Lady Highlanders top Rosary See Sports Page 14 La Habra’s Independent Community Newspaper
www.lahabrajournal.com
No. 95475
March 24, 2016
Council set to discuss city fees
New Miss La Habra
By Jay Seidel La Habra Journal
Jay Seidel/La Habra Journal
New city royalty: Sonora Senior Kristen Sauceda (center) was crowned Miss La Habra last Saturday at the La Habra Community Center. New princesses (from left) Samantha Da Broi, Alexyss Gomez, Madelynn Sopp and Norma Mendoza were also crowned and now members of the court. For more, see story Page 8
Council to set Roads Committee
By Jay Seidel La Habra Journal
LA HABRA HEIGHTS
The La Habra Heights Council will interview applicants for the Roads Committee being assembled. After receiving 15 applications for the committee, the council had a lengthy discussion on the makeup of the committee. It was determined to have 11 members with four alternates. The council had previously approved a committee of 10-12 members, but all of the council members were pleased with the number of applicants of interested residents and discussed how to be inclusive. Councilmember Roy Francis said he was “very impressed with the applicants” and based on the applications that were submitted they “look like a good group to fix our roads now and in the future. It’s a great cross-section of the community,” he said. Mayor Kyle Miller suggested an interview in order to meet the individuals in person to get a sense of who they are.
Councilmembers Brian Bergman and Michael Higgins agreed that a meeting would be the best route to determining the members of the committee. Mayor Pro Tem Jane Williams suggested eliminating the last three applications to keep the committee to a manageable number and wouldn’t need to schedule the special meeting. City Attorney John Brown pointed out that committees in other cities consist of about 11 people and that alternates have been used. The council scheduled a special meeting to interview the applicants for the Roads Committee for April 2 at 9 a.m. They plan to allot approximately 10 minutes per candidate. The decision was approved 4-1 with Francis being the dissenting vote. Miller said that he didn’t want to discourage people who wanted to help the community and was glad that they could get going on the process of set-
ting up the committee. He had suggested that the committee initially set goals to discuss best practices for outreach to the community. He suggested that outreach efforts could include newsletters, community meetings or even phone banking. He said that it will be important to reach out and inform as many residents as possible. He then said the committee’s second goal would be to read and analyze the pavement management plan. Higgins agreed and said that they need to evaluate it. Higgins also pointed out that many other cities had standing maintenance schedules of when roads would be repaired, resurfaced and worked on. “This way residents know what’s happening on their street,” Higgins said, and added that having a standing schedule could benefit the city, “so that we don’t have to go through this every five years.” The committee will be established and approved at the city council meeting in April.
WHAT ’ S INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Local students prepare for livestock show
LH hits the streets for annual 5K and 10K races FEATURES PAGES 9
LOCAL NEWS PAGE 7
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The La Habra City Council will discuss proposed increases and adjustments to individual and commercial fees at the next city council meeting on April 4. The Council voted to table the matter until the next meeting to allow for more time to see all of the proposed fee adjustments. The city council hired a management research and consulting firm, MGT America, last year to conduct a study of city fee-related services in order to identify fees that could be adjusted to reflect the city’s cost to provide that service, identify opportunities to implement new fees and develop revenue projections based on the proposed fee structure. It is also to come in line with the annual adjustment by the Consumer Price Index. While the city has made annual adjustments, it has been ten years since an analysis of fees was conducted. The MGT study factored the hourly rates of staff members providing the service and the amount of time devoted to providing that service. They specifically looked at recreation, facility rentals, police services, finance, city clerk services, engineering, planning and building fee services. The study showed that the city is currently covering the cost, or subsidizing, 43 percent of the current city fees. Based on the study, the average annual cost for services is $4,071,487 and the city is generating $2,326,184 in fee-based revenue annually. The city is then subsidizing $1,745,303 for the work to provide these services. The study broke down each fee in each city area while making the report. While most fees are recommended to increase, some outdated or unused service fees are recommended to be deleted. The City Council will address this again at the April 4 meeting to determine if the fees will be increased and which fees will be increased.
Local high schools preparing for Measure I makeovers FEATURES PAGE 12
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