New Team, New Era
Foster City has been blessed with a strong history of great leadership and leaders. This has been on both sides of the organization; City Staff and City Council. This has led our small City to having one of the best financial future on the Peninsula. We have strong reserves, well-managed budgets, fully funded Capital Improvement Programs, and a newly created and protected Capital Acquisition Fund. We also attract and maintain the best staff for our Police, Fire, and City employees.
In 2011, when I joined the City Council, the City had $19 million in General Fund reserves and had just came out of a period of cost-cutting and austerity to cure a roughly $3.5 million potential structural deficit.
Fast forward to 2018, we as a Team have created a significant difference. Our City has over (49) Forty Nine Million dollars in General Fund reserves, (38) Thirty Eight Million in a Capital Asset Acquisition Fund (which will grow to 60 million), and over (25) Twenty Five Million in enterprise funds, (26) Twenty Six Million in internal service funds, and (7) Seven Million in restricted funds.
This was the result of past City Councils and City Staff, and this current Council’s steadfast resolve to protect past prudent practices and create new sets of best practices that were modern and efficient. We protected our future, while respecting our past, and accepting our present status.
I am proud to have been on the Team that has chosen the past two City Managers, Kevin Miller and Jeff Moneda. These two dynamic managers have partnered with the City Council to address significant policy issues we identified and created solutions for. As a Team we understood the importance of the FEMA mandate and created an expedient solution that was financially responsible and forward facing. We as a Team have identified the necessary infrastructure challenges that we will need to address starting this year with the Recreation Center and over the next twenty years including every inch of infrastructure.
For the first time, we are creating a comprehensive action plan that will address the City’s buildings and Corporation Yard hard structures.
The current City Council, during the past 2 years, accomplished quite a bit. A few examples include the following:
- Creation of an efficient budget process that was more interactive between the Councilmembers and staff while maintaining transparency to the public
- Progress with the Levee Improvements Project (identifying scope, Sea Level Rise, and financing) and a large amount of team effort which resulted in a successful ballot measure
- Authorized staff to move forward with Water, Wastewater, Bicycle/Pedestrian, and Parks Master Plans which created the tools necessary to address aging infrastructure as the City approaches 50 years old
- Approved an MOU with the School District, which resulted in approximately $1.0 Million savings by having City staff provide management and oversight of a traffic signal installation for the new elementary school at Charter Square
- Established an Economic Incentive Policy to help bring businesses into Foster City. We are working on a sit-down Italian restaurant and Tap Room…… keep your fingers crossed!
These are just a few of the many accomplishments during the past 2 years. Now, a new era begins after the elections, with 2 new Councilmembers replacing Charlie Bronitsky and Gary Pollard. This new City Council will need to address the following: Water and Wastewater Master Plan infrastructure funding, Facilities and Parks Master Plan funding, the structural deficit, pension liabilities, transportation/traffic, and staff retention. All these need to be addressed while balancing the budget each year. These items began with the current City Council and are already in motion. City staff will be presenting their proposals to address these items for policy direction by the new City Council. I am confident that the TEAM, consisting of City staff, the community, and the new City Council will collaborate to address these issues.
I am looking forward to working with Sam Hindi and Catherine Mahanpour, to help bring our 2 new Councilmembers up to speed and maintain the momentum established by the current City Council. This is a great time, Foster City, to plan for our future and the future of the next generation. It all begins on December 10th with the City Council reorganization, where the Councilmembers select the new Mayor and Vice Mayor. In January, a City Council Vision & Policy Summit will be conducted where the vision of the new City Council will determine the priorities and provide the framework for policy direction on these priorities. Stay tuned, more to come, to keep Foster City such a great place for all of the community.
