Marty: The city, and a new model

”
You can’t get there from here,
”
is a great phrase in the American lexicon because it says much
in only a few words. You may think you can get from anywhere to
anywhere
– but can you? Apply more thought and it becomes obvious that if
you’re going in the wrong direction you really can’t get there from
here.
“You can’t get there from here,” is a great phrase in the American lexicon because it says much in only a few words. You may think you can get from anywhere to anywhere – but can you? Apply more thought and it becomes obvious that if you’re going in the wrong direction you really can’t get there from here.

To correct that you have to change course. If not you’ll just keep getting the same results.

That’s the problem facing the City of Hollister. The city wants to prosper, to provide adequate public services, a thriving economy, safe and well-kept neighborhoods, a good education, a great place to live, exposure to the arts, entertainment and opportunities, but the city government does not grasp that it can’t get there from here because it does not recognize what it needs to change.

Tom Foremski of SiliconValleyWatcher.com applied similar thoughts to businesses. You can’t get there from here, he explained, means organizations can’t jump to the new business models because they don’t recognize that there is a big change happening; or they can see it happening but cannot jump to the new model because the new model cannot support the old structures.

Unless you studied the recent budget hearings, you might not know that the city is facing another financial Armageddon two years hence. It’s not a secret, but the city is not warning the public, soliciting new ideas, or planning to change its failing model. The fund balance is shrinking and when the Measure T 1-percent sales tax expires, the projected Fiscal Year 2013-2014 fund balance goes $2.4 million into the red. The total deficit increases to almost $10 million in the following three years. Clearly, that cannot happen: The city cannot spend $3.5 million a year more than it has in the bank anymore than you can.

The city’s plan – one they are not discussing for fear a political backlash from bad Measure T related decisions – will be to extend the sales tax increase. But then what?

The budget, even with a “Son of Measure T,” will be minimalist; barely enough to scrape by and that’s been the problem for years. The thinking rarely goes beyond idea of how best to shore up the same old structures.

The city’s failure to implement economic development successfully has condemned us to a marginal socio-economic existence. From 1999 to 2009, the San Benito County per capita personal income, PCPI, dropped from 20th place to 30th place among California’s counties.

The 2009 PCPI distribution makes it clear that California’s counties are fracturing into three groups; a small group doing very well, a slightly larger group doing ok, and a very large group in deep financial difficulty; unfortunately, we are in that last group. 

Ten counties had a PCPI of more than 110 percent of the state’s average of $42,395 including Santa Clara 132 percent and Santa Cruz 116 percent. Fifteen counties had a PCPI from 90 to 110 percent of the state average including Monterey 98 percent. Meanwhile, thirty-three counties had a PCPI of less than 90 percent of the state’s average including San Benito County 83 percent. At $35,331, our PCPI was also less than the U.S. national average although California is one of the most expensive states in the nation for housing, taxes, and public services.

Life-preserver taxes won’t solve the problem even if they are a temporary necessity; neither will furloughs and layoffs. Only a new model that combines economic development, consolidation and built-in frugality offers the possibility of moving ahead for the City of Hollister.

Marty Richman is a Hollister resident.