I just sent off the artwork for my postcards and business cards which I will be distributing from my booth at the Novato Festival of Art, Wine, & Music.

As many of you know, I recently announced my intention to run for the Novato City Council in the November 2009 election. As a native of Novato, I have been an active member in the community and have always held a desire to help shape Novato’s future. With our city facing difficult economic times and our residents looking for change, I feel that this is the right time and I intend to bring a new voice and common sense decision making to the City Council.

After speaking with and listening to residents and business and community leaders, I have narrowed my platform down to 3 key issues. Rather than just speak about generalities, I hope to provide some actual solutions to be explored. I understand that getting into specifics can alienate voters, but I believe the residents of Novato are looking for concrete options versus ambiguous campaign promises. I have outlined the issues below.  Please feel free to share your comments.

Thank you for your support and I look forward to hearing from you.

Eric Lucan for Novato City Council

The Issues:

1. Stabilize the Budget – Novato is facing a $3 million budget deficit in 09/10 and growing in the following fiscal years.

Solution: First of all, Novato needs a plan for addressing the budget

• STEP 1: Eliminate “low lying fruit” – Unfortunately, when 75% of the budget is employee wages, there is only so much that can be done here, but everything should be explored. Some options would be to look into consultant and attorney fees to see what can be brought in-house. In IT, the city could consider adding a year to the refresh interval for hardware as well as possible shared IT leases with the various Novato districts.
  • Potential Offset to Deficit – $150,000
• STEP 2: Employee Concessions – Ask bargaining groups to consider 5% voluntary reduction as the Exempt Management group has already done.
  • Potential Offset to Deficit – $1,100,000
• STEP 3: Use of Reserves – 5% of the city’s $4.9 million in emergency reserves ($250,000) and a $250,000 repayment from the redevelopment agency to the general fund.
  • Potential Offset to Deficit – $500,000
• STEP 4: Last option: Adjustment to programs, services, employee benefits, and staffing levels. To make up the remainder of the deficit, difficult decisions will need to be made. Programs and services should be evaluated on usage and employee benefits compared with those of nearby/like cities. Sworn officer count should be maintained. City should explore adjusting CalPERS final compensation from the last 12 months to the last 36 months.
  • Potential Offset to Deficit – variable
• STEP 5: Macro solutions (long term) – consider overall business model, identify redundancies between city and special districts (school, fire, water, sanitary), and increase sales tax revenue through possible growth in the North Redwood Corridor.

2. Increase Public Safety – Within the county, Novato has the fewest police officers per resident, the fewest officers per square mile, and has the lowest cost on police spending per resident, yet community surveys show that public safety is the top priority of residents.

Solution: The city needs permanent office space for their city staff. Currently the city spends close to $700,000 per year out of their general fund to lease office space. If the redevelopment agency paid back just half of the $12 million owed to the general fund, the city could potentially purchase permanent office space and see an immediate $700,000 per year return on their investment (11.5%) which a portion of could be used to increase the sworn officer count.

3. Repair Novato’s Infrastructure – Novato has several city facilities with years of deferred maintenance and new facilities are being opened in 2009 and 2010 with no funds in place for new maintenance.

Solution: In order to prevent the situation from getting worse, the city council should consider instituting a policy on capital improvement that would require a built in funding mechanism for maintenance of any new facilities

Dear Residents of Novato-

On Thursday, January 22, 2009, I filed my candidate intention statement to run for City Council in the November election. As a native and lifelong resident of Novato I am very concerned about the current budget crisis our city is facing. Utilizing my successful business background, I hope to help Novato navigate through difficult times as well as provide a more diverse representation to all residents of any age.

Novato needs a new voice and I need your support.  Vist my Meet Eric page to learn more about my background.  I encourage you to Get Involved and maybe even Contribute to the campaign. You can also join my email list for News and Updates.