Cents and Sensibility

By Alex Kennett

The economy and the environment can be a cohesive working plan.

By Alex Kennett

In this column, as a candidate for City Council, I offer you my perspective on some of the basic issues facing our community. I look at these as common sense type issues.

SERVICES + Public Safety must grow as Morgan Hill grows. There are no more important services a city provides its residents than police and fire protection. Public Safety defines a city as much as it's schools, its downtown and its business community.

As the city begins to emerge from the depths of a fiscal crisis, there has been some talk of shutting down the Morgan Hill Police Department and contracting with the Santa Clara County Sheriff to patrol our city. Those who favor this believe it will save the city money. However, I believe this is a bad idea and takes a very shortsighted view of the question. It fails to take into account the quality of our police department, the ability to speak with a dispatcher who knows the community, and patrol officers who not only know where the streets are, but many of them grew up in Morgan Hill.

That said, there are services that benefit from regionalization and consolidation. Our level of fire protection has improved by consolidating Morgan Hill's fire department with Santa Clara County Fire. That happened back in 1993 at the height of another fiscal crisis when County Fire absorbed the city's fire service. I do think we should enhance our fire protection, but County Fire has done a good job for the city.

It's normal for municipalities to outsource various services that can be done better, cheaper and more efficiently by professional enterprises. The fire service is one example. Another is the maintenance of the traffic signals in the city. But when it comes to police protection, no one will take care of us better than us.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT +Allow Morgan Hill to pay for itself. The City of Morgan Hill is challenged when it comes to increasing revenue. It can't impose new taxes or raise existing ones without a two-third vote from its residents. Its income comes from sales tax and fees for various services. As such, the city is overly dependent on the peaks and valleys of the state of the economy. As the economy expands or contracts so does the City's income.

That makes it difficult for the city to plan new services or grow existing ones. But it can help define the future by pursuing a focused economic development program. By attracting new business or improving underdeveloped areas a city can experience real growth and not further burden the people and entities that rely on city services. I want to use RDA funds to hire an economic development professional that will be part of the economic developmental growth in the City as a whole as well as be part of the new downtown development.

I want our downtown to be Morgan Hill's version of Santana Row. Planned from literally the underground up including, but not limited to public works, parking, public art, residential density and retail balance.

NICE USER FRIENDLY GOVERNMENT + Promote transparency of government. The big overriding issue in Morgan Hill is communications. Simply put, city government puts the communications burden on city residents. We must find ways to build on existing communications tools + like the monthly city newsletter + to connect with residents, so people know what is happening in the city and why it is happening. The time has come to end what has become a common practice of getting Different answers to the same question often from the same people in the same department. We must increase the level of communications within departments and all across the city government.

SENSIBLE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY + Build things we can sustain and manage. We have wonderful facilities in Morgan Hill including the new Aquatic Center, Community and Cultural Center and soon, the Indoor Centennial Recreational Center and new library.

These jewels were planned and built in response to public demand. They are nice to have. But, the community center, the aquatic center and the recreation center are stretching are finances way too thin.

Now that we have them, we must manage them in a way that they at least break even financially, whether that is a change in how these facilities are managed or in the method of their operation.

ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITY + Retain the quality of life that is Morgan Hill. Most residents came here for our quality of life. Out natural greenbelt, semi-rural surroundings and great family environment. Out government has strived, successfully for the most part to keep that in tact. It is at risk, however as we grow.

You will see that everything I'm for has an environmental basis. My strong positions on Economic Development and Fiscal Responsibility are based on keeping Morgan Hill contained and preventing sprawl. There is plenty of room within Morgan Hill's existing boundaries for years of synergetic growth by both the environment and the economy.