Home Top Story Who Is Animal Reuse Potholes links Reader Letters CouncilComments

Petaluma City Council Quotes and Comments:

TOP PRIORITY

Mayor Thompson:

``We as a council have agreed streets are our No. 1 priority but to rob from the budget is not the way to do it,’’

Councilman Moynihan:

``There’s a hole in the logic when they say we’re concerned about streets and then they don’t spend any money on them.’’

PETALUMA, WORLD-CLASS CITY, ABOVE ROAD LEVEL

Councilman Maguire: 

”Petaluma is on the verge of becoming a world-class city. Sure, we’ve got our issues such as roads and sewer, but we’re very close to becoming the model for sustainable growth, intelligent planning, green building, mixed-use/in-fill development and so much more. Someday, and hopefully soon, we will be the destination city in the Bay Area”

Letter to Editor:  In early June, before Pothole-luma made statewide news, I had houseguests from New Zealand. I gave them directions to my house from the 101.When they arrived, I asked, ”Did you have trouble with the directions?”

They said no, they were perfect, ”but what’s with your roads? A bit rough, aren’t they?” No kidding!

Today, I got e-mail from a friend in Burbank. She said Pothole-luma made news in Southern California ----- BC, Petaluma

Mailbag:  Having recently spent a week visiting your city, I have become aware of your campaign to save the streets of Petaluma. The concerned citizens of Braintree, MA are watching with great interest. Good luck in fighting this battle. We will be monitoring the elective officials’ response. GL – Braintree, MA

Letter to the Editor:

It is too bad that the majority of the Petaluma City Council members are not embarrassed by the job that they have done. They should hang their heads in shame; our streets are a mess. They are unsafe. I support the bumper sticker campaign and the aircraft flying the banner. I support the highly over-paid city manager leaving. I will not vote for a tax increase to pay for street improvement.

The city public facilities and services mission statement even says, ”The Department is the caretaker of Petaluma’s street and building infrastructure.” –MB

Councilman Maguire: 

”This is the price we are paying for driving our cars.”

 

ANIMAL, OUR URBAN FOLK HERO:

Press Democrat Editorial:

Where were you (Animal) during the city’s budget hearings? The council would have been fiscally irresponsible to agree with Councilman Bryant Moynihan’s suggestion to spend $4 million on street repairs, but if 50 constituents had shown up, they might have decided to spend more than $653,000.

Not to knock your tactics, Animal, but if you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

Letter to Editor:

I take issue with your July 6 editorial labeling ”Animal” as part of the problem in Petaluma. He is using the only form of expression that will get the City Council’s attention. If anyone appears at meetings espousing views contrary to the liberal ones of the majority of its members, they are usually criticized or ridiculed. – DT, Petaluma

Mailbag:

… a little harmless civil disobedience that accentuates the problem is both an acceptable and a preferred means of communicating with public officials who have not solved the problem.  I think Animal ought to come out of the closet.  Heck, I think there ought to be a whole brigade of Animals who scour entire streets at a time, marking every significant pothole.  – MF, PETALUMA

 

THE PLANE, THE PLANE!

Councilman Maguire:

(Maguire) called police Saturday complaining that the plane trailing the banner was a noise nuisance, said such tactics were neither effective nor a good way to spend money to influence public policy.” What do they expect the probable outcome to be, other than to vilify the council? If his (Miremont’s) banner said Maguire is a God, I would still have gone after his pilot for disturbing the peace.”

Councilman Maguire: Maguire cited his ability to work with people of different points of view and across the political spectrum as vital. ”It does take that ability to hear and reason with people of different perspectives,” he said.

Letter to the Editor:This reminds me of the movie where a traffic officer goes completely crazy at a large airport and starts ordering the airliners from the sky, yelling, ”Everybody is under arrest.” Men in white took the officer away in an ambulance. I hate to tell Mr. Maguire, but Petaluma has an airport and I have observed other airplanes flying over Petaluma. Men with nets and an ambulance standing by the council chambers will be less expensive than a civil rights lawsuit. – DT Petaluma

Councilman  Maguire:(The plane is) an ”infantile manner to address the potholes.” (Maguire) suggested that Miremont could have instead put the $500 to $1,000 he paid for the plane flight into filling a pothole or two.

Letter to the Editor:To suggest a tax-paying member of the public should spend $500 to $1,000 of his own money to fill in ”a pothole or two” is preposterous because that is precisely the job that should be paid for by our tax money. Not to mention said citizen would probably be arrested for impeding traffic and vandalizing public property after a certain council member called the police.  EL, Petaluma

MONEY, MONEY, WHO’S GOT THE MONEY?

Councilmember Cader-Thompson:… she will support going to the public for street maintenance funding. ”We’ve gotten so far behind in our street maintenance I don’t see any other way,” she said.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission:…estimates that for every dollar not spent on road maintenance, a city might ultimately have to pay up to $36.

Richard Skladzien (Director of Public Facilities and Services):The City Council set aside $573,000 for street repairs in the proposed budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, up from $349,600 last year. It may add another $250,000 for street maintenance in September.” It’s a significant step forward”

Richard Skladzien:As for those pesky potholes, the city has budgeted $12,000 for materials and supplies this fiscal year, a significant increase over the $5,000 to $7,000 spent last year.

Argus Courier Reports:Skladzien estimates that the annual budget should be upwards of $2 million. A five- year plan to upgrade the streets would cost over $29 million per year.

Councilman Moynihan:``I keep reminding the council the streets are going to hell. This budget guarantees they will continue to go to hell,’’

Mike Evert (Managing Engineer Public Facilities and Service department): ”The longer we wait the more it’s going to cost. It will get so big, the city can’t address it.”

Councilmember Janice Cader-Thompson: ”This is about money -- it’s not about potholes. The effect is not to pressure us into doing things. The intent is to get people into office who will massively develop this community without regard to what people want.”

Letter to the Editor: The people of Petaluma want the city to do its job by maintaining the infrastructure and not with additional tax dollars. The majority of citizens do not like to see millions of tax dollars spent on Lafferty, on a bike path under the freeway that is seldom used, and on raising the city manager’s pay by 16 percent at the time of a huge budget deficit. Everyone I have spoken to applauds what ``Animal’’ has done. It is a grass-roots form of free speech telling the council that we want the budget balanced and not with new taxes. We want them to take care of the community and not try to engender social engineering with our money. DT – Petaluma

Councilmember Mike Healy: … a multi-pronged strategy would be the city’s best bet in approaching the roads problem. ”There’s no one single, silver bullet to raise $140,000,000,” . ..a Novato-style parcel tax could be a viable option this November with funds earmarked for the reconstruction of important arterial streets. The quarter-cent sales tax could follow in 2004. A one or two dollar fee added to garbage bills could be used for repair of residential streets. Beyond that, Healy said, redevelopment capital spending funds could be an additional source of money for road repair.

Councilman Matt Maguire:

’’ People can laugh at our roads but we’ve got a city manager and finance director making our finances ship shape,’’ Maguire said. ``The city has never had this level of refinement, oversight, review and management as long as I’ve been here. We’re far better off than most other  cities.’’  

Councilmember Pamela Torliatt: ”We have a $140,000,000 capital problem. In order to maintain that infrastructure it will cost the city $6.9 million a year.

 

LOST FUNDING (County officials say missed deadlines cost Petaluma funding for bike trails and buses.) 

Sonoma County Transportation Authority chief Suzanne WilfordWilford, in a sternly worded memo to Petaluma City Manager Fred Stouder, said forfeiting money ``tarnishes our image’’ and, ”Petaluma has had significant problems ... and the situation does not appear to be improving.’

Councilmember Torliatt``It’s not a black mark against us,’’ she said, and because the $720,000 was earmarked for the Bay Area, it ``goes back into the regional pot.’’  ”The transportation authority should share the blame for projects gone awry”

City Manager Fred Stouder``That’s wrong, overall in project delivery, we’re doing better and better.’’

City Engineer Tom Hargis ”The biggest disappointment for me over the years (has been) the loss of adequate funding to maintain our street system, ”We used to do a five-year street surfacing report and had a program. It hurt to see that go. I like to see improvements rather than deterioration.”

Sonoma County Transportation Authority chief Suzanne WilfordThere is stiff competition for transportation funds, and Wilford warned that state and federal agencies may be less inclined to finance Sonoma County projects if Petaluma continues to forfeit money. ``I can’t say there’s a direct correlation, but your track record is important.’’