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Four members of the public attended the community meeting about the half-cent sales tax ballot initiative, on Monday, Sept. 16, at the Marina Community Center.
They were outnumbered by city officials: The head of every department was present, as well as several council members and the acting city manager.
This was the second of four planned Seal Beach community meetings to inform the public about the sales tax. The next meeting will be held at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 25, at the Seal Beach Pickleball and Tennis Center.
Background
The Measure GG proposes a general tax of half-a-cent on sales in Seal Beach. A general tax is not for a specific purpose. It requires approval by a simple majority of voters. A specific tax requires approval by two thirds of voters.
According to the ballot measure, the tax is expected to generate $3 million in revenue.
The City Council discussed sales taxes during the January 2024 Strategic Planning meeting.
In April, City Manager Jill Ingram said city staff was working on (among other things) Community polling to look at a possible sales tax.
On July 22, the council voted unanimously to put a half-cent sales tax on the ballot. (See “Seal Beach to vote on 1/2-cent tax,” at sunnews.org.)
Meeting
Space limits make it impossible to report every word spoken. The following is a summary.
Patrick Gallegos introduced himself as assistant city manager “now acting city manager.”
Police Chief Michael Henderson, wearing civilian clothes, began the presentation. Henderson said earlier this year the city hired a firm to ask what city services were the highest priority to the public.
According to the slide presentation, those priorities included, maintaining 911 medical response calls, fire services, maintaining police response, protecting water resources, preventing crime, keeping beaches clean, and keeping public areas clean and safe.
“I am happy to say, as the chief, that overall crime is down 4% so that’s good news,” Henderson said.
“But retail theft is up. I think this has been no surprise to anyone. It’s the case all over the state. Prop 47 changed a lot of the laws as it relates to retail theft, and there’ll be a proposition on the ballot in the fall to address some of the shortcomings in Prop 47 but overall, we’re at a five year high for some of our retail theft and property crimes,” Henderson said.
According to a slide that appeared behind Henderson, retail theft was up 16%.
Turning to medical calls, Henderson said 75% of Orange County Fire Authority calls were for medical services.
Finance Director Barbara Arenado said it was a rough budget season. According to Arenado, staff did more than 30 rounds of work on the budget.
According to Arenado, the inflation is impacting the city financially.
“When we were doing the budget process, we had a $6 million deficit,” Arenado said.
“The same things that are impacting you are impacting us, our contract costs, landscaping,” Arenado said.
“Our CalPERS increased by a million dollars. Our insurance costs went up by a million dollars,” Arenado said.
“When those costs go up, we have to cut services or cut programs or cut those costs. So what we did is we cut back over a million dollars in salaries and benefits. meaning part time staff was reduced. Full time staff was reduced,” Arenado said.
She said the community was going to feel the cuts in street sweeping and sidewalk cleaning.
Which brought the discussion to Measure GG.
Arenado said the council can’t approve a tax. She said it was up to the voters.
Arenado said 50% of sales taxes are paid by tourists.
Catherine Showalter wanted to know whether a percentage of the sales tax would go to infrastructure.
Gallegos said this was a general tax. He said the money would go into the General Fund.
Ben Wong, who is running unopposed for the District Two council seat, said:
“You mentioned briefly that there might be several business or revenue opportunities that the city might want to revisit. Can you touch upon that?”
“There’s parking, which is one of them,” Arenado said.
“There’s cannabis,” she said.
“Other cities are implementing the cannabis in their cities right now, and right now we have a ban on that,” Arenado said.
“Another [revenue option] we talked about is signage, different kind of signage, we’re looking into that right now and looking at different locations. The signage would have to be on city property. And there’s just not a lot of city property that we can utilize a big sign, but staff is looking at that now to bring that back,” Arenado said.
Resident Theresa Miller thought the language of the ballot measure was misleading. “It’s disingenuous, because it’s going in the General Fund,” Miller said.
“So to talk around all these lovely things that we know that the money might go to, it’s hypothetical, and it probably won’t happen,” Miller said.
She said the city had already paid the consultant $60,000.
“I think some of your estimates will never happen,” Miller said.
“It’s just, it’s disingenuous to voters,” Miller said.
According to Miller, not everyone would read the entire package and figure out where the money would be going.
“In what city in, what planet, or what world do we live in that people don’t want safety as one of the main issues, especially since crime is out of control,” Miller said.
“Yeah, we’re going to have to answer to our residents and our council about those things. I think we can always do a better job learning our lesson from the last sales tax measure. So now, to improve that transparency and that accountability, think that’s really what you’re asking,” Gallegos said.
“It’s the way it’s written,” Miller said.
Miller argued that the online survey for Measure GG had answers that were directed.
“It wasn’t like, you know, write down your top five and, you know, it wasn’t that way I saw it. I think it’s just the way you list all these things and saying that, Oh, potentially, you know, approximately $3 million is going to come from it, and they’re going to apply here, but at the end of the day, if you read a little bit farther, it’s going into General Fund,” Miller said.
Arenado said if the half cent sales tax passes, the county can’t take that money away.
During the meeting, Miller brought up Measure BB, the one-cent sales tax measure that Seal Beach voters approved in 2018.
She said initially, the money was going to law enforcement.
(2018’s Measure BB was also a general tax.)
Chief Henderson said Measure BB added five full time officers, which he said was a huge percentage of the Police Department.
He said one of the things Measure BB funded was the assignment of a detective to Leisure World.
Miller asked if Measure BB reverted back to the General Fund.
Henderson explained that Measure BB was a General Fund measure.
Arenado said most city services were funded through the General Fund.
Showalter wondered how the city was going to get the word out.
“And we see the audience right now that’s concerning for us, right?” Gallegos said.
“Because we’re doing the usual outreach, you know, we’re doing social media, we’re relying on the Sun to get the word out,” Gallegos said.
“We’re doing the website, we’re doing all the traditional things we do with outreach. And so we’ve been talking internally, and this is a thought that we’ve had about maybe piggybacking on some of the existing meetings,” Gallegos said.
Finance Director Arenado said a mailer would go out to every registered voter in the city.
Patty Senecal, who is running unopposed for the District Four City Council seat, suggested distributing with the city logo with bullet points on the other side.
“We’re trying to do a couple different designs to hit,” Arenado said.
“You know, everybody has a different palette, and we’re trying to make sure that we hit every single one of those,” Arenado said.
Gallegos said he liked her idea of a simple handout as Senecal and Wong were walking their districts.
Miller said they had to be careful.
“This is education only. You are not allowed to campaign for any way, shape or form,” Miller said.
Miller argued the city couldn’t tax its way out of a financial hole.
“We’re all for more revenue city, but you know it’s gonna come with cost,” Miller said.
“We’re just here to provide information,” Gallegos said
We’re not here to sell you anything. This is, you know, information purposes only,” Gallegos said.
