Council to hear report on Vacaville’s accomplishments in 2012

Vacaville City Council

• What: Report on city government accomplishments in 2012
• When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
• Where: Vacaville City Council chambers,650 Merchant St.
• Info: 449-5100

VACAVILLE — Yes, it was a tough year for running the city of Vacaville due to budget problems and the loss of redevelopment, but city employees kept city services running pretty well, according to City Manager Laura Kuhn’s annual accomplishments report for 2012.

The report will be presented Tuesday to the City Council.

Kuhn points out in the report that city employees from police to public works continued to keep up Vacaville’s public safety and quality of life. Each department head will present their top accomplishments to the council. They include two major revenue generating efforts.

The first was getting two tax measures passed to give the city breathing space worth $2.3 million a year from Measure I and $4 million a year from Measure M to recover its finances and to bolster cut-back city services and revive its depleted reserve fund. The second was getting a new contract with Recology that provides $1 million a year in new revenue to the city.

Vacaville is still negotiating through the maze created by the loss of redevelopment, but it has established an Economic Development Committee to find ways to bring new businesses to the city, according to the report. That included eliminating, suspending or transferring 20 redevelopment projects and 18 affordable housing projects related to redevelopment as well as laying off seven full-time and six part-time staff members.

The city has worked out continued concessions on salaries and benefits with employees as well as instituted a two-tier retirement system to rein in employee costs.

Each city department laid out its accomplishments from the police, whose patrol unit conducted 576 felony arrests last year and its investigators who successfully dealt with major crimes such as the downtown jewelry store robbery, to public works, which brought in $7.5 million in grants to widen or replace three bridges.

The report serves as the basis for the annual State of the City presentation that Kuhn and the mayor have presented in previous years to the council. This year, it will be put on video and not presented to the council unless one of the council members requests it.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or ithompson@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ithompsondr.

Ian Thompson

Ian Thompson has worked for the Daily Republic longer than he cares to remember. A native of Oregon and a graduate of the University of Oregon, he pines for the motherland still. He covers Vacaville and Travis Air Force Base for the Daily Republic. He is an avid military history buff, wargamer and loves the great outdoors.

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