Past Stands on Important Issues

By Neal Andrews

Since election to the Ventura City Council, I've fought to assure better management and greater accountability in City administration, diligently pursued constructive solutions to budget problems and sought creative ways to increase revenue without raising taxes. Earlier, I led the Coalition Against Measure "O" saving $250 million dollars for taxpayers, fought fiscal irresponsibility in water agency management, and was a pioneer in modern emergency medical services.

Neal Andrews stood for the right answers on these vital issues:

 Performance Based Management!

Neal Andrews ran for City Council in 2001 arguing that Ventura needed to re-assert strong leadership in City affairs. In particular, he argued that the Council was too lax in monitoring administrative performance and in maintaining accountability in City management. To rectify this deficiency he became the doggedly determined champion of Performance Based Management, an administrative system designed to assure that management of an organization remains focused on the functions and activities most critical to its ability to carry out its missions successfully. After three years of wrangling and oppositon, last year the basic framework was finally set in place for such a system with the hiring of a new City Manager.

Performance Based Management is like the lights and meters on a car's dashboard. Those instruments tell you how well the automobile is performing, when it needs maintenance, and give you an early warning if something is seriously wrong before you burn up the engine. Performance Based Management measures and assesses how well the City is doing in each of its critical functions and programs. More importantly, we now have in place a key tool to alert us in a timely way that corrective action may be needed and to guide us in making adjustments economically and efficiently. As a result our City is functioning far better today, and the Council is in a far better position to monitor City programs and to assure accountability in their management.

 Solving Budget Challenges!

When Neal Andrews was first elected no one recognized that the City was facing a budget crisis. It had adopted labor agreements that would drive costs higher faster than the growth rate of its revenue stream. The problem was compounded by the crash of the stock market and the ensuing recession which eroded the investment base supporting the employee retirement system, the electricity de-regulation debacle that led to super-charged increases in energy costs, the out-of-control rise in workers' compensation costs that were affecting all employers, and the continuing high rate of growth in employee health insurance costs. Then the State made the situation a double crisis by raiding local government revenues to pay for its own irresponsible spending.

Neal Andrews proposed a basic four prong budget strategy to fix this problem. He urged the Council to resist adding new programs or unnecessarily increasing expense and to aggressively seek out ways to reduce costs, including holding the line on further employee salary and benefit increases until the basic budget was realigned to conform and balance with the City's real revenues. Salaries have been held steady for the last two years. The price has been that the police and fire unions have chosen to endorse other candidates whom they appear to believe will be a softer touch.

A corollary part of the strategy to reduce expenses was to prevent the State from being able to continue its raids on the local treasury. Neal supported the effort to pass an initiative to prevent the State from arbitrarily taking local revenue, collecting more signatures to put Proposition 65 before the voters than any other elected official in Ventura County. Prop 65 was superseded by Prop 1A, and Neal actively campaigned to pass this measure. It passed overwhelmingly.

The second part of the strategy was to increase fees for non-essential services rendered by the City to those who use such services to cover 100% of the actual cost of providing the services. Many of these services are associated with development projects. The result was that the Building Industry Association and the Building Trades Council endorsed other candidates who apparently seemed more likely to favor lower fee structures.

The third part of the strategy was to grow the existing revenue streams without raising tax rates by stimulating economic growth. Accordingly the City pushed forward several new housing projects, accelerated the downtown re-vitalization effort, used an economic stimulus loan to bring in two new auto dealerships, enhanced its tourist marketing programs. Neal Andrews successfully proposed the creation of an economic development fund to support this growth initiative.

The fourth part of the strategy was to selectively add new revenue where appropriate and consistent with the public interest. Accordingly a new fee was established to cover the costs of policing abusive practices in the sale of alcoholic beverages, and a tax on gambling has been proposed.

The City is in the second year of the budget restructuring process. It has successfully shaved off about $1.5 million each year for the last two years and will save an equal amount next year, without cutting any essential service or laying off personnel. It has increased revenues by approximately $2 million dollars each year as well as a result of increased tourist activity and economic growth.

By the end of next year, the budget is projected to be in balance without resorting to borrowing. Mr. Andrews' budget strategies have served the City well.

 Public Safety Pioneer!

During the Viet Nam era, Neal Andrews was widely recognized as an authority on military organization. He later applied that knowledge as a lecturer and consultant on police and fire organization and administration. For seven years he served as a senior government executive in emergency medical services (EMS) in both Michigan and California and was a leading force in applying the principles of emergency medical response learned in Viet Nam to local EMS and public safety programs. He was a leading contributor to the National Governors' Association Model State Legislation for Emergency Medical Services, which later served as the basis for today's emergency medical services law in California.

 Taxpayers' Watchdog!

A few years ago when our water district, United Water, irresponsibly approved salary increases from 20% to almost 50% for selected executives and rashly used its financial reserves to balance its budget, Neal Andrews led the opposition. He argued that the reserves were inadequate and that water rates would inevitably have to increase. In 2001 water rates were increased 32%. Over a three year period rate increases totalled nearly 48%. The reason, according to the district's financial officer ... reserves are too low.

 Fighting for the Public Interest!

In 2000 when private hospital special interests tried to seize public funds from the tobacco settlement with Measure O, Neal Andrews managed the successful campaign to protect the taxpayers' interests, saving the tobacco funds to provide health care for all our citizens. The private hospital special interests threw $2.7 million dollars at the voters in their campaign to divert these funds to their own private use. Many volunteer citizen heroes fought to keep these tobacco funds in the public sector for you, and in the end 68% of the voters said "NO!" -- soundly defeating Measure O. Neal Andrews is proud to have been one of their leaders.

If these were the right answers for you too,

Vote for Neal Andrews for City Council on November 8th!