Governor Davis' appointees on the State Water Resources Control Board. They have 270 days to act on our appeal.

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