City Lights May Go Dark
Council struggling with nighttime lighting costs
By Sondra Murphy
Like most of us, the city of Ojai has been dealing with increases in utility costs and they want public input on its lighting and landscaping challenges.
Ojai Public Works director Mike Culver presented reports on landscaping and lighting districts No. 1 and No. 3 Jan. 26. In it, Culver said the districts, “continue to show a substantial deficit in revenues vs. expenditures.”
After eliminating all non-essential maintenance services, Culver reported that street lighting is the only remaining means to reduce costs. The idea is tricky, however, due to the way in which lighting revenues are raised.
District No. 1 was created in the ‘30s under the provisions of the California Street Lighting Act of 1919 and re-established in 1988. These assessments provided about $50,000 in annual revenue for the cost of landscaping needs, including electricity and maintenance. When the revenues came up short in 2003-2004, District No. 3 was created in order to continue the established level of service.
“Costs continued to escalate over the next few years, prompting an election requesting a 40-percent increase in assessments during fiscal year 2006-2007,” Culver’s report cited. Voters rejected the assessment, 2-1.
Culver said this fiscal year’s budget for such needs is $169,874, while the revenues are only $97,582. One-third of that budget goes to the cost of lighting, while the remainder is to cover maintenance functions and support, park lighting, indirect overhead, emergency capital improvements, preparation of the engineer’s report and minor expenses.
The districts are split into 12 zones with each having an independent street lighting rate based on the density of streetlights in that zone. If lighting service is reduced in any zone, the assessment also goes down, reducing revenues overall.
All but two of the city’s streetlights are owned by Southern California Edison and billed in two different cost categories. Service charges are flat costs per month per fixture and intended to cover maintenance costs and comprise approximately 75 percent of the total bill. Energy charges are based on electricity usage.
“A good portion of this funding comes from the density of streetlights. If we turn off all the lights, we have no funds,” said Culver. “If we recalculate the density areas, it changes property assessments, so it’s a complicated issue.”
The streetlights in question do not include any of the lights along Ojai Avenue or Maricopa Highway, which Caltrans maintains. Culver concluded that eliminating streetlights was, thus, unlikely to impact public safety in the city. “There would, however, be potential security concerns as a result of residential neighborhoods with limited or no street lighting,” Culver said.
“We either need to make the service match the revenue or raise the revenue,” said Culver. He said the reverse approach is to categorize essential services and find out how important they are to residents.
“I think we need to make a commitment to provide those services,” said Councilwoman Sue Horgan. “I think it would be ridiculous to go to the voters and ask for an increase in revenues now. I don’t think it would pass.”
Mayor Pro-Tem Carol Smith suggested they temporarily reduce street lighting and ask for public reaction. “One thing I think the public needs to realize is what it means not to have these services … I agree safety is an issue, but we’re under the gun here,” she said. “The average person knows their electric bill has gone up. Why do they think the city’s hasn’t?”
Councilwoman Betsy Clapp liked the idea, but city attorney Monte Widders fretted over public safety and Horgan was not convinced that the savings would be sufficient. “That’s like punishing the public,” said Horgan.
“We’re not trying to punish them, we’re trying to make them aware of where the money goes,” Smith said.
“There’s a difference in philosophy going on here and I don’t think we’ll get the voters’ support,” said Mayor Steve Olsen. “I think it should be a balanced thing.”
“The reason we brought all the policy issues to you is because, if you had consensus, it would help the engineer,” said city manager Jere Kersnar. “I don’t hear that consensus tonight.” Council members decided to wait for the engineer’s report before holding further discussion on the issue. The council approved resolutions directing the city engineer to prepare the annual report for both districts.
street lighting in ojai… what’s that? they’re just as non existent as cross walks, side walks and bike paths in this town
anonymous
9 Feb 10 at 8:27 pm
Has the council thought of cutting their pay to cover the added cost ?????
anonymous
9 Feb 10 at 11:30 pm
I’m still trying to find out who has the gun that we are under, I may just be a peasant but I think I know a threat when I hear one.
peasant Joe
9 Feb 10 at 11:54 pm
Where can we, the taxpayers, view the lighting district plan? I’d certainly be interesting in knowing where they’d like to cut back! If the city lights do go dark why not opt for alternating districts? Of course, the Neighborhood Watch and the Ojai Valley Security Patrol might have to step it up to keep us safe from the town thugs….. Just one more thing we have taxpayers have to worry about
ADMIN NOTE:
To view city Landscaping and Lighting district information, click here. A “lighting plan” is what the council is working toward in order to address the issues reported in this story.
Chris
10 Feb 10 at 9:43 am
solar power street lights anyone???
......
10 Feb 10 at 11:31 am
Has anyone… heaven forbid… considered some revenue
enhancements… increased user fees and perhaps a
graduated tax on Ojai residents that provides offsets
to lower income seniors and other lower income residents…at least temporarily
When will Ojai finally get over the illusion that it’s
municipal services can be consistently funded by room taxes and sales taxes from services… did not the
period of the Ojai Valley Inn’s renovation not provide
any lesson about the vagaries of reliance on those funds
Municipal services have been cut, the quality of the roads is in disrepair. now no lights… maybe the
council can take the 97K and issue everybody in Ojai a
flashlight if there is now political will to address
the issue of taxes on Ojai residents to pay for services to Ojai resident… all the state mandated
supermajorities on voter elections for revenue increases… with what is happening at the school district and now with public lighting step forth in
this relatively affluent community and say…
” Let’s stop the madness ” will we permit the devololution of our community and literally pass the buck by expecting outsiders to fund the community.
When and if their is an economic recovery the emergency measures can be rolled back but can then at least exist a contingency for future funding shortfalls caused by declining revenues exacerbated by
anticpated dollars from tourist coming up short as there appears to a cycle in which that occurs
Know Ojai all to well
10 Feb 10 at 11:47 am
It sounds to me that Smith and Clapp are selfish (deleted). Thanks to Horgan and Widders for your voices representing your neighbors regarding our safety and privileges.
I don’t have lights on my street, but I do have a drug dealer and my car got robbed.
Let Smith know that this community is NOT her children to punish because we aren’t sending in thank you cards for amenities that ALL cities provide.
Lots of people manage on meager amounts of income without complaining or taking from others, figure it out or let someone who is much more competent take your job.
whatever
10 Feb 10 at 12:43 pm
It will be nice without the street lights. My rat ways will really be hidden then and I can crawl on my belly without fear.
Verita
10 Feb 10 at 4:52 pm
Shut down the lights in Crack Springs, Weiners Oaks and Wanna be Monte and watch the crime rates go down.
Shut em off
10 Feb 10 at 8:21 pm
It’s ridiculous that Ojai “thinks” it’s so affluently separate from everybody else. The median household income in Ventura is higher than Ojai and the average household income is only about seven thousand dollars more annually in Ojai. Santa Paula isn’t even that far behind, not enough for Ojai to think it’s “RICH” by any standards. Housing is higher priced and that makes you more affluent? That just means you PAID MORE.
Pay more for houses, lease your car, live on credit cards beyond your means and LOOK like your worth more. The median disposable income in Ventura is higher then Ojai too, sounds like smarter financial management to me.
It’s egotistical self centered fools in the authoritarian positions in the council. Remove, replace and the problem is solved. Just keep firing the self servers and replacing them until they get it right. If they know there will be retribution for inactivity or narrow minded service for the community they may behave more appropriate.
The council members have this grandiosity self image of themselves and they forget they are in fact employees of us, the people of the City.
As long as the people that reside here aren’t happy no one wants to come visit so the tourist town pipe dream is just that, an idea, but that hasn’t stopped them from attempting to change it anyway. They’re not getting what hey want so they take away from us. Anyone notice that you can,t be born here or die here?
No maternity ward or funeral homes. It’s an attempt to make Ojai just a ‘visiting’ town.
whatever
11 Feb 10 at 10:11 am
Perfect! Then we can have more crime! This makes alot of sense. More drug deals, muggins, assaults. Another question, how many thousands would it cost to change the time on the clock tower? It’s and hour off.
O Tay
11 Feb 10 at 1:06 pm
Verita – what’s it like to have a jerk like Anon.5 imitate you with foul words?
Original NY'er
11 Feb 10 at 3:31 pm
They better “not” turn mt light off, and they better get over to fix my street soon…
The Pine Mountain Kid
11 Feb 10 at 5:27 pm
Only marginal neighborhoods need street lights.
New Yorker
16 Feb 10 at 9:19 pm
New Yorker,
(deleted) What do you care if the lights go out?
Anon.5
17 Feb 10 at 1:00 pm
Whatever, I live in Ojai and no one, not a soul thinks we are better than anyone else in MO or Casitas Springs. Did you just read a post by Shut em off and think that person represents Ojai? This zip code BS is getting to be an annoying topic of conversation and its false. Shut em off probably LIVES in Ventura and just likes to cause trouble.
No snark zone
17 Feb 10 at 6:16 pm