Fiscal Policy

By Eugene W. Fields

My views on City finance

When elected, I will fight to reduce and/or eliminate recently enacted fee increases in: Basic & Advanced Life Support (EMT 911 services calls)and parking tickets.

Instead, I plan to raise revenue through:
1. Taking over the adult softball program. The City currently outsources its adult softball programs and receives $47,000 annually from the vendor. At an advertised 700 teams playing a year, with each team paying $580 a season, that equals a gross $480,000 a year.

2. Encouraging more film productions to choose Orange. In 2013, the City made a little more than $5,700 in filming revenue - the lowest total in two years. I would suggest eliminating business license fees for production companies to encourage them to come to Orange.

3. Encouraging the Tour of California , sponsored by Amgen, to come to Orange. The race has never gone through Orange County and has previously made inquires about having Orange host a leg. In 2010, the City of Clovis (similar size to Orange) reported a revenue of $1.7 million from hosting a leg of the race.

The first two strategies could bring in at least $15 million over 10 years - which could be held in reserve to help fund the City's pension liability.