Cotati declares fiscal emergency, endorses tax hike

<p>Even in the dry argot of government, the warning delivered to the Cotati City Council Wednesday held an almost cinematic urgency.</p><p>“Police Department staffing will be reduced further. This .<th>.<th>. will make it unlikely that the City can continue to maintain our own Police Department,” said a staff report predicting a civic disaster unless city voters approve a half-cent sales tax hike.</p><p>Discussions already are underway about the possibility of contracting with Rohnert Park, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department or Petaluma to provide Cotati's police services, City Manager Dianne Thompson said.</p><p>“All basic quality-of-life services, including recreation, neighborhood services, community events, and similar public services commonly associated with municipal government will be eliminated,” the report said.</p><p>Jone Hayes, the city's chief administrative officer, said: “Budget reductions .<th>.<th>. are undermining the health safety and welfare of Cotati's residents.”</p><p>The tone put off some residents. Phillip Salazar said that while he supported the tax, “I'm tired of threats.”</p><p>But it was enough for the Council. With virtually no discussion, council members declared the city to be in a fiscal emergency and decided to ask voters to support the sales tax to stem the swelling tide of red ink.</p><p>The sales tax ballot measure will go before voters April 13 in a special election that will cost the city about $20,000. The tax would bring the city between $600,000 and $900,000 in annual revenue, Hayes said.</p><p>The council actions on Wednesday revived efforts that stalled in July when then-Councilman George Barich derailed an attempt to put the measure on the ballot by voting against declaring an emergency.</p><p>“This should have been on the ballot a long time ago,” Vice Mayor Janet Orchard said Wednesday.</p><p>Cotati has cut spending on salaries and programs by 33 percent since 2006, City Manager Dianne Thompson said. Still, it faces a combined operating and structural budget deficit of more than $750,000. </p><p>Most people who spoke at Wednesday's meeting supported the tax. “The main reason to put this on the ballot is to keep Cotati alive,” said Adrienne Lauby.</p><p>The council voted 5-0 to declare the city in a state of fiscal emergency. That vote needed to be unanimous in order for the council to take its next step, a 5-0 vote to call for a special election for the sale tax measure.</p><p>Prominent among those who spoke against both votes was Barich, who has said he voted against declaring the city was in an emergency in July because it hadn't passed a budget yet. That fueled some of the anger that led voters to recall him from office in November. </p><p>Barich on Wednesday said the city had dithered in finding a solution to its financial problems and had failed to pursue the most viable course of further reducing employee salaries and benefits.</p><p>He predicted a revolt by businesses and residents against the tax and said the council, by relying on it, was setting itself up for disaster.</p><p>“This is a hell of a gamble you're proposing,” Barich said. “If this is your plan A that you're proposing, it leaves us in a very, very dire position if it loses — and it will lose.”</p><p>Councilman Mark Landman said the city has cut deeply into both services and salaries and suggested that Barich was using the sales tax issue to score political points.</p><p>“This is something that the whole country is facing, not just Cotati,” he said. “It is shortsighted and self-serving to try and turn it into a local political issue.”</p><p>As was evident at Wednesday's meeting, the bitter recall campaign that reshaped the council still shades Cotati's politics. Whether it will shape the upcoming vote on a sales tax measure isn't clear.</p><p>“I don't think the citizens are going to marry up those two issues,” said Brian Sobel, a political consultant and a former Petaluma councilman. “They may have some dissatisfaction with how government is run in Cotati, but pick up any newspaper and it is a federal, state and local government problem.”</p><p>A more likely significant factor in the vote, Sobel said, is the struggling economy.</p><p>“What's really clear is that the voting public everywhere is just sick to death of taxes because they don't see that self-imposed taxes have solved any problems,” he said.</p><p>Supporters will have to make a strong case “that the sales tax will actually lead to solving the crisis,” he said. “Given the climate, there are going to have be some very, very persuasive arguments.”</p><p>An April 2009 survey of 300 Cotati residents commissioned by the city to measure support for a sales tax found that three out of five likely voters “could potentially” support a three-quarters cent sales tax.</p>