Victoria Answers Questions from the Lamorinda Weekly

By Victoria Smith

"Orinda" comes to mind! As I said in my ballot statement, Orinda is a small city with big-league volunteers who work hard to support the city, the arts, and our great schools. From the Friends of the Creeks to the Friends of the Orinda Library, we are a community of "doers" who work together to improve the fabric of our city. We are a city filled with individual volunteers who come together in countless organizations to do good works, like our faith communities who support the annual Winter Nights shelters, the EFO and Parents Clubs who fundraise to support our school kids, the Orinda Community Foundation which financially supports other charities, and the Orinda Woman's Club, which supports women and children in need throughout the region and beyond. We are all volunteers, and our citizens take care of each other in very tangible ways.

b.) How have you personally engaged the various segments of Orinda's community (youth, working adults, seniors, etc.). Moving forward, how can Orinda help those various segments come together to work effectively and collectively for the betterment of the entire City?

I have worked with, and belong to, many great organizations in Orinda that bring together so many segments of our community. I served on the Parents Club Boards at Sleepy Hollow, Wagner Ranch, OIS and Miramonte, and I have been a registered adult leader in the Boy Scouts for 20 years. From working to raise money for the "new" playground at Wagner Ranch when it re-opened in 1997, to phone-banking for school parcel taxes, to helping to coach the Miramonte Mock Trial team, to scores of campouts with cub and boy scouts, I have worked hands-on with parents and youth to help obtain the resources that our students need to become educated and to assist our kids to become future leaders and good citizens.

As an Orinda Chamber of Commerce member for the past 12 years, I have worked with a coalition of community members on the City's streetscape program, to enhance funding for the Chamber and to bring it together with community partners, such as the California Shakespeare Theater. As a Council Member, I have worked with the other 90 plus volunteers on all of the City commissions, who are engaged in helping the city allocate scarce resources for the most benefit, like the Parks & Recreation Commission and the Traffic Safety Advisory Commission, and the Planning Commission and Historic Landmarks Commission, who are planning our built environment and preserving our history; all of whom generously donate their time to improve our community.

Finally, I am proud to have worked closely with our seniors, from those who are active in Rotary and the Garden Clubs, to working with Sue Littlehale, our representative to the County Council on Aging, to make senior resources available to our residents.

Moving forward, we must continue to engage our youth by increasing their civic participation. For example, the Orinda Teen Advisory Council has organized blood drives, and held movie nights which provide a safe venue for our teens to have fun, and we thank them for this and encourage them to continue to use their creativity. Our Girl and Boy Scouts must be supported in their projects which beautify our natural environment--like the many projects in the Nature Area at Wagner Ranch, and the Orinda Community Park sign--and their participation in the Orinda In Action clean-up day. We must also engage our teens in planning to reduce commute traffic on Moraga Way, by promoting carpools to Miramonte, and biking and walking to school when possible; the new Moraga Way Pedestrian and Bike Path will encourage that use to Miramonte. We must outreach to our citizens so that they continue their great interest in serving the community. Each January, there are dozens of openings on City Commissions--from Planning to Public Works Aesthetic Review--and we are so fortunate to have so many residents who put their professional expertise and great ideas to work for the benefit of the city. We are fortunate to have a significant active senior population--the "Greatest Generation"--who we must encourage to continue to share their wisdom and knowledge with the community by their volunteer work in the schools, in the library, and with the Orinda Association.

2a.) The City of Orinda has roughly a $10 million annual budget - a surprisingly small amount of funding to expend when one considers the type and number of programs offered by its Parks and Recreation Department, the condition of its drainage system located under more than 90 miles of roads - a number of which are looking more and more like a lunar landscape, our proximity to areas with higher crime rates (making it necessary for us, perhaps, to have a larger and better trained police force than similar-sized communities), and our proximity to a major earthquake fault (requiring us to keep a certain amount of funding available for disaster response).

On top of this, the failures of our nation and state to respond effectively to the housing and unemployment/underemployment crises are forcing Orinda and other reasonably affluent communities to tighten belts due to declining property values and the various tax revenues they normally see.

What kind of shape is the City of Orinda in now - and what will our leaders need to do over the next five to ten years to improve our fiscal picture?

We have taken the recession quite seriously in Orinda. In April 2009, when the banking world was in freefall, we revised the City's Investment Policy to require that all investments are kept in very safe AA or AAA securities. At the same time, we adopted a Reserve Policy which requires the City to maintain an operating reserve of fifty percent (50%) of the annual General Fund, but no less than five million dollars ($5,000,000). We also adopted a Balanced Budget policy. We have met these requirements each year, even though Orinda experienced a 3% decrease in property tax revenue last year.

We have balanced the budget by making tough decisions which resulted in the loss of two employees, required our employees to take unpaid furlough days, and eliminated cost of living increases. At the same time our employees have worked hard to continue to provide great customer service to the public, to keep public counter hours open, and we have maintained our police force at full strength; our employees have done a great job! Despite the impacts of the recession, Orinda is the 5th safest city in California, and 98% of our residents, in a recent public opinion poll, rated the quality of life in Orinda as good or excellent.

But we must address our greatest unmet need. I began working 9 years ago with our original infrastructure committee, which identified the enormity of our problem; right now, the cost to completely rebuild our roads and storm drains, which we inherited from Contra Costa County, is $52,000,000. We have worked hard to squeeze all dollars available to spend on road and drain repair--over the past 8 years we have averaged spending $2.42 million annually on infrastructure projects, $878,316 on the roads and drains alone. With the help of the Citizens Infrastructure Oversight Committee, we will have fixed all of our major roads, and the roads around the schools, by 2015. However, we do not have the millions of dollars needed to fix our residential roads.

I served on the campaign committees for Measure Q in 2006 and for Measure E in 2007; each was a comprehensive bond measure designed to raise the cost of a full repair. Each time we came close to success--64%, 63% of the vote--but we did not reach 67%. The numbers show that the majority of Orindans want to fix the roads and understand the need for some tax measure to do so. Two months ago, the City Council adopted a 10 Year Plan to fix our roads. The first step of the plan is a ½ cent sales tax, which is on the November ballot for voter approval. This will be followed in later years by two bond measures, so that collectively, and over time, we will accumulate the money needed to comprehensively repair our roads. While we all recognize that the ½ cent sales tax will result in a relatively small amount of money, approximately $600,000 annually, it enjoys wide support among the voters and is the first step which will allow the city to show the voters that if the voters entrust us with tax revenue, we will use the revenue to attack our road deficit and produce measurable results which will inspire confidence in future road measures.

b.) What can Orinda's residents do right now to help?

Orinda's residents are our greatest resource in climbing back from the economic downturn! First, we can all "Shop" and "Eat" Orinda! There are countless opportunities to support the volunteer organizations that raise funds for local charities and to work to make our community better: September 18th is the Orinda Chamber of Commerce Restaurant Tour; eat and drink local wine to raise money for the schools! September 20th is the Orinda Night Out; come to your local Neighborhood Watch block party and work with your neighbors, fire and police to make your neighborhood safer. September 21-22 is the Orinda Motors Dancing with the Cars Party and Classic Car Show; help support the EFO, Seniors Around Town, the Orinda Association, the Orinda Rotary, the Orinda Arts Council and the Orinda Historical Society.

Second, all residents are encouraged to become engaged in our civic life; apply to serve on one of the City's Commissions, volunteer with one of the many groups that provide art, music, theater, library support, preserve our environment or our history, raise money for worthy charities, our schools, churches and Scouts; get involved! Thirdly, as we teach the Scouts, vote! In this country we have the privilege and the responsibility to exercise our right to vote, so if you support the ½ cent sales tax measure as I do--or if you don't!--get out and vote and help your elected officials do their best to represent you.

3.) Theatre Square is thriving again thanks to the combined staying power of long-time occupants with the efforts of its new property management company to attract suitable new restaurants and other businesses - much to the delight of many residents.

However, conversations regarding other types of "downtown development" have roiled the waters. Some residents are convinced that the vast majority of Orindans want to see some sort of housing in the downtown area while others fear that Orinda's charm would be eliminated in favor of the kind of "charm-free," high density housing found in communities from Walnut Creek to Dublin.

Is there a happy medium that can be reached between the two viewpoints? In your view, what needs to happen with the downtown area over the next 5 to 15 years, and why?

Theatre Square is a gem, and I am very proud that the City has assisted the property owner and the business owners to help make the Square the lively local spot that it now is. A couple of years ago, the Council rezoned the back lane of Theater Square to allow some service businesses to open up; that helped to bring foot traffic in, and now we have a number of highly successful restaurants and some new, diverse shops for our residents to patronize. The merchants especially have been dedicated to improving the square and the results are fantastic; the Square is now at 98% occupancy!

How do we spread that success throughout the downtown? I think we continue to engage the public in workshops and informally, at the Farmer's Market Council table and during the 4th of July festivities, for example, to discuss what we collectively want to see in our downtown--an emphasis on the creeks? How to address parking concerns?--to plan for the future. We want to find our own identity--not that of any of our neighbors, large or small--and to encourage the discussion to continue.

At the same time, I recognize that each property in the downtown is unique, and ultimately it is up to the owner to bring any development project forward, for the City to consider on its individual merits. I believe that the citizens will support good projects in the downtown which respect the desire that residents do have for additional housing and shops and restaurants in the downtown, while at the same time preserving our small town feel and connection to the outdoor environment. No one likes to see buildings sit idle; I would be happy to see a proposal for the Phairs building, for example, and would be delighted to engage in a constructive process to approve a new project there. While we continue to pursue public discussion of future options, our existing development framework allows every property owner to propose a new project for economic growth, and as we can see from Theatre Square, our residents will support innovative and interesting shops and restaurants.