WITH LITTLE DISCUSSION, the Ventura City Council tonight pulled the plug on the very successful Medic Engine 10 and the Downtown foot patrol.

The two programs were cut in the city's Budgeting for Outcomes process earlier this year, but were subject to temporary bridge funding from reserves pending the outcome of Measure A and the receipt of possible federal stimulus money from a COPS grant. More than $11 million was trimmed from the city's budget and all employees took pay or benefit cuts.

As we all know, Measure A, the 1/2-percent sales tax increase, did not pass and the city did not receive the anticipated federal funds, either.

Full-time annual funding was estimated to be $180,000 for Medic Engine 10 and $600,000 for the foot patrol.

Despite all the public speakers and heated campaign rhetoric before the election, firefighter Ben Davis was the lone person to fill out a speaker card on the demise of these two successful programs. Even Council candidate Brian Lee Rencher, who spoke out so loudly and forcefully against the sales tax measure and put up a great majority of the No on A signs, was noticeably absent tonight after nearly perfect attendance in recent weeks.

The innovative roving Medic Engine 10 program ran at about a third of the cost of a fully staffed, built and equipped facility, Davis said, and reduced the city's response times by about 10 percent. "It proved to be very effective and will be missed," he said.

"When we lose four police officers and three firefighters that means people [won't be] on the street helping your citizens out," Davis said.

"It literally means that lives will be lost in the city."

I SAW MY FIRST Ventura Council campaign sign today and it is only the first of August. This is annoying to me in the way that finding winter holiday decorations in department stores before Halloween always is. Venturans have traditionally been obsessive about placing signs in every square foot of public space around election cycles. But never have I seen anything go up this early.

By November I expect the visual pollution to be out of control with 16 council candidates and three ballot measures cluttering our political landscape. Early signage does not win votes at my house. If you excessively pollute my visual space, expect a thumbs down from me. Most studies show campaign signs don't have much effect on voters.

While I see a few familiar names in the mix and the four incumbents, of course, what always amazes me are the candidates who have not been active participants in city projects, committees, commissions, meetings and charettes. Our local government urgently needs volunteers, especially in these days of reduced staff due to budget cutbacks.

It's just the same handful of us traveling from event to event. In addition to the Cultural Affairs Commission, I've joined the Visitor's and Convention Bureau Board and recently agreed to serve on the Library Plan Steering Committee. This is in addition to the numerous other boards I sit on.

THE TRUTH IS, the city needs good volunteers a lot more than it needs 16 City Council candidates and while volunteering doesn't put your name in lights quite like running for office does, it is far more fulfilling.

Becoming a city volunteer is an excellent way to learn about how your local government works. In an era when cities everywhere are faced with tough decisions with myriad implications, I don't want somebody on the City Council who has to play catch-up. Governing a city is no small task and if you haven't read the General Plan, gone through the Capital Improvement Project Plan and can't explain the term "triple flip" or how SB 375 will impact the planning of civic projects in the future, you won't have my vote.

If you don't have the time to wade through inches-thick staff reports every week, answer 100 emails and dozens of phone calls daily, attend ribbon cuttings, mixers and endless outside meetings all for $600 a month, don't bother.

If you are interested in making an impact at the local level, consider volunteering first. You won't regret it.

Update: As predicted, the state budget will be "balanced" in part by taking revenue from local governments. Read Timm Herdt's story here.

ALTHOUGH THE IDEA of increasing Ventura's sales tax in a recession may not be playing well in all corners, if the measure passes in November, it will generate an extra estimated $8 million annually over the next four years that all stays in Ventura. Currently only a small percentage of the sales tax we pay stays local.

This comes as the governor and our legislators have devised various methods of snatching even more local revenues. The May revise floated a proposal to borrow eight percent of property tax receipts from cities, counties, and special districts received in 2008‑09. Another recent scheme was proposed to divert gas tax money up to Sacramento that is used to maintain local streets. It's no wonder that the League of California Cities is up in arms against these deals.

Two other bills, SB 80 and SB 3x 29, would send redevelopment agency money to K-12 schools that cities now use for construction projects. Last year the California Redevelopment Association successfully sued the state to stop a similar bill.

City officials recently estimated Ventura could lose nearly $3 million in revenues to Sacramento on top of the difficult $11 million in service cuts and pay reductions already made to balance the current two-year budget.

The proposed 1/2-cent sales tax increase, which will sunset in four years, will cost each resident 22 cents a day, according to the city's finance staff. With a majority vote required and not a 2/3, it's similar to general-use measures recently passed in the neighboring cities of Oxnard and Port Hueneme.

THE SPENDING PLAN for the proposed revenue increase was outlined by staff and voted on by Council Monday night. It's a list of priority items which have suffered in the recent round of cuts:

• 40 percent will go to public safety, which will include restoring and supplementing our roving Medic Engine 10 service and the Downtown foot patrols. Recent requests for federal COPS grants were not successful.
• 35 percent will go to street repair, infrastructure maintenance, parks and public transit.
• 15 percent will go toward clean and safe beaches, which will include money to help Pierpont Beach residents with their weighty sand issues and more to help the city meet new costly federal and state water quality requirements.
• 6 percent will go to supplement county funding for our libraries.
• 4 percent will go toward maintaining and building effective community partnerships, which include social services grants and cultural grants to local non-profits.
  

An 11-member citizen advisory committee would be appointed to oversee the expenditures. Recent polling and past voting on Measure P6 shows the new measure has a decent chance of passage. 

As the current dysfunction in Sacramento goes on, it's a safe bet that school districts, cities and counties will work for more local control of funds.

A RECENT POLL conducted by True North, Inc. confirmed what I already knew: Ventura voters are content here and are willing to invest in their city.

Despite a round of new temporary taxes from the state, nearly 60 percent of those surveyed said they would likely vote for a temporary 1/2-cent hike in the city sales tax to support public safety, libraries, local infrastructure, economic-generating activities and building financial reserves.

This figure has held steady through surveys conducted in May of 2007 and December of 2008. True North talked to 400 likely voters between May 27-31 of this year. (The survey had a 4.86 point margin of error.) The sample was "a perfect representation of your voting electorate," True North President Timothy McLarney explained.

What else did they find? Seventy-five percent are somewhat or very satisfied with the job the City of Ventura is doing to provide services. Sixty-one percent feel things are going in the right direction in our city, compared with 22 percent who weren't sure and 21 percent who thought they were going in the wrong direction.

The state didn't fair as well in the poll, however, with only 11 percent responding that California in general was going in the right direction.

And just who is the typical Ventura voter? She's more likely to be female, over age 50, own her own home and have lived in the city at least 15 years. She isn't too worried about finances and is a Democrat. She doesn't own a business here.

THE CITY COUNCIL will make the final decision on the sales tax measure at its June 22 meeting. The Citizen Blue Ribbon Budget Committee, a 15-member group appointed by the council, voted in March to recommend the measure be placed on the fall ballot.

The 1/2 cent sales tax increase would sunset in four years and would be used to support the essential services recommended by the committee, which the poll respondents also responded favorably to.

Ventura CFO Jay Panzica explained that the increased sales tax rate would cost approximately 22 cents per day for each resident and would generate nearly $10 million a year. Ventura's sales tax is now at the state minimum. Currently, for each dollar residents and visitors pay in, the city only receives 9.82 cents back, Panzica said. The lure of the new measure is that 100 percent of the increase would stay right here in Ventura.

After cutting its budget $11 million this year and $6 million in 2008, the city stands to lose another $2.8 million in the current city revenue grab proposed by the governor.

"If we choose not to put this on the ballot ... then we will be surrendering our destiny to the vagaries of Sacramento for the next few years," Councilmember Bill Fulton said.

Update: All the questions for the survey and the sampling method used can be found here:

vensalestaxreport0609.pdf

I THINK WE'VE HIT on a new form of representative government here in Ventura and I'm kind of amazed about it. The city's Economic Summit today, co-sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, brought out a wide cross section of the community armed with great ideas and passion.

Oh yeah, lots of passion.

After introductions by facilitator and Council member Ed Summers, who is chair of the city's Economic Development Committee, and a rather sobering look at the state's economy from Bill Watkins, executive director of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project, I found myself mixed in with an eclectic group ranging from Chamber of Commerce folks to Wal-Mart boosters and busters to our very colorful arts crowd. Our task was to come up with 90-day, 1-year and 5-year plans to improve the city's bottom line and fiscal health.

We agreed, we disagreed and we reached consensus. In the end we came up with some decent suggestions about how to move forward in these difficult times and generate revenue for the city to fund the services we all enjoy. This process was being repeated throughout City Hall with four other groups and their respective program areas.

With lightning speed, city staff compiled the ideas, presented them to Council and after the usual pontificating from the dais, they voted to implement quite a few of them and directed staff to make it happen.

We did all this in less time than it takes them to go through a council meeting most nights.

THE BEST IDEA of the day came from my group and none other than perpetual City Hall critic Brian Lee Rencher, who proposed a Economic Development Commission of citizen volunteers, much like the Cultural Affairs Commission that I sit on. Also proposed was an ombudsman position to help guide businesses and developers through the planning maze, and a workforce education task force, among other ideas.

City Manager Rick Cole promised to move the ball ahead quickly with these ideas, and even quoted Yoda: "There is no try. There is only do."

Afterward I spent some time talking to people I don't normally converse with but have seen in action at City Council meetings. It was a great way to share ideas. I hope the city does more of these sorts of events and FOR ONCE I was very pleased with the turnout: nearly 130 eager citizens.

Sometimes Democracy works.

ONE OF MY PET PEEVES are the Monday Morning Quarterbackers. The City of Ventura rarely makes a move without extensive feedback, transparency, numerous charettes, community meetings, Eblasts, newspaper articles, blog postings and agenda distribution.

Yet inevitably I hear somebody complain here or elsewhere about the decisions made in these public forums. So you'd think when the opportunity arises, citizens would be knocking down the doors to provide input. Not really.

At every single community meeting I attend, I see the same bunch of folks. Our little band of chronic city volunteers manages to get around. But we are lonely.

Sure there are the one-issue folks who get fired up for their pet causes, but at most city forums the attendance is pretty spartan.

So here's an opportunity for everyone that shouldn't be missed: Tomorrow the City of Ventura, in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce, will be holding an Economic Summit to help chart the future of our community. The event is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at City Hall, 501 Poli St.

The event is free, and participants are asked to pre-register online at http://www.venturachamber.org or by calling 676-7500.

The culmination of the event will be 90-day, one-year and five-year work plans for the City Council to consider. Workshops will include ways to improve the city's bottom line, fostering smart growth, greening the city's economy, enhancing the local business climate, and retaining and expanding jobs and existing businesses.

It's also a way to get all those one-issue folks talking to the other one-issue folks. Like Wal-Mart? Come talk to those who hate it. Are you pro-growth? Share your thoughts with those who aren't. Do you think arts and cultural tourism are a smart economic investment in our future? Or do you think it's all a waste of money? Come prepared to talk it out. (But if you hate the arts, you might want to avoid me!)

I know it's early on a Saturday morning and you need to mow the lawn and attend your kid's baseball game.

But, to mangle a John Lennon lyric: A city is what happens when you are busy making other plans.

Please join us tomorrow.

AT $26.5 BILLION, California sits at the top of the heap among the first wave of state allocations for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds.

In a state wrestling with a ballooning budget deficit dependent on a series of unpopular ballot propositions in the May 19 special election, the federal stimulus money is being eyed with great interest.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wasted no time in being one of the first governors to ask for education dollars. Early last week he applied for nearly $1.2 billion in funding for schools with large numbers of poor and disabled students as well as for improvements in lunch program facilities. On Thursday, he applied for $5 billion more which would come with more flexibility. All told, the state is expected to receive $85 billion in federal money over the next two years.

"We've taken steps to protect our schools from the full brunt of our economic situation, and this funding will restore many of the difficult cuts that had to be made to education," the governor said. "I'm committed to passing it directly onto schools as quickly as possible."

This is in contrast to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who recently irritated school officials in her state by declining to accept some stimulus money because she was afraid it would permanently swell the budget.

Locally, Ventura Unified School District Superintendent Trudy Arriaga said she remains hopeful the federal money could help offset a few of the $10 million in cuts the district will need to make in the next two years. "We did not balance our budget on it, but we are absolutely counting on it," she said.

OUR CITIES ARE jockeying for a piece of the pie as well. Last month Ventura Mayor Christy Weir and Council member Neal Andrews joined hundreds of city leaders nationwide in lobbying for funds for key projects during the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference. Our city has secured $4.6 million in ARRA funding and is applying for $30 million more in competitive grants.

"We met with Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Congresswoman Capps and Congressman Gallegly," Weir said. "They or their staff were all willing to listen and take the materials we brought. No promises were made, but they responded positively to the importance of our Surfers' Point renovation project, which was the priority for funding that we brought to their attention."

Money may also be available for the Museum of Ventura County, Weir said. The city also plans on submitting the $10 million U.S. 101/Victoria Ave. northbound offramp project for funding when application details are provided.

Most of the ARRA funding available to cities, Weir said, will be in the areas of public safety (COPS grants could prevent cuts to our police force), transportation (street paving and traffic signals) and energy (weatherization programs, renewable energy systems, etc). Money is also available to buy foreclosed properties to use for affordable housing. "The city will use our money to buy houses and turn them over to the Housing Authority for low-income rentals," Weir said.

Ventura also hopes to receive federal money available through the National Endowment for the Arts to maintain a key position in the Cultural Affairs staff and shore up our arts grants program, which will be cut nearly in half. A grant is also being sought for homeless prevention issues.

Other California cities have also been intent on using these funds in creative ways. Six cities up north are pooling their funds. Still others, like Westlake Village and Agoura Hills, sought to swap funds with other cities until they were told the deals were improper.

This one-time money will not keep any local budgets from bleeding red ink. But a band-aid feels sure good right now.

I'VE WRITTEN A LOT HERE about the economic value of the arts but little about their community-building effects. Ventura's arts community is close-knit and eclectic -- a group of people who choose to live here because their work is appreciated and valued. "Arts events actually encourage a camaraderie," internationally known arts advocate Jerry Yoshitomi told me.

Artists sure know how to pack a City Council meeting, too. From poets to painters to sculptors to actors to the Ventura Music Festival's Nuvi Mehta and his violin, creative types showed up Monday night to protest budget cutbacks to Ventura's cultural arts programs.

Somebody even brought a dog.

The artists and arts organizations in Ventura are one of the reasons I choose to live here. As a member of the city's Cultural Affairs Commission, the proposed cutbacks in the city's cultural programming and staff have been distressing to me. Our cultural grants program, which helps support the budgets of regional entertainment luminaries like the Rubicon Theatre and the Ventura Music Festival, was up for a nearly 50 percent reduction.

Despite the impassioned pleas of 32 public speakers, the City Council voted for most of the cuts proposed by the Budgeting for Outcomes teams. Gone will be ArtWalk (unless it is resurrected privately), the Holiday Street Fair, a film series, all operating hours of the Albinger Museum, technical assistance for artists, and Plaza Park events, along with some staff.

TO RESCUE A FEW THINGS, staff and council got, well, creative. With the potential for two federal stimulus grants in the offing, the council voted to provide "bridge" funding to save one staff position which will work with the new non-profit foundation to raise funds to support cultural programs, which will hopefully include our city's now county-run libraries.

The cuts to our community services grants programs may only get a 25 percent reduction if revenues from our fee-based programs come in over projections. They could also be rescued with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

A lot depends on the $100,000 in NEA money the city is applying for, a gamble city staff is hoping will pay off. Volunteers will be needed now more than ever and our commission will be expected to step up its efforts.

"We will make it happen," Mayor Christy Weir said. "We won't let these programs die off."

The Cultural Affairs Commission meets the fourth Thursday of every month at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.

VENTURA CITIZENS WILL HAVE one more thing to vote on this fall if the advice of the Citizen Blue Ribbon Budget Committee is taken by the Ventura City Council, as it surely will be.

On an 11-4 vote, the 15-member group decided to recommend a 1/2-cent sales tax measure be placed on the November ballot. Since it will not dedicate funds for a specific purpose, it will only require a simple majority vote. However, the group voted to ask that priority be given to public safety, infrastructure, libraries, and economic revitalization, in addition to shoring up the city's reserves. The measure would sunset in four years.

Watching the committee push this tax measure out was sort of like watching natural childbirth when you already knew it was going to be a boy. It was a bit difficult to watch at times and of course there was the requisite huffing and puffing.

In a speech that would do Grover "Let's drown government in a bathub" Norquist proud, one committee member wished wrack and ruin on the entire city. It goes without saying he was one of the four voting no.

As always, these citizen committees are good theater. I just wish more folks would show up to add their thoughts. I counted 12 in the audience tonight, if you subtracted the three city employees, and the Star blogger and reporter. Last week there were about six speakers. At the recent special budget presentation at City Hall, 41 showed up, but I recognized many of those as city employees and volunteers.

I think  "American Idol" has started up again on Wednesday nights. That must be it.

I DO COMMEND THESE 15 folks for doing their homework and polling their acquaintances on their thoughts. And while I didn't agree with some of the speakers, especially those who were particularly hostile and got their facts mixed up, they cared enough to participate. Good for them.

Committee member Bob Berry wondered out loud why they were even there: "I think the City Council is looking for cover."

I was especially impressed with the comments made by Committee Vice Chair Michael Case, while speaking to trust issues. Case once ran for Congress against Elton Gallegly. "Government is very transparent as compared to business," Case pointed out. "The government is merely an extension of us. Even though I've had differences with city officials, I realize they're trying to do their best."

And it was nice to see former Ventura City Manager Ed McCombs again. "This is a much more vital and exciting city -- one that offers a whole lot more to its citizens than when I moved here in 1970," McCombs said. "But when budgets are cut and cut, you lose a lot of things quickly."

The timing of this sales tax measure is terrible, coming after May's multitude of tax-related state ballot measures. It will share ballot space with the view initiative and the anti-big box ordinance, not to mention City Council and Board of Education races.

Given Ventura's propensity for dotting every square inch of public space with campaign signs, these extra measures will surely add to the visual pollution.

If only our citizens had such enthusiam for public meetings to discuss their future.

ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? That was my first reaction to the long list of projects that are scheduled to be axed tonight from Ventura's often-maligned Public Art Program, including funding for the design of a memorial at Cemetery Park.

I've written about this art program's complicated and misunderstood funding system so many times since I started this blog that I almost find myself reciting it over and over in my head as I go to sleep at night:

"It is an actual ordinance, passed in 1992, allocating 2 percent of eligible Capital Improvement Project (CIP) costs for the commissioning of artist services which tie into a project. Not very many projects are selected for this program. Most of the money comes from specific CIP funds which cannot legally be used to pay for police and fire personnel or libraries. ... blah, blah, blah."

Why, I found myself reciting it once again to long-time Star columnist Chuck Thomas just last week as I explained the difference between funding for the Public Art Program, which comes from the CIP fund, and other cultural activities which come from the General Fund. Chuck and I have been locked in a public battle over the merits of government funding of cultural programs for several years now. Sound economic strategy, I say. Waste of tax dollars, Chucks says.

But we had a very amiable phone conversation last week. He understands the Public Art Program funding process better now and while we still don't agree on government funding of cultural activities in general we did agree that it is easier to be a print columnist than a blogger.

IN THESE DAYS of budget cutting in cities around the country, cultural arts programs seem to be the mushrooms growing at the bottom of the totem pole. We're now cutting essential services like police officers and street paving and sidewalk repair.

Former Star writer Charles Levin wrote a great opinion piece Sunday on our city's public and private investment in revenue-generating cultural activities such as ArtWalk. I've written a few pieces like this myself. But his trumped all of mine.

Congress recently passed legislation which would pump more money into the nation's arts organizations; perhaps some of it will trickle down to our community through a grant. Nationwide, arts organizations are facing huge budget deficits. The nonprofit Americans for the Arts estimates 10,000 arts organizations could disappear in 2009.

Tonight the City Council will take another look at the list of cuts the Budgeting for Outcomes teams proposed, as well as the cuts to Public Art, and may vote on finalizing them. Several of our city volunteers, including myself, are looking into forming a non-profit to prevent some of our cultural programs, like ArtWalk, from disappearing from the local landscape. Our efforts may extend to helping out our county-run libraries.

If you're interested in helping, email me.