There’s an old saying that sometimes your second idea on something is oftentimes better than your first idea.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting this Tuesday, June 24th, the Supervisors are planning to take a second look at a land and tax grab promulgated by the city of Ukiah.
Here’s the story.
Exactly one year ago in June, the Supervisors, with the exception of John Haschak, voted 4-1 to approve a so-called tax-sharing agreement brought forward by the City of Ukiah.
At the time, I wrote a couple of columns and said on my Saturday KPFN show a number of times that Haschak was the only supervisor who figured out that Ukiah had hornswoggled the BOS with what looks like a very bad deal.
At the same time, Mark Scaramella, of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, weighed in with, “Lately it seems that Ukiah officials have realized that Mendo now has the most gullible and naïve board of Supervisors in County history. So Ukiah officials seized on the opportunity to rope Ukiah area Supervisor (and former Ukiah City Councilperson) Maureen Mulheren into their happy talk tax sharing sales pitch, aka an ad hoc committee Mulheren hosted out of public view. Predictably, Mulheren made coming up with a tax sharing agreement one of her top priorities, no matter how lopsided. And on Tuesday she got her wish: An agreement which would annex large chunks of unincorporated taxable properties on the outskirts of Ukiah into the City of Ukiah, thus transferring all applicable tax revenues — property, sales and bed taxes — from the County to the City of Ukiah, roughly estimated to be around $3 million per year. What does the County get in return? 1. Nothing tangible. 2. Nobody knows.”
Haschak explained his lone dissension on the scheme, saying, “Unfortunately, the Board approved a Master Tax Sharing Agreement without proper analyses done of how it would affect County services and finances. I was the lone dissenting vote. The tax sharing agreement allows cities to annex areas. This can be a fairly simple proposition in an area where there is just residential properties. However, when areas that are in the County have sales tax and Transient Occupancy Tax generating businesses, it becomes much more complicated and risky for the County. The County projects a loss of $3 million if, for example, the area north of Ukiah is annexed. This includes Raley’s, auto dealers, motels, and many other businesses (14 of the 25 highest sales tax generators in the County). Yet the County will still be responsible for coroner duties and other law enforcement activities, social services, mental and public health, and other services. This loss of income will affect the County’s budget unless there is a huge surge of economic development as the proponents claim.”
Moving forward to this past week, the UDJ’s Justine Frederiksen reported, “After a four-hour meeting full of discussion and public comments, the Ukiah Planning Commission decided Wednesday to continue a vote on whether or not to recommend four components of the city’s plan to annex a large number of neighboring properties that are currently under Mendocino County jurisdiction.
“My sense is that this whole thing was rushed, and there was a lot of people here with questions: how is this going to affect me, what is this going to do to my property?” said Commissioner Mark Hilliker after numerous residents expressed concerns about the annexation plan. “I think when people come storming in here and they’re unhappy about something, it’s because they don’t have information. The city needs to share and spread the information before they come to us to make a decision. I think that another public meeting, one that isn’t scheduled at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, is the best route to take.”
“This is a big bite to chew, and there’s a lot of questions that the City Council will have to answer about the city’s ability to provide services to all of the annexed areas, and whether the people in the city are going to see additional costs on their bills,” said Commissioner Rick Johnson of the city’s plan to essentially triple in size, explaining that he was not opposed to annexation, but to the amount of parcels that would be annexed. “And I don’t understand what the big driver for this is as well. Why does the city feel that they can do a better job of managing this area than the county can do?”
Recently, Sheriff Matt Kendall shared his thoughts on Ukiah’s sketchy tax-sharing and annexation plans:
“Over the past couple weeks I have received a lot of calls from residents regarding the annexation the City of Ukiah is proposing. When these discussions began my understanding was the initial move on this seemed to be driven by a need for the consolidation of water agencies within the Ukiah Valley. Recently the proposed map of the annexation was made public, along with it were many questions which have yet to be answered. It became clear that this annexation will likely have serious implications for the county. Based on this map I also have concerns the city may be picking locations of revenue and cutting out locations which could be an expense. One thing is certain, there will be lost revenues to the county, and we will likely see reduced services within the proposed annexation areas. Business leaders in farming, construction, and manufacturing are seriously concerned regarding the proposal and there are a lot of questions which will need to be answered. I am concerned this annexation could be a lose-lose for everyone and may have a negative effect on all of Mendocino County due to the reduction in revenues from businesses as well as a reduction in services for those annexed into the city. These impacts will be felt from Gualala to Round Valley. This isn’t simply an issue for the residents of the Ukiah Valley; it will likely affect every resident of the county in one form or another. This process has been moving at a very rapid pace. Clearly, we are on the edge of a very large decision which could have implications we are not yet aware of. Therefore, I am hopeful we take an eyes-wide-open approach while looking at these proposals. I am also hopeful we can take a step back and deeply study what the impacts will be for the residents in the unincorporated areas as well as those within the proposed annexation. I am certain there will be a balancing point we can find, I’m also certain it will take some work to find it.”
At Tuesday’s BOS meeting, the Supes will consider a proposal to terminate the June 2024 Master Tax Sharing Agreement between the County and the City of Ukiah.
For sure, this time around the Supes need to get this deal done right.
If you’re fortunate enough to get a second chance, take it, you’ll seldom get a third.
(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, [email protected], the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org.)
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