An Open Letter to the Citizens of Moraga, Article #1

By Lee Bren

Introduction to Moraga's Challenges

Article #1, By: Lee Bren, Moraga Citizen

I am writing to you because I am a candidate for the Moraga Town Council. In order to help citizens get to know me and what I can offer to our town's future, I am writing a series of articles about my observations of Moraga's economic climate and challenges.

My background is in business. I have worked with large public and private banks and financial services companies during my career, and have owned my own financial services business for over ten years. I have held numerous executive positions, and have directly managed or financed over $1 billion of loans or equipment leases. I have expertise in both short-term and long-term strategic planning. I have strong leadership skills, having always believed that my door must be open to fresh new ideas. I have a B.S. degree in finance and an M.B.A. in finance and real estate from Indiana University. My family has lived in Moraga since 1978. I am a member of the Moraga Business Association. I am 53 years young.

I have been researching Moraga for the past six months. I have had meetings with our new Town Manager, Finance Manager and Planning Director, met and talked with local landlords, with local business owners, with St. Mary's officials, a local economist, Safeway executives, gone to Moraga planning sessions and council sessions, listened to local citizens, talked with surrounding community leaders, and have spent a lot of time analyzing our town financial statements. As a result of my research, I am writing to you because I believe that our current elected officials are not addressing our deteriorating core business infrastructure and related flawed public policies. They seem unwilling or unable to effectively articulate and communicate a clear direction for our town with all of us. My objective is hopefully to educate, or at least bring to light, some of our strengths and challenges and policy recommendations, and open a positive dialog about the future of our town.

I do not profess to know it all. Public policy is complex, but any casual observation around our town would indicate our business sector is in physical and financial decay. We have blighted and vacant buildings (about 80,000 square feet of vacant retail space), deteriorating and antiquated shopping centers, abandoned or dangerous buildings, a lack of clean and quality shopping alternatives (e.g., no bookstore, no bakery, only one worn-out food store, no hotel) and as a result, Moraga has been experiencing deteriorating town tax revenues and a rapidly weakening town balance sheet, cash reserves and financial liquidity.

We currently have a town fiscal year (beginning 7/01/04) General Fund cash balance of about $760,000, or about $46 per citizen in Moraga. This is sharply down from a General Fund cash year beginning balance of $2.13 million in 2001. (By contrast, Lafayette has a projected General Fund cash balance of about $7 million.) Moraga has a total annual expenditure budget of about $6.3 million.

According to our Moraga 2003 Pavement Report, written by our Town Engineer, "by every evaluation, our roads and streets are deteriorating faster than we can repair them". Moraga has over 51 miles of roads that have consistently been under maintained by over 50% per year for many years, and because we have not maintained our roads adequately, he estimates we need to replace roads in town at the cost about "$30 million to successfully rehabilitate the Town street network pavement system". He further stated "we suggest an annual budget of $3.4 million for a ten-year maintenance program". According to our Moraga 2002 Pavement Report, also written by our Town Engineer, our town has been averaging about $250,000 per year on road maintenance rather than the recommended minimum level of $750,000 per year.

Our town has many wonderful and attractive features, including a semi-rural setting, great families and children, a safe environment to live, our own police department, nice parks, great public schools, a fantastic local college and good housing. We all pay our taxes, support our schools, and pride ourselves on being able to bring up our children here in Moraga. However, the general deterioration of our core business infrastructure has slipped to the point that many citizens are forced to shop in neighboring communities of Lafayette, Orinda and Walnut Creek. The gap between our Moraga shopping facilities and other nearby towns has just gotten too wide. Our talented Moraga businessmen cannot compete against such overwhelming odds. As a result our tax revenues to our town continue to fall, our town public expenses continue to rise, and we continue to use available cash resources to cover our shortfalls. In addition, we continue to under reserve for large future expenses like road repairs and replacement.

One has to seriously question why we have such a great place to live, while at the same time, we accept such a weak core business sector. We flood our neighboring communities with our cars, and spend untold time and money in the process. This imbalance affects not only our quality of living, but impacts the actual values of our homes and businesses. I am not advocating becoming another Walnut Creek or Lafayette, but rather enhancing our business infrastructure to the point where we all can lead better quality lives. As a byproduct, we will generate more town revenues to better cover our core expenses and enhance the pride in where we live.

Within our town General Plan guidelines, we need to balance our efforts on optimizing our desires for a semi-rural environment, good schools, and diverse workforce and retirement alternative housing on non ridgeline locations for all Moragans, along with building attractive and diverse shopping alternatives. This takes political leadership, collaborating with local landlords and businessmen, strong town staff planning and implementation, determination, attention to detail, persistence and frequently communicating with the Moraga public.

As you read my upcoming articles, I am asking you for comments and feedback, suggestions and help in making positive changes for all of us. You are welcome to email me at leroybren@netscape.net. If you have a desire to join my growing campaign for town council, please feel free to contact me.

Paid for by The Committee to Elect Lee Bren