What is your position on High Density housing in Fountain Valley?
I support it.
As Chair of the Fountain Valley General Plan Advisory Committee, this is an issue I have studied and worked on extensively. There must be effective zoning and land use to balance the interests of Fountain Valley residents with California law. In other words, Fountain Valley should ensure that new housing is developed in a fashion that is compatible with the existing character of the surrounding neighborhoods. To do this, our city should encourage workforce housing aimed at professionals, such as teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police officers. Regional efforts to challenge unreasonable mandate levels are important to bring the numbers to more reasonable levels that will not adversely impact existing residents’ quality of life. When new housing is built, there must be improvements to roads, parks, and other City infrastructure and services, funded by development impact fees. These improvements will help ensure or even enhance our community’s quality of life.
What should our policy be regarding AirBNB and other short-term rentals in Fountain Valley?
Ban them completely.
This issue has been settled recently by the Fountain Valley City Council by voting to prohibit all STRs within the city. The issues to be finalized include penalties language in the new law, collection of fines due, and overall future enforcement of these new laws.
There is a major problem with street parking in our city, especially in areas where there are apartment dwellings nearby. How do you plan to address that issue, especially considering state housing mandates and projects like Slater Investments?
Require street parking permits.
I had the good fortune of growing up in the nearby city of Cerritos, just inside Los Angeles County. That city has implemented for many years a program called “Safer Cerritos”, where parking is prohibited on the public right-of-way between the hours of 3 AM to 5 AM, unless a permit is in place in the parked vehicle. The permits are only issued to residents, at no charge, and must be secured for overnight guests. This have been successful in keeping the streets and neighborhoods safer.
We should consider a similar program in Fountain Valley. The current approach overly burdens a local neighborhood to take action, rather than a city-wide approach. Let’s consider a solution like the one in Cerritos.
Which of these ideas do you think are good ideas for increasing city revenue?
- Bring more business into the city.
- Other (please specify):
We need to attract new businesses to Fountain Valley. New businesses expand our economic activity, which brings new revenue to the City. Fountain Valley already has one of the highest sales tax rates in Orange County, and the voter-approved sales tax increase does not expire for another fifteen years. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to ask Fountain Valley families and businesses to pay higher taxes than they already do. We should follow the lead of other cities that have set aside funding for trusts to pay their pension liabilities. Using funds from a trust can often deliver better taxpayer savings than simply paying from the City’s general fund. There is no silver bullet for balancing paying off debts, building reserves, and meeting residents’ needs: new revenue via economic development, reducing the budget, and innovative programs (like the pension trusts) are all needed to achieve this balance.
Should Fountain Valley increase its TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax) from 9% to 10% to be at the same level as nearby cities?
No (do not increase TOT tax)
We should provide the highest quality services with the lowest possible tax base. As a percentage of annual revenue, the T.O.T. brought in about $ 1.3 million last year and is projected to generate $1.4 million this fiscal year. That amounts to only 2% of all General Fund Revenues. In contrast, last year sales tax revenue was $32 million and property tax was $23 million, or 44% and 31%, respectively, of General Fund Revenue. Thus, it does not make sense to focus on T.O.T revenue and even raising it 1% does little to contribute overall. Instead, we need to focus on driving up business sales tax based on the contribution percentages.
Additional statement:
The biggest need Fountain Valley faces is protecting public safety. Our community’s safety requires a professional and responsive police force and highly trained firefighters and paramedics. I will work to ensure that our police officers, firefighters, and paramedics have the resources, equipment, and personnel they need to do their jobs and reduce response times. I’ve seen the courage of our first responders in helping my neighbors on multiple occasions, and I am grateful for their excellent work helping my family when we needed them. We must also stand with our first responders and oppose efforts like the “Defund the Police” movement. The City of Fountain Valley must work with other local governments and statewide associations to lobby the Legislature against bills that harm public safety and for bills that strengthen public safety. The safety of our neighborhoods must be the top priority for the Fountain Valley City Council.