::: COMMUNITY NEWS

This is a detail of plans for the school proposed for Stonehouse Road just outside Rancho Murieta. You can downlaod the full PDF documents here (479kb download). Legend for the buildings: A: Administration B: Multi-Purpose C: Library D: Permanent classrooms E: Permanent classrooms F: Relocatable classrooms G: Kindergarten H: Relocatable classrooms I: Relocatable day care

CSD is asked to produce $2.2 to $3 million for school improvements

Published Monday, December 20, 2004

Over $2 million in upgrades for the community's proposed new elementary school may depend on whether the Community Services District can provide the money, the CSD board was told at Wednesday's board meeting.

Resident John Sullivan, a former CSD and Rancho Murieta Association director, said the district could make it happen by reaching a joint-use agreement with the Elk Grove Unified School District and committing to provide an estimated $2.2 million to $3 million in funds within the next four months.

After that time, Sullivan believes plans for the school will be submitted to the state architect and it will become "extremely expensive to change them."

"Over the next 120 days, this project either will or won't happen," Sullivan wrote in a letter version of his comments to the board. "… I would envision CSD becoming a ‘lead' joint use partner, along with Elk Grove Unified School District, and possibly add other agencies and non-profits …"

He characterized the proposal as "a one-time opportunity" for the community to assist in "upgrading the facility from a standard school."

Sullivan thinks the CSD is qualified to take on the lead role for the upgrades because the expanded multi-purpose area could function as a community center and an emergency evacuation center.

CSD General Manager Ed Crouse said in an interview after the meeting that Sullivan views the community center as "a public recreation component" and the facility's use as an evacuation center "a public safety component," which would allow the CSD to exercise its latent powers to "become a joint-use entity with the school … and somehow raise money in the community" to pay for the upgrades.

At this point, the questions that need answers are whether the CSD can exercise those powers outside its district boundaries and whether it can raise money from ratepayers for a project that is being built outside the district. Most of the students attending the new Cosumnes River Elementary School will be from Rancho Murieta, but not all. The school site is outside the district's boundaries.

The school site under consideration is about 15 acres of a four-parcel, 220-acre property along Stonehouse Road owned by the Frank family of Rancho Murieta. The property sits on the west side of Stonehouse Road, directly across from the northwest boundary of Rancho Murieta.

Crouse said the CSD has tentative plans to file an application with the Local Agency Formation Commission to extend its sphere of influence to the school site and to receive authority to enter into an out-of-service-area contract with the school district. School district officials have publicly said they want the CSD to supply the school with water and sewer services.

Crouse said the CSD is "trying to put a dollar value on the application process" and considering having the school district pay the costs associated with it, since the CSD requires developers to pay costs in similar circumstances. "We're not changing the boundaries, we're just changing the sphere of influence," Crouse explained.

At Wednesday's meeting, Sullivan said the CSD could consider using its "bonding capacity" or "a number of (other) ways to come up with the money" to turn the school into "a broader use facility."

Crouse said the issue of generating money within the district to spend outside the district was something CSD legal counsel would have to address.

Sullivan said school policy calls for the facilities to be open for public use by reservation.

"A community center is very important to an awful lot of people," said Director Mary Brennan. "And whether this would serve as one is a little hard to know because people are looking for one that is open daily for the different groups of the community, and this being a school, that would not be available."

Brennan said her concern was that the community's ability to raise funds for another center would be limited if money was provided for the school facility, "but I think it's a wonderful idea."

Sullivan addressed the board on behalf of Operation Education, a group of about 80 parents who have been active in the planning process for the school. He said the group wants upgrades to the multi-purpose room, the library and the science room. They also want child-care facilities and expanded and improved playing fields.

While some of the upgrades could happen "over time," said Sullivan, others have to be included in the building plans submitted to the state architect because they have a bearing on the size and design of the school.

A hearing on the environmental document required for the project will be held in February or March, he said, and assuming the mitigated negative declaration is adopted, the project would move forward to meet an opening date of fall 2007.

Sullivan said he was asked by the school district to investigate possible school sites over a year ago. He is now working with the property owner and the school district.

Sullivan said expanding the multi-purpose room represented the biggest change to the school plan. He showed exhibits of the current plan for the multi-purpose area and the proposed expansion. Included was a schematic of the proposed school that shows the layout of the campus and the school's siting along Stonehouse Road.

The stand-alone building houses a kitchen, gym, stage, storage and restrooms in both plans.

In the basic plan, a 7,768-square-foot building includes a gym with a seating capacity of 501 and a dining seating capacity of 234. The plan for the enlarged facility more than doubles the building size to 16,437 square feet and expands gym seating to 1,146 on the floor or 535 for dining. The proposed expansion includes a child care area, two multi-purpose rooms and two offices.

The exhibits were provided by the school district on the day of the CSD meeting.

Sullivan said the district expects to spend between $12 million and 13 million dollars to construct the basic school. It is designed to serve 850 students.

The board decided to refer Sullivan's proposal to the CSD Finance Committee for consideration. CSD counsel, Sullivan, members of Operation Education, and the architect of the school are expected to attend the session.

The committee meets Jan. 4 at 10:30 a.m. at the CSD Building. The meeting is open to the public.

The board also took the following actions, reported from the audio recording of its monthly meeting:

Directors sworn in, officers and committees selected

Bill White and Wayne Kuntz were sworn in for their second terms as CSD directors at the start of Wednesday’s board meeting. The two were the top vote-getters in the November election.

The board elected officers for two-year terms. John Merchant was elected board president, succeeding Kuntz. CSD directors cannot serve two successive terms as president. Director Dick Taylor succeeded Director Mary Brennan as vice president.

Merchant presided over the selection of committees, which consist of two directors and staff. Kuntz and Brennan compose the Security Committee and represent the CSD on the community’s Joint Security Committee, White and Merchant are on the Finance Committee, Kuntz and White are on the Improvements Committee, Brennan and White are on Personnel, and Merchant and Taylor are on the Communication and Technology Committee.

Taylor is the CSD representative on the Parks Committee and Brennan becomes the alternate. The Parks Committee consists of two Rancho Murieta Association representatives, two representatives of the development community, and one CSD representative.

Crouse and Kuntz represent the CSD on the Regional Water Authority board, and Taylor is the alternate. Kuntz is the LAFCO representative.

Gate security and the RMA's possible role

Rumblings among the board of the Rancho Murieta Association about taking over the gate security function haven’t gone unnoticed at the CSD.

At Wednesday’s meeting, President John Merchant said the criticism seemed to be at odds with public perception of the Security operation. Merchant said he had listened to recordings of focus groups a CSD consultant conducted on security earlier this year and his impression was, “The public was significantly satisfied with the way Security is running the community.”

Merchant said he’d heard three RMA directors criticize the gate operation at a recent board meeting. “Once you get up to four people," he said, "it’s reasonable to expect that someone will call for a vote and we’ll be sitting here one month figuring out how we’re going to sell the South Gate and how we’re going to transfer all these assets … They are the customer.”

Director Wayne Kuntz said he and General Manager Ed Crouse met with RMA President Paul Gumbinger and General Manager Greg Vorster the day before for their monthly meeting. “They choked up a little bit when we told them what they were looking at (for the gate operation) as far as cost was concerned,” said Kuntz. “Just for the gate alone you’re talking over $600,000 a year.” He noted that the RMA would require additional personnel because the CSD gate operation is under the same management as the patrol operation.

“We’re doing a strategic plan and we’re investing in this security infrastructure … . Is it reasonable … that we would ask them for a long-term commitment?” Merchant asked.

No one could recall ever seeing a contract for the service.

Merchant said he would like to see more “normalization” in the dealings between the two entities. “There’s really no reason for them to be flipping us off on TV,” he remarked.

When Kuntz said Vorster was asked by the RMA board to put together cost data for the gate operation, Merchant responded, “That to me is pretty significant. … If they’re out shopping for a new security service, I think we have every right to be concerned.”

“The way I see it is, we don’t have a contract with the RMA,” said Greg Hall, director of administrative services. “It’s with the individual residents. We charge individual residents a special tax fee. So it’s with them. … I don’t think it’s a thing where (the RMA) can tell us, ‘No, we don’t want you to do it anymore.’ I don’t think it’s that simple on their side of it.”

“There’s got to be some dialogue upfront, where we can relay our concerns at this point to (RMA),” said Merchant. “If they have overwhelming concerns about security and gate operations, other than what I hear, they should relay those to us. There needs to be some dialogue … The part that makes me uncomfortable is picking it up piecemeal off the television.”

Director Bill White suggested that the building of a new North Gate “could be a force that brings us together.”

At the meeting between the officials of the two organizations the day before, “They said they wanted someone from CSD on the (ad hoc gate) committee,” Kuntz noted.

Board acts on budget shortfall

Last minute changes in the state budget have hit the CSD budget hard by taking a much bigger share of the district’s property tax allotment than was expected. Greg Hall, director of administrative services, said the bad news arrived in a recent letter from the county outlining the property tax shifts for 2004-05 and 2005-06.

By exempting some special districts from the provisions of Proposition 1-A, which was passed by voters in November, the state increased the burden on enterprise districts like the CSD, Hall said. So, instead of losing about 40 percent of its property tax money as expected, “We’re having about an 81 percent shift of our property tax money. That’s about $311,000 per year for two years.”

After considering various alternatives, including staff cuts, rate increases and using funds that are set aside to keep current rates stable, the Finance Committee recommended concentrating on reducing expenditures and suspending the monthly contribution to the district’s replacement reserve program. That contribution is built into the rates for water and sewer, Hall said, and would provide $30,000 a month to offset the loss of the property tax funds.

The district raised rates earlier this year and used stabilization funds to reduce the amount of the increases. This was done to deal an expected loss of 40 percent of the district’s income from property taxes and increases in costs, including steep rises in state inspection fees.

In October, the board passed a resolution in support of Proposition 1-A, the measure that called for two years of reductions in the amount of property tax revenue special districts receive to help the state get through its budget crisis. At the end of two years, funding would be restored to the districts, and growth that occurred during the two-year period would be added to the amount.

The CSD resolution referred to the proposition as an "historic measure … that would limit the state's ability to take and use local government funding; and, by protecting local government funding, Prop 1A would protect local public safety, health care and other essential local services."

“Basically, we got screwed,” said President John Merchant. “I don’t think that this was what was really on the table … when all that shucking and jiving was going on down there about the districts buying into the governor’s plan …”

Hall said the water and sewer replacement reserves were in “good shape. … We feel this would be a pretty good way to help us meet this little bit of dire straits that we’re in right now for two years.”

Several directors expressed misgivings about “dipping into” replacement funds, as Director Wayne Kuntz put it, and favored the idea of imposing a surcharge to make up the operating budget shortfall. General Manager Ed Crouse said some districts are instituting a short-term surcharge that’s clearly attributed to Proposition 1-A.

“I think it’s quite fair to make sure the ratepayers understand what they’re paying for. … We were pretty much betrayed here,” said Merchant.

Director Dick Taylor pointed out that commercial rate adjustments were due to take effect in the district over the next two years, which will bring in additional revenue and possibly reduce the shortfall.

“We’ve been blind-sided by the governor,” said Director Bill White. “Rather than blind-side our customers, we could take care of it by discontinuing our contribution to the replacement fund. There’s nothing wrong with us taking (another) look at it at the end of the fiscal year” and instituting a surcharge at that time. “We haven’t said anything to the public about this as far as an anticipated increase in rates.”

It was this point of view that prevailed as the board unanimously approved White’s motion to suspend monthly contributions to the replacement fund as of July 2004 for the 2004-05 budget year.

Public hearing on bridge scheduled

A public hearing to consider accepting the mitigated negative declaration and approving the proposed bridge project connecting the North and South is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 28 at 6 p.m. at the CSD Building. General Manager Ed Crouse said recent minor changes in the document will be re-circulated, but there will be no extension of the comment period for the environmental document. The CSD is the lead agency for the project and is responsible for accepting the document and approving the project.

Furniture for the safety center

In a report about progress being made in setting up the James L. Noller Safety Center, Interim Security Chief Greg Remson told the board that an office-load of matching furniture is expected soon, thanks to the generosity of resident Roger Brandt. Local members of Volunteers In Partnership with the Sheriff are coordinating the furniture move. VIPS will staff the facility, which is expected to bring more law enforcement presence to the community by providing offices for the Sheriff’s Department and the CHP. No opening date has been set for the center.

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