In the era of COVID-19, what’s important to Monterey?
A fiscal crisis. A deadly global pandemic. Aging city infrastructure. All of these are issues the city of Monterey must contend with, but the question becomes what things are urgent and what things need to wait?
Wednesday the city administration and elected officials huddled to review which priorities are critical and how the COVID-19 challenges now affecting local governments are influencing those rankings.
The meeting was not an official city council meeting and consequently, no official policies were adopted. Instead, it was a workshop where ideas and solutions could be voiced. It was an exercise that was conducted in
October of last year and again in January. But a lot has changed since January.
What remains constant are well- established goals, the top three being fiscal accountability, affordable housing and staying on top of the city’s infrastructure — streets, sewer and other facilities. City Manager Hans Uslar provided the council with a list of 74 different projects and focuses he believes the city should strive toward.
Not surprisingly, the top 10 concerns have “COVID-19” in the description. The pandemic has required increased workloads at a time when the subsequent recession has resulted in diminished fiscal resources to address the needed work.
“It requires a more focused approach because of the thinning of staff,” Uslar said.
Certainly, everyone in the city would like to see their concerns addressed by city staff, and immediately. The reality, particularly after layoffs, is that the adage of you can’t please everyone all of the time has never been more relevant — greater needs with fewer people to address those needs.
“There are very high expectations that are nearly impossible to accomplish all at once,” said Monterey Mayor Clyde Roberson, noting that some of the key concerns involve COVID-19, “economic pandemics, social justice pandemics and climate pandemics.”
So lists are formed based on a model developed by Stephen Covey, the author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” It’s based on four quadrants: the first being “Important and urgent,” the second being “Important but not urgent,” the third being “unimportant but urgent,” and the last being “unimportant and not urgent.”
Among the items expressed in Uslar’s first quadrant are the city’s fiscal recovery plan, assistance in providing economic recovery for businesses, rental assistance and retooling of citywide operations and staffing. With the recent blazes burning nearby and the prospects for more and more costly wildfires as the result of climate change, priorities such as wildfire response and projects to clear fuel, such as brush and trees, away from critical areas were also in the first quadrant.
All of the council members agreed with the items in the first quadrant, while some wanted to see items that were ranked far below moved up to a higher priority. For example, Councilman Dan Albert wanted an ordinance regulating “small cell” communications, which are low-powered cellular access nodes in neighborhoods, to be moved higher than No. 60.
Wednesday’s exercise did not incorporate specific renumbering of items, rather to provide Uslar and his staff with a greater understanding of the concerns of the individual council members. The particular issue of small- cell communications is highly vulnerable to the whims of the Federal Communications Commission.
Councilman Alan Haffa agreed that fiscal accountability was a key priority, but that achieving progress on affordable housing city infrastructure was essential as well.
Councilman Ed Smith noted that emphasizing a planned budget was in essence establishing priorities based on fiscal realities. He also said it’s important to maintain the quality of life for Monterey residents, which includes public safety, particularly fire protection.
“We have the ocean, a little flat area, then boom, we’re surrounded by trees,” he said.
Councilman Tyller Williamson suggested staff provide elected officials with a calendar of anticipated issues facing the council in the near term “so we can have a better understanding of what’s coming up.”
He wants to see greater public input. For example, the city relies on feedback from presidents of neighborhood associations, but Williamson would like to have a great cross- section of the public, such as renters, providing input. Social justice was also a key driver for him.
Roberson added that a city of just 28,000 residents has many institutions that require maintaining sound relationships — the Naval Postgraduate School, Defense Language Institute, the Middlebury Institute of International studies to name a few.
“How many cities of our size operate two wharves? A conference center? It’s own city library and sports center? All of these assets in a town of 28,000,” he said.