Menlo Park: Survey finds residents may support new tax, community class cuts Menlo Park: Survey finds residents may support new tax, community class cuts (November 23, 2005)

By Rory Brown

Almanac Staff Writer

A utility-users tax, decreased funding for community classes and increased business development may help solve Menlo Park's projected $2.9 million shortfall for the 2006-07 fiscal year, according to the results of the city-sponsored "your city/your decision" budget survey.

According to the final survey report, compiled by San Francisco-based nonprofit consultant Community Focus, residents prefer a mix of service reductions and new sources of revenue, identifying an average of $1.8 million in annual net cost reductions and about $1.45 million in tax increases.

The survey was mailed to more than 17,000 homes and businesses in Menlo Park, asking recipients to change city programs, taxes and fees to eliminate the city's projected deficit. Community Focus conducted the survey process and a volunteer Budget Advisory Committee helped craft and distribute the survey.

City subsidies for four programs -- aquatics, community classes, adult sports and events and concerts -- were targeted for reductions by at least 60 percent of the survey participants, who suggested the programs support themselves. "There appears to be strong support for raising user fees to cover a large portion of these services," according to the report.

The department of public safety's community outreach program was the only program outside the community services department that was reduced in more than 60 percent of the surveys, according to the report.

More than 68 percent of all participants supported enacting at least one of four taxes to help eliminate the deficit. The tax chosen most often was a utility-user tax.

More than 1,600 surveys were retuned; about 1,400 of the respondents came up with ways to balance the budget within 10 percent of the projected shortfall, according to the report.

Now, city staff and the committee have to make sense of it all.

Phase two, the next major public outreach effort, will take place in February at a series of community workshops. The city will hold several meetings, inviting residents to break into groups, each acting as a city council, and making decisions about the budget through a majority vote.

The committee, city staff and Community Focus will work together to determine the most effective way to conduct the workshops.

"I'm pleased to see people put thought into the survey," said Fran Dehn, a member of the advisory committee and president and CEO of the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce. "But now we have to make sure phase two is representative of the population."

But even topics generally supported in the survey results, such as increased business development, have to be narrowed down in order to come away with concrete data from the workshops, said Councilwoman Lee Duboc, a council liaison to the committee.

Staff members who provide city services, whose budgets are at stake, will not participate in the workshops, said Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour.

"The workshops are for the residents," she said. "City staff will ask departments to put forward objective information about the ramifications and impacts of potential cuts, and that information will be available to the council and in the workshops."

City staff and the committee will meet several times before the February workshops, and there will be at least one meeting in December. The dates and locations of upcoming meeting have not been announced.

The majority of the report's data is based on a random sample survey, completed by 190 residents and calculated separately from the remaining surveys. Data from the random sample is consistent with the results of the community-wide survey, according to the report.

To view the survey report, visit menlopark.org and scroll down to "Phase I Report: Survey Results."

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