Candidate for
Councilmember; City of Rancho Palos Verdes

RE-ELECT MAYOR TOM LONG

http://www.palosverdes.com/tomlong

Welcome to my website. Below I set forth my specific platform. But the real issue in this election is the candidates' visions for the future. "Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not." (George Bernard Shaw) Rancho Palos Verdes has a wonderful quality of life, much of it due to the vision of people like those on my endorsement list and "others" who had the foresight and courage to ask how we could make things better to achieve what we want for our community. Join those others in re-electing those of us who have helped advance the vision of protecting and improving Rancho Palos Verdes.

Tom Long Mayor, Rancho Palos Verdes 15 October 2007

CAMPAIGN PLATFORM

Protect Open Space

Mayor Long consistently supports the city's efforts to acquire and preserve land for open space. Since his election, our city has leveraged a $700,000 investment to gain over $17 million in grants and donations for open space preservation. Over 1,200 acres are now preserved.

Open space also includes our city's parkland and the land between our homes. Mayor Long was the first to oppose giving city park land to a private developer when he was on the planning commission in 2001 and he will never support selling or giving away any city owned parkland. Mayor Long has also consistently sought to preserve the character of the community by making sure that new development is not oversized.

Protect the City's Infrastructure and Homes

Mayor Long urged our city council and the property owners to adopt a user fee to provide dedicated revenues for storm drain repair. Prior to his election in 2003, the city spent little money on storm drain repair except when addressing emergencies caused by catastrophic failures, such as the slope failure at San Ramon that damaged residents' homes. Unfortunately, these failures continued with a sinkhole on Western Avenue that caused major disruptions and a wall of mud at McCarroll Canyon that damaged and destroyed residents' homes. Since Mayor Long's election, and at his urging, the council has now dedicated over $9.7 million in general fund revenues for repairing storm drains before they fail. The additional revenues provided by the user fee are also being dedicated. Dozens of dilapidated storm drains have been re-lined and major repair projects are underway. The protection of residents' homes has improved.

Protect Open and Responsive Government

City government should be open and clearly explained to the public. Each council member should be candid about his agenda and his views. Mayor Long has supported the efforts of the current council to better communicate with the residents. At each meeting Mayor Long's goal has been to get to the public's business promptly so we can hear the public speakers at a reasonable hour.

Mayor Long has also reached out to our city's home owner associations, attending a number of meetings to answer residents' questions about city government. He pledges to do the same thing each year if re-elected. The council needs to do more to reach out and hear the views of all residents, not just those who attend council meetings or contact council members with their special concerns.

Improve Government Efficiency

The council recently directed a comprehensive management study of the efficiency of our city government. At Mayor Long's urging the council included itself in the management study to get advice on how it can improve its own performance. Any one council member can place an item on the council's agenda for any reason. As a result there are sometimes agenda items on which the council lacks power to act. For example, the council cannot add conditions to a building permit after the permit is issued without risking significant liability. Yet members of the public expect the council to act on items placed on its agenda and are understandably disappointed to find that their time addressing an agenda item does not lead to a productive result. It is inconsiderate to the public to place items on the agenda when the council is powerless to act on them. Similarly it is disruptive to the city's staff for individual council members to direct staff on day-to-day decisions or to consume large amounts of staff time responding to their personal requests which do not relate to agenda items. Finally, staff should be held accountable for mistakes, but it should be done in a constructive way with input from the entire council and through the city manager, not by an individual council member acting on his own initiative without all the facts. In sum all council members need to behave in a business-like manner. Mayor Long is committed to implementing the management study's recommendations to address these problems once the study is complete.

Protect Against Inappropriate Development

Mayor Long has consistently supported the city's landslide moratorium and restrictions against new development in unstable areas. He supports Mayor Pro Tem Stern's view that our decisions on development must be based on scientifically supported standards. Of course restrictions against new development must be tempered in a way that allows owners of existing developed properties reasonable use of their land.

Mayor Long has worked hard to seek limits on high-density development in the Peninsula Center area of Rolling Hills Estates. He has also taken steps to urge other developers to design their projects to be compatible with their neighborhoods.

Protect the City's Financial Health

The city is a tax poor city. It receives only 6% of the property tax its residents pay. As a city we have chosen not to have much commercial development so the city has little sales tax revenue. The city has about $1 per resident per day to spend. This is less than one-third of what the average California city has to spend and lower than all other South Bay cities, except for Lawndale. Our neighbor cities on the Hill typically have about twice the amount to spend per capita as RPV. The city's financial health and its resources are a measure of its ability to deliver services to its residents. It is important to our quality of life that we take steps to protect the city's ability to deliver services we want.

Mayor Long supports retaining the user fee. It costs the residents who pay it on average 10 cents per person per day. Mayor Long will also support keeping the utility users tax. Together, these sources of revenue account for about 12% of the city's revenue and are essential to storm drain repair and street maintenance. Mayor Long will avoid relying on hotel tax revenues from Terranea (the resort being built at the former Marineland site) until they are actually collected. Resorts of this type are not always financially successful and often generate erratic revenue streams, or ask for concessions, or declare bankruptcy.

Mayor Long will support efforts to improve the city's recovery of its costs. He will also seek to have the council more carefully consider the financial impact of its requests for additional services to residents or additional planning requirements.

Mayor Long will support keeping the city's reserves at a reasonable level, as recommended by financial professionals, and will avoid spending reserves on regular expenses as opposed to emergencies.

Protect Law Enforcement

The city's law enforcement is contracted to the County of Los Angeles sheriff's department. The council has always devoted the resources the sheriff's department has requested. As conditions in the city change, additional resources may be needed. Increasing costs may outstrip revenue increases, making it all the more important that we not abandon revenue sources until we understand the impact of doing so. Mayor Long recently met with the Captain Anda, the newly appointed head of the Lomita Station that serves RPV. He asked her to bring forward proposals for additional resources the city can devote to assist her department in doing its job and she agreed to do so.

Tom Long for RPV City Council 4830 Browndeer Lane Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275 tomlong@palosverdes.com